In 2007 and 2008, I worked with a team of adult and youth researchers from Youth Media Action, an independent media outlet, on a participatory action research project to better understand the media needs and interests of urban youth. This study centers on training and working with a group of youth researcher to conduct a community needs assessment…

Practical ways are presented to promote healthy and nonviolent relationships for youth, guided by the belief that prevention is cheaper and more effective than deterrence or punishment. Equality and balance are the basis of prevention efforts. It must be acknowledged that violence is ingrained in cultural expressions of power and inequality, and…

There is an urgent need not only to attract more people into the teaching profession but also to build a more diverse, highly qualified, and culturally sensitive teaching force that can meet the needs of a rapidly changing school-age population. This Toolkit takes best practices from high school teacher academies around the United States and…

The Urban Teacher Academy Project (UTAP) promotes the recruitment and preparation of qualified and diverse teachers for urban schools by expanding a school-to-career approach through high school teaching career academies. The UTAP has documented the best practices and developed practical information to guide the formation of career teaching…

The Reading Recovery (RR) program of the San Diego City Schools (California) has expanded over the last 5 years and now includes 38 schools. This report documents the program's short-term and sustained efforts to increase reading achievement and its central office costs. RR is a Title I-funded early intervention program that uses one-on-one…

This report presents an evaluation of the Multicultural Education Demonstration Program in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), an effort to address racial and ethnic diversity in a middle school. The report covers the implementation of the program since its inception in May 1989 through the beginning of the 1991-92 school year. It describes the program's…

The New York Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) studies of public schools continue with this report on course work for gifted students and public middle school students in general. Fourteen ACORN volunteers made 52 visits to 28 schools studied in 1996. Findings from these visits and the review of school system documents…

The Summer Training and Education Program (STEP) research demonstration was initiated in 1984 to test the effects of a two-summer remediation, work, and life skills intervention on the lives of 14- and 15-year-olds from poor urban families who were already seriously behind academically. The program provided youth with half-day summer jobs combined…