Instructional approaches and interventions that can improve the academic performance of African American students

Levine, Daniel U

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACHES

COMPREHENSION-DEVELOPMENT INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Data collected by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and other organizations indicate that average achievement levels of African American students are distressingly low, particularly with respect to higher-order comprehension and thinking skills (Cooper & Levine, 1993; Levine & Eubanks, 1990). During the past two decades or so, educators have developed and/or refined instructional strategies that many observers believe provide us with the capacity to bring about virtually a revolution in successfully developing comprehension and thinking skills of students whose performance currently is unsatisfactory in reading, history, mathematics, science, and other subjects (C. Block, 1993; Idol & Jones, 1991; Means, Chelemer, & Knapp, 1991; Pearson, 1985). Some of the most prominent of these instructional strategies include use of graphic organizers, semantic webbing and mapping, inferencing and prediction techniques, and summarization guidelines (C. Block, 1993; Levine & Sherk, 1989). Assisting faculties to learn how to use these strategies and introduce them as part of regular classroom instruction typically requires a large-scale, continuing staff development effort; considerable technical assistance; and improvements in school climate, leadership, expectations for students, and other characteristics or correlates of unusually effective schools. However, impressive gains have been registered thereby in the performance of students, particularly those who otherwise would be low achievers or at risk of dropping out of school (C. Block, 1993; Cooper & Levine, 1993; Levine & Lezotte, 1990, 1994; Levine & Sherk, 1989; Means, Chelemer, & Knapp, 1991).

The results of a recent study by Knapp, Shields, and Turnbull (1992) support the conclusion that instructional strategies stressing comprehension and thinking can improve the achievement of disadvantaged students. Knapp et al. examined the effects of emphasizing or not emphasizing meaning and understanding in 140 elementary classrooms with high percentages o poverty students. They offer the following generalizations regarding implications for the "design and conduct of instruction" in schools with a high proportion of students from low-income families:

The findings dispel the myth that, for most of the children of poverty, academically challenging work in mathematics and literacy should be postponed until they are "ready"--that is, until they have acquired full mastery of basic skills. Although such students are often lacking in certain basic skills, they can acquire these skills at the same time that they gain advanced skills (which provide a broader, more meaningful context for learning "the basics"). (p. i)

Indeed, instructional practices aimed at developing meaning and understanding provide avenues for teachers to expand their repertoires. Those who wish to do so can expand their practices provided they receive the appropriate mix of encouragement, support, and flexibility.

COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION AND OTHER TECHNOLOGY-BASED APPROACHES

One good example of a technology-based approach designed specifically to help students acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to become independent thinkers and learners is the "anchored instruction" approach being developed by the Cognition and Technology Group (CTG) (1990). Anchored instruction aims to create "problem-solving environments" based on the use of videodisc and computer technologies that provide a framework for sustained exploration of "authentic" tasks (p. 2). CTG's initial work has involved painstaking creation of videodiscs, computer software, and instructional materials designed to improve average- and low-achieving students' problem-formulation and problemsolving capacities as well as various comprehension and communications skills. Students work cooperatively in small groups much of the time, and guidance in learning-to-learn is provided by both the teacher and the technology. Based on student and teacher reactions during pilot stages of the projects, CTG researchers conclude that students from varied backgrounds participated actively in the program and became more proficient at complex problem solving.

However, computers frequently have been used in ways that have limited rather than enhanced the learning of low-achieving disadvantaged students, primarily through concentrating on drill-and-practice learning of low-level skills and rote memorization (Strickland & Ascher, 1992). Several analysts have examined possibilities for using computers and other modern technologies to improve thinking skills and comprehension among students from low-income and/or minority families (DeVillar & Faltis, 1991; Liao, 1991; Mageau, 1992; Pogrow, 1990; Strickland & Ascher, 1992). They have identified the following guidelines and practices that can help educators accomplish this important goal:

(1) Concentrate on comprehension and meaning.

(2) Place some emphasis on writing and publishing.

(3) Select software that is interesting and challenging.

(4) Promote active problem solving.

(5) Examine and analyze text structures,

(6) Use content from a range of subject areas.

(7) Link reading to writing.

(8) Ensure cross-grade continuity.

(9) Provide massive staff development to build teacher commitment to and skill in introducing technologies.

(10) Have teachers attend computer laboratory classes with their students.

(11) Provide individual help to make sure students use the technology properly.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Numerous analysts have concluded that cooperative learning approaches can help improve the achievement of low-performing students and that they may be particularly suitable for many students from low-income, African American, and other minority families whose cultural patterns are different from those emphasized in traditional classrooms (Foster, 1992; Slavin, 1990; Strickland & Ascher, 1992; Strickland & Cooper, 1987). One of the best-known examples of a cooperative learning approach is Student Team Learning (STL), developed by Robert Slavin and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University. STL is being widely used because it has demonstrated impressive success in helping improve classroom participation and achievement of many groups of students in various settings, including minority students in desegregated classes (Hilke, 1990; Slavin, 1990; Wheelock, 1992). The STL approach uses a number of techniques in which students work in four- or five-member learning teams and receive recognition based on the extent to which all team members complete and master a common set of skills. Students' scores are based on their performance relative to that of other students who start at the same level or on their improvement over their own previous performance. This makes it possible for all students to score well if they work diligently. Studies of STL have shown positive outcomes in reading, mathematics, social studies, science, and other subjects (Slavin, 1990). When implemented well, STL has also produced significant gains in students' attitudes toward school and in their self-concept.

The developers of STL have also tested modified versions of this method. Two of these, Team-assisted Individualization (TAI) and Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC), show particular promise for low-income and minority students. Research on TAI, which combines cooperative learning and mastery learning in teaching mathematics in the middle grades, indicates that this approach can produce large improvements in both student attitudes and achievement (Slavin, 1990). CIRC, which combines team learning with specially prepared materials and use of comprehension-development strategies to improve instruction in reading and language arts, has been shown to produce substantial achievement gains among both regular and Special Education students in the middle grades(Hilke, 1990; Slavin, 1990, 1993; Wheelock, 1992).

WHOLE-GROUP MASTERY LEARNING

Whole-group (as contrasted with individualized) mastery learning approaches have been developed by Block (1974), Bloom (1976), Guskey (1985), Jones (1982), and others. A typical, full-fledged public school mastery learning approach involves the following five steps:

(1) Define a specific learning objective.

(2) Teach the understanding or skills embodied in the objective.

(3) Use a criterion-referenced test to assess mastery.

(4) Provide corrective instruction for non-masters and enrichment or acceleration for students who have mastered the objective.

(5) Retest those students who received corrective instruction. Data on the implementation of whole-group mastery learning indicate that, when well implemented, it can bring about large gains in student achievement, particularly among low achievers (Levine, 1985; Levine & Lezotte, 1990, 1994; Schmoker & Wilson, 1993; Strickland & Ascher, 1992). It has been shown to raise the performance of students achieving at the 50th percentile to the 90th percentile or higher, and to raise the performance of low achievers from the 15th to the 40th percentile or above Gains of this magnitude are possible when mastery learning is combined with the following:

(1) enhancement of students' initial skills on concepts prerequisite to the instruction,

(2) provision of appropriate cues and feedback,

(3) emphasis on students' active participation, and

(4) work with parents to improve the home learning environment. Moreover, these gains can be attained for higher-order learning, not just for mastery of factual information (Bloom, 1976). Though the research by Bloom and his colleagues has been conducted mostly with individual classes using teacher-made tests, other research indicates that comparable results can be attained on a schoolwide basis using standardized tests (Levine, 1985).

As with any other instructional approach, whole-group mastery learning is particularly susceptible to misimplementation caused in part by overemphasis on the narrow, mechanical skills that are easiest to teach and test. Additionally, teachers utilizing this mastery learning approach have frequently been overloaded with record-keeping chores. Moreover, effective implementation of mastery learning generally requires systematic attention to prerequisites of success such as manageable class size, large amounts of planning time for teachers, substantial staff development, and provision of adequate time for corrective instruction (Levine, 1985; Levine & Jones, 1988; Levine & Lezotte, 1990, 1994; Strickland & Ascher, 1992).

SPECIFIC PROGRAMS AND INTERVENTIONS

THE ACCELERATED SCHOOLS PROGRAM

Initiated in 1986 as a cooperative project involving Stanford University and an inner-city elementary school in San Francisco (CA), the Accelerated Schools approach attempts to bring about fundamental restructuring in elementary schools with a high proportion of disadvantaged students. After receiving training in problem-solving and group-process skills, participating faculties address schoolwide issues involving selection of curriculum, grouping of students, delivery of instruction, improvement of climate and expectations held for students, and other major aspects of school organization and operation. Particular emphasis is placed on accelerating the pace of instruction through reduction of repetitious, low-level learning experiences that are unnecessary or counterproductive for many students. By 1992, more than 150 elementary schools were participating in Accelerated Schools projects, and plans were being made to extend the approach to middle schools. Encouraging preliminary results at some participating schools indicate that improvements are occurring with respect to climate, attendance, achievement, and other indicators of school effectiveness (Levin, 1993; Schmoker & Wilson, 1993).

THE COMER SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Developed by James Comer and his colleagues at Yale University, the School Development Program (SDP) aims to improve achievement at impoverished inner-city elementary schools through enhanced social and psychological services for students, emphasis on parental involvement, and encouragement and support for active learning. Participating schools involve parents in all aspects of school operation, including governance. Teachers, parents, psychologists, social workers, and other specialists form "mental health teams" that design and supervise individualized learning arrangements for students experiencing or causing unusual problems (Comer, 1980, 1987, 1988; Comer & Haynes, 1991; Rowe, 1993).

As described in Comeis (1980) account of the New Haven (CT) public schools involved in the initial implementation of this program, emphasis in curriculum and instruction was placed on coordinating teaching methods and content across subject areas, conducting interesting and active hands-on learning activities, and developing students' social skills and willingness to take responsibility for their behavior. The New Haven implementation has shown that large gains can be registered in students' academic performance as a result of this approach, and it has since been introduced in numerous school districts across the country. However, many SDP schools have not reported significant gains in academic achievement, possibly because they may be neglecting curricular and instructional components while introducing parental involvement and mental health team arrangements. Additionally, unsuccessful districts may be implementing the SDP on a multi-school basis without providing sufficient specialized personnel to staff the mental health teams and coordinate implementation within and across schools.

THE HIGHER-ORDER THINKING SKILLS (HOTS) PROGRAM

Developed by Stanley Pogrow (1990, 1993) and his colleagues at the University of Arizona, the HOTS program is specifically designed to replace remedial Chapter 1 laboratories in grades four through six.

Pogrow describes HOTS as encompassing four major components: (1) use of computers for problem solving,

(2) emphasis on dramatization techniques that require students to verbalize and thereby stimulate language development,

(3) systematic inclusion of Socratic questioning techniques, and (4) stress on thinking skills.

The HOTS curriculum stresses metacognitive learning strategies, drawing inferences from context, and other comprehension-development strategies and methods. Participation in a HOTS program typically involves assignment of nine or fewer previously low-achieving students to a specially trained teacher for 35 minutes a day, four or five days a week, for a period of two years per student. Regular classroom teachers are asked to support the HOTS approach by placing greater emphasis on questioning techniques, verbalization, and thinking skills in their classes.

Evaluations indicate that the average HOTS student registers sizable gains in reading and mathematics, even though the program does not explicitly teach or stress discrete basic skills that are usually stressed in testing. Pogrow (1990) summarizes some of these outcomes and describes the overall goals as well as general implications of the program results:

The activities were designed to be intellectually challenging. Students would have to struggle to be successful, but every effort was made to make the activities stimulating and motivational....Teachers were trained to maintain proper levels of ambiguity in discussions so that students would have to...construct meaning and articulate complete ideas and strategies. Teachers also were trained to guide students without simplifying problems...or telling students what to do. . ..,[The results support the conclusion that at-risk] students have tremendous levels of intellectual and academic potential...[but many do not] understand what is involved in "understanding." ...[This] fundamental learning problem can be eliminated if enough time and enough resources are made available....[Given that the basic problem is that students do not understand "understanding," then the usual] remedial approaches are likely to make long-term learning problems worse...[by treating information as discrete facts to be memorized and thereby producing a vicious cycle wherein the more remediation, the less students...are able to apply their learning. (pp. 390-394)

THE IBM WRITING TO READ PROGRAM (WTR)

The Writing to Read program has devoted substantial attention (and investment) aimed particularly at helping low-achieving, low-income students learn to function well in school. Designed to teach beginning reading and writing through assignment of kindergarten and first-grade students to an IBM computer laboratory, WTR has expanded to serve more than one million students nationally. Although full-scale longitudinal evaluation has been limited, positive results have been reported in a number of locations, particularly in Mississippi, where a statewide implementation was initiated in 1988. Advocates believe that WTR is making a major contribution in improving the performance of disadvantaged students, but critics are not sure that students generally maintain gains after the first grade, and question whether the program is worth what they perceive to be relatively high costs (Freyd & Lytle, 1990; Nelms, 1990; West, 1991).

THE NATIONAL URBAN ALLIANCE'S COGNITION AND COMPREHENSION PROGRAM

Unlike most other successful or promising approaches and interventions described in this article, the Cognition and Comprehension Program has been introduced at the senior high school level. Originally developed by The College Board and now disseminated through the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education, the approach is intended to enhance comprehension throughout the curriculum. It is built in part on the Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) test, which, in contrast to other standardized tests of reading comprehension, is a criterion-referenced test that indicates how well students actually comprehend the prose they encounter inside and outside of school, not just whether they are above or below some abstract grade level (Koslin, Zeno, & Ivens, 1992).

The first step in this program is to obtain comprehension scores for all students by administering the DRP test. After determining students' comprehension levels, the second step is to align instructional materials in social studies, science, and other subjects with students' comprehension levels. The aim at this point and subsequently is to provide materials that do not frustrate students in completing homework and other independent learning activities, while using materials slightly beyond students' current functional level during instruction designed to help students gain in comprehension. The third and most extensive step is to help faculty introduce comprehension-development teaching and learning strategies in line with students' current functional levels and problems. At this stage, teachers are assisted in selecting and using appropriate strategies from among the many available possibilities such as higher-order questioning, directed thinking activities, concept mapping, cooperative team learning, and others. Successful results in terms of improving student achievement have been reported at schools in Kansas City (MO), New York City, Orlando (FL), and elsewhere. A promising implementation focusing on instructional strategies, but not the DRP, is underway at more than 60 Chapter 1 elementary schools in the Prince George's County (MD) public schools (Cooper & Levine, 1993; Levine & Sherk, 1989).

READING RECOVERY

Emanating from linguistics-based learning theories originally developed in New Zealand, the Reading Recovery approach emphasizes intensive assistance in beginning reading for children who experience serious problems learning to read, and aims to help all students learn by overcoming initial reading problems before they become debilitating. Presently, Reading Recovery programs are being implemented or initiated in hundreds of schools in the U.S. Participating students receive one-on-one tutoring for approximately 30 minutes a day from a highly trained teacher. Tutoring usually is provided for 12 to 20 weeks in the first grade, but some students who still have reading problems may receive additional tutoring in the second or third grades. Emphasis in tutoring is on use of short paperback books with only a few lines per page, learning to read through writing and oral expression, diagnosis and correction of individual learning problems associated with a student's particular learning style, and detailed recording of student behavior and performance when producing language independently (Pinnell, 1990).

Assessments o Reading Recovery results in early-adopting districts are very encouraging. Unlike many early childhood approaches in which participants registered strong gains in preschool or kindergarten classes and then deteriorated in performance in later grades, Reading Recovery students, in comparison with similar students not in the program, generally have maintained gains into the fourth grade (Clay, 1990; Pinnell, 1990). Although these evaluation data have been hard to collect and must be treated cautiously because they are somewhat limited, several nationally respected reading experts have viewed initial results as unusually promising (e.g., Adams, 1990).

THE SCHOOL-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP PROGRAM

Sponsored by the National Center for Effective Schools Research and Development, this program was designed to help schools implement so-called "effective schools" interventions that address correlates of unusual effectiveness identified by Brookover (1985), Edmonds (1982), Lezotte (1982), Taylor (1990), and other researchers. It currently is being implemented in numerous districts across the U.S. According to Bullard and Taylor (1993) and Holcomb (1991), the program emphasizes collection and disaggregation of data to ensure that schools focus on improving the performance of low-income and minority students. Particular attention in implementation is given to systematic staff development, vigorous leadership at the school and district office levels, teamwork building, and related site-level considerations. Schools that have brought about substantial gains in student performance using the School-based Instructional Leadership Program or very similar interventions are described in Bullard and Taylor (1993), Chrispeels (1992), and Taylor (1990).

SUCCESS FOR ALL

Success for All is probably the most comprehensive, consistently effective, and demonstrably successful intervention developed in recent years to improve the performance of disadvantaged students. This program provides intensive preschool and kindergarten instruction stressing language development and learning-to-learn skills, followed by individualized assistance in primary-grade reading and mathematics delivered to small classes and groups of students at inner-city elementary schools. It also emphasizes cooperative learning, mastery-oriented instruction, and development of thinking skills. Technical support and staff development are provided by coordinators and resource persons assigned to each participating school. To ensure that all students succeed before they encounter serious learning problems, highly skilled Success for All reading teachers provide tutoring for students who need individual help in learning to read and function successfully in the classroom. Full implementation of this program includes establishment of family support teams comprised of selected faculty, social workers, and parent liaison staff (Dolan & Haxby, 1992; Madden, Slavin, Karweit, Dolan, & Wasik, 1993; Slavin et al., 1993).

Success for All is being implemented at a number of schools in Baltimore (MD), Philadelphia (PA), and other school districts. Many of the schools are concentrated poverty schools with a high proportion of African American and other minority students. Data collected as part of a systematic evaluation plan indicate that Success for All frequently produces impressive and sometimes dramatic gains in reading and mathematics achievement. It has also been found to reduce substantially retention in grade and Special Education placements. The largest achievement gains typically have been registered among students initially in the lowest performance percentiles (Slavin, Karweit, & Wasik, 1992/1993). The developers of Success for All have offered the following comments regarding these results:

...the main importance of the Success for All approach... is in demonstrating that success for disadvantaged students can be routinely ensured in schools that are not exceptional or extraordinary (and were not producing great success before the program was introduced). We cannot ensure that every school has a charismatic principal or every student has a charismatic teacher...[but] we can ensure that every child, regardless of family background, has an opportunity to succeed in school....The demonstration that an effective program can be replicated... removes one more excuse for the continuing low achievement of disadvantaged children. (Slavin et al., 1993, p. 18)

MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE PROGRAMS

Numerous programs have been developed to improve disadvantaged students' preparation and performance in mathematics and science. As in the case of reading and language development, mathematics and science approaches at the elementary level generally emphasize the use of instructional strategies to improve comprehension and thinking skills. However, compared to reading and language development, relatively little seems to be known concerning the effectiveness of given strategies (e.g., stress on manipulatives) or ways in which they can be successfully implemented in classrooms with many lower achievers. On the other hand, it is clear that programs stressing computer-assisted instruction, cooperative learning, whole-group mastery learning, and/or other instructional approaches can help produce large gains in the mathematics performance of previously low-achieving students (Clewell, Anderson, & Thorpe, 1992; Levine, 1985; Slavin, 1993). Clewell et. al provide in-depth descriptions of 10 programs that appear to have been successful in improving disadvantaged students' opportunities to learn mathematics and/or science. A majority of these programs focus on staff development, and several are explicitly designed to improve learning opportunities for African American students in intermediate and high schools.

COMBINATIONS OF APPROACHES AND INTERVENTIONS

Promising approaches and interventions such as those described above are not mutually exclusive. Drawing on a larger research base concerned with the characteristics of effective schools and effective instruction, most can be and frequently are combined with each other or with other interventions involving changes in testing, organizational arrangements, and other aspects of educational policy and practice. For example, HOTS involves use of both computer-assisted instruction and comprehension-development strategies; anchored instruction and some other computer-based approaches assign students to cooperative-learning teams (Hooper, 1992); the Cognition and Comprehension Program and the School-Based Instructional Leadership Program are being implemented in schools using whole-group mastery learning, cooperative learning, and other potentially successful approaches and interventions; and Success for All incorporates cooperative learning, comprehension development strategies, and family support teams comparable to the mental health teams utilized in the Comer School Development Program. Indeed, developers of Success for All explicitly set out to identify components that research indicates can improve the performance of disadvantaged students, and to weave them together into a coherent and comprehensive approach that can be successfully implemented in typical inner-city elementary schools.

OTHER PROMISING APPROACHES AND STRATEGIES

PRIVATIZATION

Some analysts believe that "contracting out" public school services to private firms can produce large gains in student achievement. They view privatization as a means of making it possible for districts to overcome impediments to school functioning associated with complex central office bureaucracies and restrictive union contracts that give more weight to teachers' incumbency than to the appropriateness of their qualifications and experience. The best known of the privatization experiments attempted thus far involves Educational Alternatives, Inc. (EAI), a Minneapolis-incorporated company that has obtained five-year contracts to provide public school services in Dade County (FL), Baltimore (MD), 'and several other locations. EAI will operate a new elementary school in Dade County and eight elementary schools and a middle school in Baltimore. Its instructional programming includes emphasis on computer-assisted instruction, cooperative learning, reduced adult--student ratios, and other components aimed at improving the performance of low-achieving pupils (Miner, 1993; Schmidt, 1992). It remains to be seen whether privatization through EAI or other corporations will produce substantial gains in student performance or will provide for sufficient profits to allow for continuation and expansion of its privatization experiments.

BLACK ENGLISH

Partly because Black English appears to be the basic form of speech of many working-class and poverty-level African American students who are not succeeding in school, it frequently has been proposed that faculty at predominantly African American elementary schools teach in Black English until their students learn to read and can shift to Standard English (Campbell, 1990). Alternate proposals have suggested teaching English as a foreign language to students who speak Black English, thereby capitalizing on similarities between Black English and Standard English, and helping students develop "code-switching" techniques and various other transitional strategies. These types of proposals generally reflect a belief that complete insistence on Standard English interferes with cognitive development and also communicates nonacceptance of the culture of students who grow up speaking Black English (Foster, 1992; Shields & Shaver, 1990).

Harber and Bryan (1976) and Strickland and Ascher (1992) reviewed the research on Black English and language interference, and concluded that available data do not support a systematic effort to use teaching techniques other than direct instruction in Standard English. However, Foster (1992), after reviewing the literature related to teaching Black English, concludes that too few studies have been conducted to allow for definitive interpretations. After describing research and theoretical analysis which indicate that taking account of verbal-style aspects of Black culture (e.g., rhythmic language, repetition, and alliteration) can help improve the reading performance of low-achieving African American students, she urges teachers to take note of dialect differences and other cultural discontinuities.

SINGLE-SEX CLASSROOMS OR SCHOOLS

Reasons for believing that sex-segregated classrooms or schools might be beneficial for African American students attending predominantly minority schools in poor inner-city neighborhoods have been delineated in professional journals since the early 1960s (Levine, 1964). Interest in this possibility has grown in recent years as changes in technology and society have made the low performance of many African American students increasingly intolerable. Additionally, some educators and others who are looking for ways to provide African American male teachers and mentors for young Black males have concluded that all-male classes or schools can maximize possibilities for providing effective teachers and role models, and have taken action to introduce such arrangements and opportunities for urban African American male students (Leake & Leake, 1992).

Given the recency and the limited number of efforts actually underway to provide single-sex classes or schools for African American male students, it is not possible to determine with confidence whether or in what situations these all-male settings might improve participating students' performance in school. Furthermore, related areas of research dealing with general issues such as gender differences in achievement at single-sex versus coeducational school settings, the effects of role models on student performance, and gender/racial differences in the relationships between teacher behavior and student self-esteem do not provide clear guidance in predicting whether or when single-sex classes or schools can benefit African American males (Beckstrom & Schuster, 1993). Thus, it is best to view this approach as potentially promising but unproven at this time.

SELECT-FACULTY SCHOOLS

Because the instructional strategies used in the classroom, expectations for students, and other aspects of teachers' practice and attitudes play a predominant part in determining whether students learn much or little, it stands to reason that schools in which most or all of the faculty are outstanding teachers who require students to meet high expectations will produce much higher achievement than those that have only a few such teachers. For this reason, educators dissatisfied with the low levels of achievement that characterize most schools attended primarily by low-income students sometimes have wished to "hand pick" a staff of outstanding teachers who work well with previously low-achieving, low-income students.

A project in which all faculty positions were declared vacant and the faculties were re-constituted has been taking place in seven Oklahoma City (OK) public schools since 1991. Known as Project Phoenix, this effort was initiated in cooperation with the Oklahoma City Federation of Teachers after the seven schools were designated "terminally at-risk" based on their students' unacceptably low achievement scores. Percentages of low-income students at the seven schools ranged from 71% to 87%, and all but three of the schools enrolled at least 97% minority students. During the summer of 1991, 41% of the teaching positions at the seven Phoenix schools were filled by applicants from other Oklahoma City public schools and 26% were filled by new hires. A number of other major interventions were either introduced or strengthened, including intensive staff development, provision of bonuses and other incentives for individual teachers and faculties as a whole, cooperative learning arrangements, before-and after-school as well as Saturday and summer learning opportunities, parental involvement activities, programs to improve student motivation, and provision of technical support. A year later, school officials reported that an astounding improvement in performance had occurred in third-grade achievement battery scores for the seven schools as a whole, from an average 29th percentile for 199-91 to the 58th percentile for 1991-92. At one school with an 98% African American enrollment, the average score increased from the 31st to the 67th percentile (Editors of Education Monitor, 1991; Moore, 1991). If these kinds of results are verified as regards students' acquisition of comprehension and thinking skills, and if they are replicated in other Oklahoma City public schools or elsewhere, educators nationally should give serious consideration to possibilities for emulating the Oklahoma City intervention.

PREREQUISITES FOR EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF INNOVATIVE APPROACHES

The approaches and programs described above potentially can bring about substantial gains in the academic performance of economically disadvantaged students. However, they are unlikely to have much positive impact beyond an isolated classroom or two unless they are systematically introduced on a schoolwide basis in settings that incorporate the prerequisites for effective implementation of any major educational innovation. Several types of prerequisites for effective implementation are described briefly in this section.

CORRELATES OF EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS

Over the past three decades, researchers have identified several correlates or characteristics of so-called "effective schools," that is, schools that are unusually effective in producing higher achievement than are most other schools enrolling students with similar socioeconomic and racial/ethnic backgrounds (Bullard & Taylor, 1993; Edmonds, 1982; Glenn, 1981; Jackson, 1982; Levine, 1990; Levine, Levine, & Eubanks, 1984; Levine & Lezotte, 1990, 1994; Sizemore, 1985). A number of these schools have enrollments that are partly or entirely African American. Some of the most frequently cited correlates include the following:

(1) a productive school climate and culture;

(2) a focus on student acquisition of central learning skills;

(3) appropriate monitoring of student progress;

(4) practice-oriented staff development at the school site;

(5) outstanding leadership;

(6) effective instructional arrangements for low achievers;

(7) active and engaged learning;

(8) salient parental involvement;

(9) high, operationalized expectations and requirements for students;

and

(10) multicultural sensitivity.

INSTRUCTIONAL EMPHASIS ON THINKING SKILLS

Levine and Cooper (1991) have identified some of the prerequisites required for successful introduction of strategies and programs to improve students' higher-order learning as follows:

(1) continuing and massive staff development;

(2) provision of incentives for faculty participation;

(3) avoidance of overload and unmanageable expectations for teachers;

(4) stability in leadership;

(5) clarity in objectives and procedures;

(6) appropriate change in organizational procedures, routines, and arrangements; and

(7) emphasis on identifying and solving implementation problems.

ACTIVE LEARNING AND RESPONSIVENESS TO CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Various lines of research have underlined the importance of providing active or engaged learning opportunities and of recognizing cultural diversity in teaching low-income students in general and disadvantaged African American students in particular. Regarding active or engaged learning in unusually effective schools, Levine and Lezotte (1990, 1994) conclude that this characteristic took a variety of forms but was clearly in evidence in case studies describing such schools. Additionally, Boykin (1978), DePalma (1990), and several other analysts have concluded that many low-income Black students seem to respond negatively to systematic restraints on physical activity. Regarding cultural diversity, Teel, Parecki, and Covington's (1992) research findings indicate that use of curriculum materials perceived by low-income African American students as relevant to their circumstances and background can help motivate them to learn. Both active or engaged learning and responsiveness to cultural diversity should be viewed as ways in which teachers can address the obvious necessity to enhance the motivation of students whose previous experience in school has been negative and discouraging.

CONCLUSION

Educators have learned much about how to deliver instruction more effectively for low-achieving low-income, African American and other minority students, and have demonstrated that they know how to do this reliably at the elementary level. Still, most elementary schools attended primarily by these students have very low achievement levels, and only a small number of secondary schools with primarily low-income and minority enrollment have succeeded in substantially raising average achievement scores. The approaches and interventions described in this article have the potential to produce widespread achievement gains among African American students, but success in doing so requires that educators attend to the prerequisites that are necessary for effective implementation of instructional strategies and programs designed to improve students' comprehension and thinking skills. Successful interventions for this purpose will never be easy, but there is no good reason to tolerate low achievement patterns that can be modified substantially by capable administrators and committed teachers.

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