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The high dropout rate in urban high schools, particularly among poor and racial minority youth, continues to be a vexing problem confronting public education in the U.S. Although much research and many prevention efforts have been devoted to this issue, dropout rates continue to soar. In this article, the authors present a case study analysis of an urban high school that was attempting to address the high dropout rate. Instead of focusing on social and academic risk factors that assume the problem lies in the student and his or her family, we examine how the culture and structure of the high school influenced teachers' instructional practices and resulted in contradictory beliefs about students and their families. These contradictions between school culture and structure, instruction, and many students' home culture contributed to the school's high dropout rate.

The authors present findings from an oral history of the all-Black Douglass School, which existed in Parsons, Kansas from 1908-1958. The oral history of the school is significant for several reasons: (a) it adds to our understanding of segregated schools outside the South and northern urban centers, (b) the school was razed in 1962, and very little is left that attests to its existence, and (c) the cultural and educational practices of the school produced a large number of African Americans who through higher education were able to attain prestigious positions. Douglass School's success in educating African American children in the small city of Parsons, Kansas is relevant in today's educational context where many African American children continue to struggle academically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high dropout rate in urban high schools, particularly among poor and racial minority youth, continues to be a vexing problem confronting public education in the U.S. Although much research and many prevention efforts have been devoted to this issue, dropout rates continue to soar. In this article, the authors present a case study analysis of an urban high school that was attempting to address the high dropout rate. Instead of focusing on social and academic risk factors that assume the problem lies in the student and his or her family, we examine how the culture and structure of the high school influenced teachers' instructional practices and resulted in contradictory beliefs about students and their families. These contradictions between school culture and structure, instruction, and many students' home culture contributed to the school's high dropout rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses findings from a study on home schooling in a rural midwestern town and their implications on public education in the U.S. Home schooling families are typically middle class, white, churchgoers, owners of modest homes, and known for their Christian values. Home schools overcome bureaucratic barriers in schools by creating flexible but responsible learning environments, use the services of businesses that specialize in home schools and enjoy support from churches and home school associations.

The article highlights leadership strategies for supervising middle schools in the United States. Middle schools began embracing the learning community concept as a promising avenue for helping young adolescents experience greater academic success. A team of faculty and students from a principal preparation program sought to discover how administrators and teachers in two culturally diverse middle schools were implementing the concept of learning community, which led to the integration of the middle school concept to depart from traditional junior high schools to departmentalized structure of senior high schools.

Background: The rapid development of effective medical countermeasures against potential biological threat agents is vital. Repurposing existing drugs that may have unanticipated activities as potential countermeasures is one way to meet this important goal, since currently approved drugs already have well-established safety and pharmacokinetic profiles in patients, as well as manufacturing and distribution networks. Therefore, approved drugs could rapidly be made available for a new indication in an emergency., Methodology/principal Findings: A large systematic effort to determine whether existing drugs can be used against high containment bacterial and viral pathogens is described. We assembled and screened 1012 FDA-approved drugs for off-label broad-spectrum efficacy against Bacillus anthracis; Francisella tularensis; Coxiella burnetii; and Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa fever viruses using in vitro cell culture assays. We found a variety of hits against two or more of these biological threat pathogens, which were validated in secondary assays. As expected, antibiotic compounds were highly active against bacterial agents, but we did not identify any non-antibiotic compounds with broad-spectrum antibacterial activity. Lomefloxacin and erythromycin were found to be the most potent compounds in vivo protecting mice against Bacillus anthracis challenge. While multiple virus-specific inhibitors were identified, the most noteworthy antiviral compound identified was chloroquine, which disrupted entry and replication of two or more viruses in vitro and protected mice against Ebola virus challenge in vivo., Conclusions/significance: The feasibility of repurposing existing drugs to face novel threats is demonstrated and this represents the first effort to apply this approach to high containment bacteria and viruses.