ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the practical components that work together to comprise effective schools. It provides some prescriptive guidelines and initiatives for those practitioners who are committed to educational equity and excellence for black students. The myth that family background determines academic achievement, Ron Edmond contended, has the effect of absolving educators of their professional responsibility to be instructionally effective. With the convictions, Edmonds launched his effective school research and movement. Highly rated teachers used the first class day for orienting and climate setting, whereas new teachers jumped right into content more quickly. Inadequate performance is a cause for restructuring and redesigning educational programs and support and supervision systems. Monitoring should have an impact on school climate, teacher expectations, and the teaching process. Every urban public school, regardless of its percentage of poor and/or minority children, must educate its students to the national standards already achieved by many schools or at least adopt the characteristics of successful institutions.
