The Center for School Improvement (CSI) collaborates with a number of Chicago elementary schools on an Urban School Development Initiative. The schools, which are racially isolated and serve low-income communities, agree to work with CSI toward supporting fundamental restructuring using literacy as a lever for change. This article draws together evolving understandings based on several years of work in these schools. The authors first discuss their approach to comprehensive school development, then detail the literacy initiative that is the major academic component of their work, The article concludes with reflections on the role of the research university in promoting urban school reform.
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