In the spirit of educational reform, this paper discusses school restructuring and proposes a model for making education more responsive to the needs of urban youth by fostering competence built upon unique cultural resources and individual skills already possessed. The proposed project would target the middle school, which is considered an ideal starting place for structuring change because it is at this level that the gains of the elementary school are thought to be lost. The following structural changes are proposed: (1) redesign of the self-contained classroom; (2) professional diversification through the use of teachers as craftsmen, specialists, and artists; (3) the use of teaching teams; (4) the incorporation of group processing and problem-solving skills for both students and teachers; (5) a less hierarchical management structure; and (6) increased monitoring of performance through the use of advanced technologies. The three instructional strategies being considered are teacher-assisted instruction, team-assisted instruction, and computer-assisted instruction. The effectiveness of these strategies will be related to the core subjects of reading, mathematics, and science to assess academic achievement. (Contains 22 references.) (LL)