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Education and Urban Society
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Project Discovery

An Urban Middle School Reform Effort

Vivian Shulman

College of Staten Island, CUNY

Deirdre Armitage

College of Staten Island, CUNY

This study reports on a 5-year project to improve urban, middle-level student achievement through the implementation of two initiatives. First, teachers at a participating New York City middle school engaged in weekly curriculum-planning workshops to reformulate classroom curricula into interdisciplinary, discovery-oriented activities. Second, undergraduate college students from an urban public college, representing a variety of academic disciplines, were recruited to work as classroom tutors, or "teaching scholars," in the middle school. Gains in student achievement were demonstrated by a significant increase in the number of students meeting state standards on standardized test scores in mathematics and English. Survey responses and interviews of teachers revealed that teachers felt energized and empowered and that the school climate had improved. An unanticipated benefit was the desire of a significant number of college student "teaching scholars" to change career plans and pursue teaching as a profession, specifically in urban, high-need schools.

Key Words: teacher professional development • middle-level education reform • urban middle school

Education and Urban Society, Vol. 37, No. 4, 371-397 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0013124505277688
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