Introduction

Young people growing up in inner-city neighborhoods face many obstacles. Students attending Glenville High School in Cleveland, Ohio, are no exception. Many come from families living near the poverty line in struggling neighborhoods with a high incidence of juvenile crime. Couple these problems with a large high school where students feel mostly anonymous, and the results are low student motivation, low academic achievement, and a high number of behavioral problems. That was the case at Glenville throughout the 1990s.

In 1998, J.F. Rhodes, another Cleveland inner-city high school, implemented the Talent Development High School Model with Career Academies, a comprehensive school reform model developed by the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University. Under that model, Rhodes was showing improved academic performance and student behavior, as well as higher attendance rates. In 1999, Rhodes decided to apply for a Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) Implementation Grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Glenville joined Rhodes in the application process, along with South, another district high school. The Cleveland Municipal School District, which had been placed in academic emergency status by the state of Ohio, endorsed this effort.