The Council of the Great City Schools has prepared this ninth edition of Beating the Odds to give the nation an in-depth look at how big city schools are performing on the academic goals and standards set by the states. This analysis examines student achievement in mathematics and reading from spring 2006 through spring 2009. It also measures…

In 2010, approximately 14 percent of all students in the nation were enrolled in the organization's 65 urban school districts out of approximately 15,000 school districts nationwide. In addition, 21 percent of the nation's students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, 26 percent of English language learner (ELL) students and 24 percent of the…

This is an abridged, summary report of selected findings from "Pieces of the Puzzle: Factors in the Improvement of Urban School Districts on the National Assessment of Educational Progress"--a comprehensive study prepared by the Council of the Great City Schools in collaboration with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and with…

This report summarizes preliminary and exploratory research conducted by the Council of the Great City Schools and the American Institutes for Research on urban school systems participating in the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The study is one of the first large-scale analyses…