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This study documented the process of designing, implementing, and evaluating a low-cost, school-based, researcher-conducted staff development program for four voluntary Black seventh and eighth grade science and social studies teachers at Roosevelt Junior Senior High School, New York, during 1987-88. The underlying purpose was to learn more about effective school improvement in low-income school districts. Staff development efforts aimed to expand teachers' teaching styles to accord more closely with urban Black students' diverse learning styles in four homogeneously grouped classes with the intent of (a) improving students' academic achievement, (b) increasing attendance to class, and (c) improving attitudes about school. Five collaboratively planned workshops on teaching styles and learning styles provided opportunities for teachers (a) to expand their repertoire of teaching styles, (b) to recognize students' learning styles, (c) to develop problem-solving techniques for their classes, (d) to work cooperatively with other teachers, and (e) to enhance their professional growth. Based on observations, discussions, interviews, and self-reports, the researcher concluded that teachers (a) utilized different teaching strategies in their classes to address more students' learning styles, (b) provided more opportunities for students to work cooperatively in class, (c) shared ideas with other teachers, (d) planned their lessons with other teachers, (e) incorporated students' suggestions into lessons, (f) utilized a larger variety of teaching aids and materials, and (g) praised their students more often. Their students (a) displayed less inappropriate behavior in class, (b) worked cooperatively with their classmates, (c) offered teachers suggestions to make classes more interesting, and (d) complained less often of boredom. Evidence of positive gains suggests that staff development is feasible in low-income school districts when staff are encouraged to seek support and ideas from students, parents, teachers, and administrators about issues considered important in their setting. Collaborative planning fosters a climate that encourages a variety of school improvement efforts to flourish over time.

Nan Stein's report "A Gender At Risk" (1988), prepared for the Massachusetts Department of Education, noted a discrepancy in reference to the economic and gender related consequences of schooling, in particular to the Occupational Education programs. A comparison of female enrollment figures in Massachusetts Occupational Education in 1982 and 1985 indicated that female students continue to be disproportionately underrepresented in some of the more highly skilled and lucrative trade areas. This fact is alarming considering the long term economic consequences for females, or as defined in "Equity, Educational Reform and Gender" (Tetrault and Schmuck, 1985), 'the feminization of poverty'. Female students need to develop skills and competencies that will allow them to compete in jobs that offer competitive salaries and opportunities for promotion. The purpose of this study was to examine selected characteristics of female students enrolled in a comprehensive urban vocational education program during the 1988-1989 school year and to identify factors that influenced their selection process. Research included examination of identified characteristics of female vocational students; reasons cited by the female students for choosing vocational education; and the influence of family and school personnel in the students' selection. Thirty-five female students in a vocational program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, participated in this study. Information was gathered from student records, surveys and interviews. The findings were presented qualitatively and quantitatively. The research documented two primary influencing components. A combination of internal and external factors, including the student's interests and skill levels and the influence of parents and teachers, were the culminating factors effecting the student's decision to select a vocational program. Contributing factors included the students math and reading scores and special education needs. Factors that did not impact the student's choice included socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity and single versus two parent homes.

A major premise of this study is that, due to a number of complex socio-economic factors, the schools of the 1990's will be required to provide a different and wider range of services, some having less academic orientation than "traditional" school practices, and more of a "pastoral", advisory nature. Secondly, the literature reviewed sustained my perception of the effectiveness of change emerging from collaboration among teachers, rather than from top-down strategies and management-imposed accountability grids. Additional perspectives developed over many years in educational practice provided a conceptual model which could promote growth and responsiveness within the school. A report tells of a school-within-a-school staff actively reconsidering how to restructure their teaching roles and secure greater resources. Included in the ethnographic narration is a variety of information useful in providing a context for viewing the school and two "target" teachers. By observing the events and episodes of the model in action, key processes and useful concepts may be identified, as well as information on related school issues. Data showed both an improved school climate and greater teacher satisfaction. Teachers in the intervention clearly articulated a mission which spoke to the impact of societal forces on urban students. They identified four themes which dictated operational goals (the advisory role; student-as-worker; student governance; and making student support more central) and spoke clearly about the support required to make such change. Analysis of the report supports the notion that by helping to raise the level of educational discourse and further staff members' perceptions of themselves as decision-makers, school administrators can help achieve many of the results required by our changing school situations. Teachers, if afforded the right resources and conditions, can fill the void left when the public does not involve itself in the educational process. The study also demonstrates that change in school institutions can successfully emerge from viable, personalized, school-within-school units, and offers one way to utilize technical assistance.

This study explores the experience of student teachers working in a track-system, and the meaning they make of that experience. A track-system purportedly separates students according to ability and interest. Most studies of tracking focus on the impact on students. This study focuses on tracking's impact on student teachers. In order to gain access to the meaning and understanding of the student teachers' experience with tracking, three, ninety-minute, phenomenologically based, in-depth interviews are conducted with each participant. This model of interviewing operates on the assumption that a person makes meaning of his or her experience after reflecting on the constitutive details of that experience. Of thirty-one participants, twenty-nine work in a track-system, while two teach in heterogeneous classrooms. The interviews reveal how student teachers' prior experiences with a track-system in high school influence their relationships with students. Some student teachers are uncomfortable working with students in the lower tracks. Some talk about how they do not understand the students in the lower track but feel more comfortable with students in the upper tracks. Student teachers discuss how their cooperating teachers inform them about the kinds of teaching tasks and activities students in different tracks are capable of. The cooperating teachers identify for student teachers those students who will succeed and those who will fail. The classroom students also affect the student teachers' attitudes. In the student teachers' eyes, students exhibit and model the "expected" behaviors of that track. These behaviors become the basis for how some student teachers respond to students. Student teachers often work in schools in which the policies of tracking remain hidden. These policies affect the content of their courses and their evaluation schemes. The two student teachers' experience of working in heterogeneous classrooms offer a qualitatively different experience from the participants working in a track-system. Their experience calls into question the role of the organizational context and the student teacher's biography in understanding student teacher socialization. This study shows how the track-system impacts on the emerging pedagogical practices of student teachers and has implications for teacher education programs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the phenomenon of public school physical education teachers holding multiple jobs. Data were collected through interviews in which 17 secondary physical education teachers described their motives and perceptions concerning the combination of teaching with other forms of employment. Each teacher was interviewed twice. In the first, unstructured interview, participants were encouraged to identify what they regarded as the realities of moonlighting, the purpose being to identify questions, problems, and issues not previously encountered or understood. Prior to the second interview, participants were asked to read through an abbreviated transcript of the first interview which documented primary areas of interest and items which required amplification or exploration. Profiles developed from the participants' own words provide a description of their moonlighting experiences and the impact of multiple employment on personal and professional lives. The profiles make clear that moonlighting is a highly individual phenomenon. Nevertheless, analysis of the transcripts served to yield a number of themes which were common to most of the participants' career patterns. Three particular themes appear to be both common and powerful in the professional lives of physical education teachers: (1) dissatisfactions with teaching and conditions in the school workplace often push teachers out into second jobs, (2) certain kinds of second jobs are regarded as part of professional responsibility, (3) some teachers spend more time in second jobs because limited time commitments in their personal lives leave a surplus of uncommitted time. For some teachers moonlighting simply is an economic necessity. Gender, marital status and age-related life cycle factors all serve to shape the importance of supplementing teaching income through additional employment. Finally, teachers hold mixed views concerning the impact of holding second jobs on their ability to function effectively in the school.

This study documented the process of creating, executing, and assessing, a cost-effective, school based, researcher conducted staff development program which included one African American seventh grade social studies faculty member, one European American tenth grade faculty member, and one European American Chapter I reading teacher, at Roosevelt Junior Senior High School, Roosevelt, New York, during the 1989-1990 school year. The objective was to obtain more information about increasing school effectiveness in low income school districts. Staff development efforts were aimed at broadening faculty members' preparedness in developing reading instruction strategies used in the content area of social studies, which conform more concisely with urban African American students' range of reading levels in three homogeneously grouped classes. The goals of (a) improving students' academic performance, (b) attending to individual needs, and (c) providing the tools needed to control learning, are addressed. Five collaboratively designed staff development workshops on developmental reading instruction strategies in the social studies content area enabled members of the faculty to: (a) reevaluate perceptions of teaching reading in the social studies classroom, (b) develop the techniques needed to enable students to independently evaluate the many types of printed material, and, (c) professionally incorporate a concern for teaching the "what" of content, and how the student may obtain the content. Informal and formal discussions, realization of self-concepts, interests, attitudes, completion of evaluations, diagnosis and prescription, conferencing, and observations, led the researcher to the determination that members of the faculty: (a) developed a unified strategy for teaching students how to read their social studies texts with fluency and efficiency, (b) collaboratively planned lessons stressing reading skills without loss of social studies content, (c) realized that content was naturally acquired as a result of improved reading skills, (d) regarded the process of reading as a necessary component in the curriculum, a skill that opens the door to higher level thinking, and, (e) viewed reading not as an isolated skill but rather as a means of enhancing and enriching the social studies curriculum. The students in this study: (a) demonstrated improved reading skills, for example, increased levels of comprehension, (b) learned how their textbook was organized and how to make the best use of all its parts, (c) increased their vocabulary, (d) obtained a better idea of their own interests in social studies, and, (e) acquired techniques to improve study skills which included taking notes and studying for and taking tests. Indications of increased school effectiveness imply that staff development is practical in low income school districts where there is evidence of a corroborative Board of Education, administrative team, faculty, and curriculum and instructional designers.

Urban public secondary education has come under constant scrutiny from government agencies, foundations, and educational researchers for more than a decade. It is the quality of public education that is now in question. In conjunction with this trend, is the concern for how this decline of public education may influence the future development of our nation. This dissertation provides some understanding of the complexities of developing and maintaining collaborative programs between academia and the urban secondary schools attempting to achieve effective change. Through an in-depth study of one collaborative, the Boston Secondary Schools Project (BSSP), the study shows how the role of the university or college is of pivotal importance in providing assistance to secondary school educators developing needed changes. In an attempt to remain objective, all aspects of this collaborative were investigated. Included in the study is the organizational structure, growth, evolutionary changes, and the impact of the BSSP on the Boston Public Schools. Additional research was also conducted regarding the value of the program to the participating graduate students. The BSSP has retained its longevity due to the dedication of the University of Massachusetts School of Education faculty, and to the perseverance of the graduate students in their determination to retain the program. The collaborative has been able to include the most essential elements needed to maintain a successful partnership. The program has provided a clear agreement of goals, maintained administrative support, operated under a system of coequality between university and school faculty, worked to overcome the continuous obstacles to its objectives, and has continued to focus on realistic expectations of stated goals.