June 1, 2000 | Read Time: 1 minute
Students at Work: A Portfolio from the Annenberg Challenge, edited by Barbara Cervone, Kathleen Cushman, and Lisa Rowley, is the annual report from Walter H. Annenberg’s $500-million program to improve America’s public schools. The Annenberg Challenge comprises 18 projects in big cities and rural areas throughout the country; its first grant was awarded in New York in 1994 and the last is scheduled to be made in South Florida in 2003. With most of the projects winding down over the next two years, the report’s authors emphasize the importance of the continuing evaluations linked to each project. “The independent researchers tracking the challenge…are accumulating substantial evidence of student gains, including examples of student accomplishment not easily captured in a test score,” writes Ms. Cervone, the Annenberg Challenge’s national coordinator. The report provides vignettes of school-reform efforts from across the country (such as a theater program at a New Orleans elementary school), statistics showing improvement in standardized tests, and an overview of the challenge’s goals.
Publisher: Annenberg Institute for School Reform, Brown U., Box 1985, Providence, R.I. 02912; (401) 863-7523; fax (401) 863-1881; http://www.aisr.brown.edu/challenge; 44 pages; free.
