Explores lessons that urban schools can learn from Catholic schools. Focuses on Cathedral High School in South Boston, Massachusetts which serves a population of mostly poor, minority students, of whom nearly one-half are not Catholic. Catholic schools have the reputation for efficient school management practices, disciplined college-bound…

Discusses proposed changes in housing appropriations by Congress in the fiscal year 1996. Two key factors are missing from the debate: (1) lack of public awareness and vocal constituency for funded projects; and (2) lack of understanding that affordable, safe, nontransient, and habitable housing is fundamental to meeting all basic needs. (FC)

Discusses why government school vouchers actually represent a setback to school reform and only contribute to diminishing school autonomy and distinctiveness. Argues use of a privately funded voucher system or precollege scholarship approach as feasible alternatives for educating low-income children. Alternatives include the need for tax relief,…

Despite the rosy image projected by child-centered reformers, zealots and profiteers are really driving the charter school movement. Charter schools cannot flourish without drastic wage reductions or huge spending increases, nor will they benefit America's poorest children. The market, which has already destroyed kids' neighborhoods and parents'…

Describes decentralization and privatization policies in El Salvador's education reform plan and assesses their potential success and limitations. The EDUCO program, in which nonprofit parents' associations in poor rural communities administer community schools, has expanded rural access to education. However, EDUCO also has potential to…

Analyzes the economic and social characteristics of impoverished long-term immigrants, their uniqueness compared to poor natives, and the factors associated with economic success or failure. The implications of welfare reform as it negatively impacts low-income immigrants is addressed. (GR)

Describes research aimed at informing and improving AIDS prevention efforts for urban African American youth and their families during the children's transition to adolescence. Also presents are a theoretical model and preliminary descriptive data focusing on the implications for preventive intervention work and the need for ongoing collaboration…

Contends that African Americans value schooling that helps them express who they are as defined by their culture and community rather than education that maintains white hegemonic control. This assertion finds support in the communal struggle to develop, erect, and sustain African American institutions, and in historical discourse concerning the…

Challenges common conceptions about disadvantaged learners, curriculum challenge and sequence, teacher role, the relationship of classroom management to academic work, and ability grouping arrangements. By striking a balance between teacher direction and learner responsibility, students' capacity for self-regulated learning increases over time.…

A framework for evaluation of computer technology innovation in schools is described. The framework draws on theory and research concerning student learning, innovations, technology, and new evaluation approaches. A formative evaluation framework used at two elementary schools largely serving disadvantaged, minority students provides an…

While homelessness results from a variety of factors, ultimately its cause is an insufficient supply of suitable housing. The Federal government must massively intervene to halt the loss of additional low-income housing units, and benefits paid to the welfare-dependent population must approximately double. (MW)

Estimates effects of neighbor and family characteristics on likelihood students will complete their schooling using national-level data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Data indicate racial composition of a neighborhood affects black but not white children. Family-level characteristics such as maternal education and family income were…

Presents a study of the popular documentation and communication centers in Brazil which have developed to preserve the history of the struggles of the lower classes and to act as popular information services that fill information needs not met by traditional libraries. Social, economic, and political issues in Brazil are outlined. (Contains 10…

Offers three case studies of the attitudes toward their children's education of mothers who dropped out themselves. These studies show the parents had high hopes for their children despite their own histories and reveal how asymmetrical power arrangements between schools and low-income parents can exacerbate the estrangement between the two. (GR)

Discusses the use of graphing calculators by middle school students in an enrichment program for economically disadvantaged students and describes exercises to help students develop an understanding of variables and functions. (MKR)