The Illinois State Board of Education partnered with two outside groups, the National Computational Science Alliance (NCSA) and the North Central Regional Technology in Education Center (NCRTEC), to provide staff development, along with technological software, hardware, and support, to improve 6th graders' performance in the areas of mathematics,…

Educational attainment for rural African Americans is lower than that of urban African Americans or rural Whites. The African American Church has always had a strong role in providing educational opportunities for African American children and in community activism in general. This digest discusses partnering with rural African American churches…

A study investigated how motivational, curricular, and instructional needs of at-risk students were accommodated by an alternative school program located and organized within a conventional high school in northern Louisiana. Data were gathered through documents; classroom observations; and interviews with students, teachers, and the administrator…

The schools that Head Start participants enter may have very different methods and attitudes than were present in Head Start, and a different approach to working with children and families. While Head Start programs are seldom in a position to bring about changes in the public schools, Head Start parents can be a powerful force for school change.…

This document consists of the six issues of the "Abbott Bulletin" published during 1998. The "Abbott Bulletin" is a one-page per issue newsletter that reports on developments in response to a set of rulings by the New Jersey Supreme Court in the Abbott v. Burke case. In its fifth ruling in the Abbott case in May 1998, the Court…

This book examines how educators, policymakers, and parents can use data to set achievement goals, measure school progress toward these goals, and close the achievement gap. This second edition has been updated to include current studies, policies, and practices. It includes discussions of the five stages for equity reform; tips for effectively…

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…