The Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR) was established in 1994 and continued until 2004. It was a collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and Howard University. CRESPAR’s mission was to conduct research, development, evaluation, and dissemination of replicable strategies designed to transform schooling for students who were placed at risk due to inadequate institutional responses to such factors as poverty, ethnic minority status, and non-English-speaking home background.Urban districts around the United States are attempting systemic change by offering schools a “menu” of externally developed school reform designs. Yet, how do faculties who are relatively unfamiliar with the designs choose among them?Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education (R-117-D40005
