Attempts to improve urban school systems have been many and varied. Still there has been little appreciable improvement in the quality and/or results of urban education. One primary reason why the "innovations" have failed is that most of them have been introduced into an ongoing social system with little or no attempt to assess their effects on that system. Educational accountability, toward a goal of improved student learning and development, is one aspect of urban education that must be improved. Curriculum development and integration (rather than the increasing fragmentation of subject areas and cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains that we have witnessed to date) must also be pursued. Finally, staff relations and staff attitudes in regard to disadvantaged urban students must be focused upon if conditions detrimental to teaching and learning are to be improved. (Author/APM)