Access to Success in the Urban High School: The Middle College Movement

by Wechsler, Harold S.; Reese, William J.

• ISBN13: 9780807740521
• ISBN10: 0807740527
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

This fascinating history of one school innovation recounts the painstaking labors of those willing to help at-risk youth succeed in our complex society. Harold Wechsler examines the middle college movement by focusing on a quarter-century of growth at the first Middle College. Started in 1974 at LaGuardia Community College in New York, this successful alternative school has since been widely replicated and adapted throughout the country. Anyone interested in the processes of educational reform will find this captivating story and Wechsler's in-depth policy analysis to be essential reading.

Author Biography

Harold S. Wechsler is professor of education at the Margaret S. Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, University of Rochester.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
William J. Reese
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xvii
Precedents and Influences	1	(19)
Background: High School-College Relations	1	(3)
The Rationales for Reorganization	4	(8)
The 11-14 Idea in Practice	12	(4)
Resurrecting the Vision	16	(2)
Conclusion	18	(2)
Coming Together: Open Admissions and Philanthropy	20	(33)
Access to Public Higher Education in New York City	21	(2)
LaGuardia Community College	23	(4)
The Designer and the Design	27	(6)
An Elite School for At-Risk Students: The Components	33	(11)
Who'll Run the School?	44	(5)
Approval	49	(2)
Conclusion	51	(2)
Living at the Border: Design and Implementation	53	(41)
Middle College High School: The First Years	54	(12)
The Greenberg Years: Academic Reform	66	(11)
``Cece's'' Era: ``School Membership and Academic Engagement	77	(12)
Conclusion	89	(5)
Replications	94	(45)
The New York City Sites	95	(3)
The Ford Foundation and the Reform of Urban Education	98	(7)
Selecting the Inner Circle	105	(3)
Five Successes	108	(24)
Two Failures	132	(3)
Conclusion	135	(4)
The Sum of the Parts	139	(30)
Did It Work? Tales of the (Data)tape	140	(2)
Adept Adaptation?	142	(7)
Collaboration, Leveraging, and Normative Congruence	149	(9)
Facilitating Transition	158	(7)
Conclusion	165	(4)
Notes	169	(4)
References	173	(20)
Index	193	(13)
About the Author	206