A conference brought together the leaders of the 11 projects funded by the National Science Foundation's Rural Systemic Initiative (RSI) to reflect upon their efforts to improve mathematics and science education in poor rural communities. A variety of themes emerged. The RSI projects serve small, rural communities suffering from decades of…

This brief is designed to promote collaborative leadership in the work of transforming low performing urban schools into successful schools. The brief is organized into several topics, which include framing the challenge (concentrated disadvantage, concentration effects, and savage inequalities); encouraging educators and partners to promote the…

This study examined program participation and academic progress of second language learners, following a cohort of Texas public school students from the school years, 1992-93 to 1999-00 as they progressed through the elementary and middle grades. Researchers examined the following: changes in Texas policy related to students with limited English…

This study examined a Preparatory Course for Blacks and the Economically Disadvantaged (PBED) in a poor area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The PBED is an alternative educational project that offers regular classes on evenings and weekends using volunteer labor, donated space, and contributions from students who can afford it. Case studies were used…

Project GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) encourages disadvantaged youth to stay in school and prepare for college. To gather baseline information on incoming seventh-grade students' and parents' awareness of, interest in, and aspirations for students' postsecondary education, surveys were administered to…

This brochure reviews a White House Executive Order on tribal colleges and universities that sets in motion a comprehensive effort to increase public and private resources and partnerships to strengthen the infrastructure of these institutions. Currently more than 350 degree and 180 vocational programs give students an opportunity to earn…

This report explores promising welfare-to-work programs and practices of states and localities as they balance supply- with demand-side strategies to help welfare recipients and low-wage workers work their way out of poverty while meeting employers' needs for reliable workers. Chapter 2 describes the new environment created by changes in the…

This study was designed to measure the performance of academically underprepared students who complete remediation, compared with underprepared students who do not complete remediation. The study was conducted on 766 full-time students at Ivy Tech State College, a two-year technical institution in Indiana. All of the students included were…

A 3-year experiment evaluated the effectiveness of the Pyramid program, an educational program for young children from deprived situations and based on two concepts: psychological nearness (principles of attachment theory) and psychological distance (derived from developmental distancing, or the growing ability of a child to comprehend that an…

This paper poses a question of direct relevance for welfare administrators, program operators, and policy makers: What management practices, program strategies, and local conditions are key to running effective welfare-to-work programs? To address this question, the present analysis links detailed measures of program characteristics to valid and…

This practitioner's guide to helping employment program clients find, retain, and advance in jobs is based on the experiences of Moving Up, an employment program operated by New York's Vocational Foundation, Inc. (VFI). The guide begins with an overview of Moving Up, which has become a national model for helping disadvantaged minority youths…

A 2-year project was undertaken to develop, test, and distribute a video-based program to train low-income parents in engaging their 3- to 5-year-old children in highly motivating play techniques in order to enhance children's cognitive, social and motor skills for school readiness. An evaluation was conducted of the Year One phase of the training…

This book reports on a 3-year ethnographic study of academic achievement and schooling orientations among immigrant Mexican and Mexican American students at a Houston (Texas) high school. The study included a survey of the entire student body (2,281 students), participant observation in the school and community from 1992 to 1995, 25 open-ended…

This third evaluation progress report concerns a 5-year project that links technology and the visual and performing arts with other subject areas to transform the education of K-12 students in Nebraska and nationwide. The report states that the "Community Discovered" project is continuing to make substantial and consistent progress in…

A study empirically examined a high school career academy's influence on entrance into, route through, and outcomes upon exiting a four-year comprehensive, urban university in California. Data are drawn from applicant and student records for all students coming from a single high school district that has a strong career academy program. Findings…