Book Description

Americans rely on public schools to educate and prepare almost 50 million students to become productive members of society. Yet many public schools, particularly those in large cities, face significant challenges: over-crowded classrooms, shortages of highly-qualified teachers, low student achievement, achievement gaps, access to preschool, and aging facilities. This report is the sixth in a series of polls that survey the leadership and staff of America's major urban public school systems about the challenges they face and their expectations for the future. Findings include: (1) Urban school leaders continue to feel strongly optimistic about the future of urban schools; (2) Foundations, parent councils and associations, and community organizations were viewed as the most helpful partners in education reform; (3) For the first time since the inception of the survey in 1994, closing the achievement gap was cited as the number one need in urban public schools; (4) Urban schools are often engaged in numerous school improvement efforts, and for the first time, most members indicated that their district had developed principal leadership training; (5) The most dramatic change in the popularity of improvement efforts is reflected in the move of centralized curriculum up from a rank of 19 in 2001-2002 to 8 in 2005-2006; and (6) Respondents indicated that the most effective school improvement efforts revolved around improving the reading program. (Contains 7 figures and 2 tables.).