PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143) Speeches/Conference Papers (150)

This paper presents an overview of a 3-year, federally funded comparative study of 11 public school districts Pnd 40 schools in metropolitan areas of California, Arizona, and Ne. a. The purpose was to identify school districts that are successfully meeting the challenge of educating relatively high numbers of newcomer students (ethnic and language minorities and immigrants) , to compare these districts systematically with less successful districts, and to search for models of success that might be shared. The communities were heavily affected by ethnic and language minority students in the 1980s, and differed markedly in their achievement-gain scores. Examination of thei / histories and local cultures led the research team to conclude that score differences were not the result of chance. There were three communities with proactive, responsive, adaptive, and innovative public instruction