ABSTRACT

Chicago was the site of the first PUSH/Excel program. Operation PUSH approached the Chicago Board of Education in 1976 and asked permission to start Excel in several schools. In the long run the Chicago school system tolerated and finally absorbed PUSH/Excel, as it had so many other reforms over the years. Strenuous though its efforts were, PUSH/Excel could not do the job alone. The Kansas City program began at Central High School. As a result of the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision ending legal school segregation, Central had changed from an all-white school in 1956 to an all-black school in 1963—one of the ironies of desegregation. Support for the program remained high at the middle level of the district administration and in the participating schools. The school district conducted its own evaluation and concluded that attendance had improved and absenteeism had been reduced.