Archives
Lessons in Collaboration
Education has always been important to Americans. In every community, teachers, principals, superintendents, and school board members work to give students the knowledge and...
Changing the Ground Rules
In March 1985, the principal of Dumas Elementary School, in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago, recruited 120 parents for a breakfast to kick off...
Places To Learn
A parent from Brooklyn, New York complains, “How can they expect my child to concentrate when two classes with separate teachers are happening at...
Parent Power!
Sacramento Area Congregations Together
In the early 1990s, only one in 10 students in Sacramento, CA’s worst-performing elementary schools were reading at grade level. Parents...
Shelter Shorts
Government Does Many Things Well-But Not Housing
“Most people don’t believe government is capable of much more than delivering the mail,” says Paul C. Light,...
Patience and Politics
State education departments are always looking for ways to improve low-performing schools, and not always finding them. In 1992, the Texas Education Agency agreed...
The Importance of Being Gracious
Maybe it’s the aftermath of the presidential election. Maybe it’s the disappearance of the dot.coms as the hot new source of funds. For some...
Reform Welfare Reform
In 2002, TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) will be up for reauthorization. In preparation for the debate surrounding it, The National Coalition for...
Challenging Failing Schools
In the 1970s, the effective schools research movement demonstrated that urban schools are not automatically doomed to fail. Researchers identified schools serving disadvantaged students...
Communities, Schools, and the Job Ahead
No institution is more central to a suburban neighborhood than the local school. People work and worship in different places, and many rarely venture...