Small schools and urban youth : using the power of school culture to engage students /

Conchas (Univ. of California, Irvine) and Rodriguez (Florida International Univ.) address a growing trend in urban city school reform that focuses on restructuring larger schools into Small Learning Communities (SLC) in order to foster the same kind of personal attention students receive in smaller and often more successful schools. Conchas and Rodriguez present the concept of the SLC through the eyes of students, and while this book is supported by current (and not so current) research, it is the voice of students in two separate urban centers, Oakland and Boston, that make the book unique. Here, the authors allow the students to speak for themselves, and there is honesty in their words that makes the reality surrounding urban school reform resonate in a way that quantitative studies cannot. So while allowing the students to have a central voice offers a unique perspective on the SLC movement, the findings in this book offer little in the way of new thinking. However, for anyone wishing a clear and concise introduction to the issues surrounding the restructuring of large urban schools into smaller learning centers, this book is a good place to begin. Summing Up: Recommended. Research and professional collections. P. L. Yoder Truman State University