Believing in Ourselves:
Progress and Struggle in Urban Middle School Reform,
1989-1995

by Anne C. Lewis

Foreword by Angela Blackwell
Epilogue by M. Hayes Mizell

" This report is about successes, some of them extraordinary, but it gives equal attention to the context for urban middle grades reform, which is unfortunately almost always full of struggles. For some schools, this meant failure at reform. But we hope that Believing In Ourselves will help us understand why many students now in high schools in some of the five cities have more secure futures than many others just like them in different cities. There had been high hopes for all."
-- from the Introduction

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Foreword by Angela Blackwell
Introduction: Urban Middle School Reform--The Beginning

Part I

For the Record: Middle School Reform in Progress
Chapter 1: Real Teacher Empowerment
Chapter 2: The Development of Professionals
Chapter 3: Principal Development and Leadership
Chapter 4: Parent Involvement: A Misnomer for Urban Schools?
Chapter 5: Students, Reforms and the Bottom Line-Achievement

Part II

The Reform Context: Putting the Pieces Together
Chapter 6: Power Pieces
Chapter 7: Assessment: Driving It, Not Being Driven by It
Chapter 8: The Union Story
Chapter 9: The Anomaly of Central Office Leadership
Chapter 10: Turning the Outside Inside

Part III

Progress and Struggle: Reflections on Reform
Policy Implications
Postscript
Epilogue by M. Hayes Mizell
Bibliography


For a printed copy of Believing in Ourselves, including photographs by Liana Miuccio, write or fax The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, 250 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10177-0026; Fax: 212-986-4558. Or send e-mail to jedgar@emcf.org

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