WELCOME TO HEIGHTS HIGH: THE CRIPPLING POLITICS OF RESTRUCTURING (URBAN LIFE & URBAN LANDSCAPE)

Welcome to Heights High documents a real-life attempt to put into practice the most promising school-improvement theories of the past decade. From 1988 to 1992 its journalist author was a "fly on the wall" at an uneasily integrated high school located in a progressive, middle-class suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. There Diana Tittle observed the progress of the Model School Project, an ambitious effort to reinvent the school that was prompted by the principal's unwillingness to accept as a given the persistent failure of his African-American students.One of the earliest school restructuring attempts undertaken anywhere, the Model School Project enjoyed admirable goals, ample funding, and grassroots leadership by the high school faculty. Yet despite these advantages, it came to naught.