Across the nation, urban school districts struggle to raise often abysmally low high school graduation rates. New York City, with a four-year graduation rate of 57 percent, is no exception. Yet, some high schools in New York, as elsewhere, succeed beyond expectations in bringing students with low academic skills and high needs to graduation in…

Recent research on science achievement among disadvantaged students in grades K-12 is reviewed. Findings on effects of race, SES, and several classroom factors are discussed. Patterns of preparation and science career choice are examined from the perspectives of students' gender, attitudes toward science, and counseling of minority students. (MCK)

Issues related to educational equity and charter schools are discussed, and evidence is presented from a national study of equity in charter schools. Three standards of equity are discussed, and the equity provisions of state charter legislation are reviewed. To supplement existing studies of charter school demography, researchers at New York…

Planned mentoring programs, which purposefully link disadvantaged youth with someone older and more experienced, have become a popular means of providing adolescents with adult contacts, counselors, and role models. Mentoring programs vary widely in their objectives, and in the duration, frequency, and intensity of the planned relationship. The…

This document reviews the range of findings contained in 10 recently commissioned reports on how Chapter 1 programs are implemented and how successful they are in increasing the achievement of disadvantaged students. Although the conclusions of the reports are not the same, there are some developing consensuses. Findings are discussed in the…

This paper highlights three models for implementing local restructuring of schools: James Comer's School Development Program; Robert Slavin's Success for All; and Henry Levin's Accelerated Schools. These models have been among the more popular models for restructuring schools in poor, predominantly minority neighborhoods with traditionally…

This paper reviews the literature on urban school dropouts and the experiences of superintendents in attempting to lower the dropout rate. The paper is divided into two major sections. Part I examines how a mixture of societal, community, family and other influences increase the chances that an at-risk student will experience little success in…

Despite the proliferation in the last decade of school-college collaboratives designed to help disadvantaged students, a number of unsolved problems about their operation have limited their effectiveness. Schools and colleges collaborate to solve mutual problems in the areas of student development, school improvement, and college improvement. Some…

A number of recent studies have yielded data on the factors affecting the science achievement of disadvantaged students. For example, it was found that students' socioeconomic status (SES) increased as a predictor of their science achievement as the students moved through school. Furthermore, the effect of being Black (or, to a lesser degree,…

This descriptive study examines the operation of youth mentoring programs in New York City. In particular, the study maps the experiences of developing and operating youth mentoring programs as articulated by the organizers or directors of 21 such programs; reviews and analyzes the research and descriptions of mentoring programs nationally to…

Performance-based assessment has the potential to support a richer curriculum and more accurately assess the skills of low-income minority students than standardized tests. Performance-based assessment has the following advantages: (1) it allows a wide range of expression; (2) it permits assessment of learning in a natural context while students…

Collaborations between high schools and colleges have emerged during the 1980s as a means to increase enrollments and academic success of low-income minorities in higher education although their benefits have yet to be clearly demonstrated. This review surveys the literature on the effectiveness of these collaboratives. The report is comprised of…

Poor, minority, and low ability students suffer most from the general lack of sustained opportunity to study mathematics in American public schools. Studies indicate that preschool and kindergarten students show only minor social class or racial differences in mathematical thinking and that differences in mathematical performance among older…

This paper reviews 1993 trends and issues in urban education in five sections. Following an introduction, the first section describes the economic conditions of today's diverse urban public school students and the way that poverty differentially affects various ethnic and racial student groups. A second section analyzes key educational policies…

Research on microcomputers in education suggests that this new technology may be widening the gap between rich and poor schools and talented and underachieving students. Public schools in poor districts and small parochial schools are the least likely to own computers. One survey indicates that while 66 percent of affluent school districts have…