This report examines the Chicago Mastery Learning Reading Program (CMLRP) and other schoolwide approaches at selected schools in Los Angeles (California), New York City, and Chicago (Illinois) to identify factors in augmented achievement gains. This extended summary and conclusion seeks to provide information which can improve the general effectiveness of inner-city elementary and intermediate schools. Chapter one presents CMLRP components and potential advantages for big city students. Chapter two discusses CMLRP implementation in New York Community District 19 by giving the program's history and chronology, district-level instructional and organizational processes, and data on reading achievement. CMLRP implementation at individual schools in New York and Chicago are compared in chapter three. Chapter four describes five schools using schoolwide approaches in Los Angeles and Chicago to improve instruction for students in concentrated poverty neighborhoods. Schoolwide approaches are defined as elimination of Title I pullout arrangements that fragment the education of low achievers. Finally, chapter five summarizes and discusses those school arrangements and processes identified with improved achievement in inner-city elementary schools. (ML)