Over the last four years, the Afterschool Alliance and MetLife Foundation have worked together to identify exemplary, and often lesser-known afterschool programs across the nation. For the past two years, efforts have focused on finding innovative afterschool programs serving middle school students. This focus was developed to address the need for…

In recent years, arts education has become a focus of some school improvement efforts, with consistent evidence emerging that vibrant arts programs can improve factors commonly listed as goals in school improvement plans, including engagement, attendance, and school climate. Such models mainly make use of arts integration, an approach that marries…

Published histories of American art education seldom include the stories and accomplishments of Black art educators. There is a need to research, teach, and publish these histories to provide a more inclusive and equitable picture of American art education and to encourage more people of color to consider careers in the field. Using primary and…

This quantitative study examined access to school music instruction with regard to race in two urban areas: Detroit, Michigan, and Washington, DC, in 2009-2010. We found significant differences in the provision of music instruction between schools with high and low proportions of nonwhite enrollment, in categories including curricular offerings,…

Expeditionary Learning (EL) is a growing provider of curriculum and professional development services to teachers and school leaders. The EL model combines an interdisciplinary instructional approach with ongoing training and coaching for teachers and school leaders. The EL curriculum uses an experiential approach in which students conduct…

City Year is a learning organization committed to the rigorous evaluation of its "Whole School Whole Child" model, which trains and deploys teams of AmeriCorps members to low-performing, urban schools to empower more students to reach their full potential. A third-party study by Policy Studies Associates (PSA) examined the impact of…

In June 2007, the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) convened the directors of eight collaborative entities to discuss promising practices for integrating the arts into the lives and curricula of urban public schools as a means of fostering system-wide educational improvement. The seven school-community collaboratives and one higher education…

A charter school has focused on technology and arts in order to help urban students develop a strong intellectual, moral, environmentally conscious and artistic foundation. The different policies and programs used by the Arts and Technology Academy Public Charter School (ATA), Washington, D.C., to educate students are discussed.

A curriculum guide for grade 7, the document is devoted to the occupational cluster "Construction and Environment." It is divided into four units: urban renewal and development, urban and suburban construction and planning, megalopolis, and demography. Each unit is introduced by a statement of the topic, the unit's purpose, main ideas,…

This article takes a look at WritersCorps, a program that aims to provide opportunities for youth to discover, develop, and share their writing. The program's success depends on contracting with teaching artists who have the skills, knowledge, and heart to encourage youth to write well. All its teachers are published writers, active community…

TO COMPENSATE FOR THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEPRIVATION, A NUMBER OF LARGE CITIES HAVE DEVELOPED PROGRAMS FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN. CERTAIN ASSUMPTIONS AND PRINCIPLES MUST BE ACCEPTED BEFORE THE PROGRAMS CAN MATERIALIZE. IN BUFFALO, TEACHERS ARE REVISING CURRICULUM FOR THE CULTURALLY DEPRIVED IN LANGUAGE ARTS, MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, AND SOCIAL…

DC Public Schools has adopted new learning standards for core subjects, including reading/English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. The new standards show what students should know and be able to do: (1) in each subject; (2) at each grade level; and (3) in every school. Standards tell all students that they are expected to…

This issue brief seeks to add to the discussion of educational pluralism by highlighting the history, features, and successes of the classical education model. The model is unique for its emphasis on building the student to be a scholar and an active citizen. Classical schools come in the form of private and charter schools, homeschooling, and…

Describes the City at Peace program originated in Washington, DC, by Creative Response, a nonprofit group that promotes international peace and cross-cultural understanding through the performing arts. The Washington program staged an original musical in January 1993, written and performed by local teenagers, about the problems of racism, drug…

In this thirteenth annual report, the Commissioner of Education discusses the Bureau of Education's work, with a list of its publications from the year. The Commissioner also presents summary data of institutions, instructors, and students; school age, population, enrolment, and attendance; legal school ages in the United States; teachers employed…