This study examines the delivery of social services in urban education in the light of the history of their origination, implementation, and significance. Explored are the educational reform movements in urban centers between 1840 and 1920, especially the period separating the depression of 1893 and the Palmer Raids of World War I. Attention focuses on four cities: Rochester, New York; Toledo, Ohio; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Kansas City, Missouri. A case study analysis of these four cities evaluates the influence of both well known and obscure educational reformers by using a diverse range of sources which include newspaper reports, records of voluntary associations, and petitions to local school boards. The analysis identifies different political traditions, ethnic mixes, bureaucratic school arrangements, and industrial settings which contributed to the shape of new social service programs in different communities. The study attempts to discover the cause of the upsurge in interest in school reform at the turn of century, groups and community organizations that lobbied for change are identified. Also reviewed are attitudes of parents and children toward educational reform and how these changes affected their lives. (Author/APM)