OVERCROWDING IN SCHOOLS.

Overcrowding in Schools

Annotated Bibliography: Overcrowding in Schools

Annotated Bibliography

1. Valdez, (2000), An Evaluation of the Chicago Public Schools' Efforts to Relieve Student Overcrowding at Elementary Schools. Progress Report, 78, pp. (ED478154)

To address the inadequate condition of school buildings across the city, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) established a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) in 1996, an ongoing plan for reviewing and upgrading CPS infrastructure over 5 years. Capital projects include additions, annexes, new replacement schools, and new area schools. This report analyzes conditions in 453 of Chicago's 489 elementary schools. During the 1998-99 school year, 99 of the schools were overcrowded, 30 were "severely" overcrowded, and 20 were "most severely" overcrowded. Forty-one percent of the overcrowded schools, 50 percent of the severely overcrowded schools, and 75 percent of the most severely overcrowded schools were Latino-majority schools. If CPS fulfils the commitments it made in the CIP, it will relieve all the most severely overcrowded schools and a majority of severely overcrowded schools. However, approximately 70 percent of schools slated for relief have not been relieved because their projects have not been finished. The majority have not even begun, and funding has not been secured. This report gives CPS an overall grade of "C" for its efforts in reducing student overcrowding. It is recommended that seven overcrowded and severely overcrowded schools identified in this report be added to this year's CIP and that CPS ensure the funding and purchase of land for projects that affect those seven schools and 63 other schools scheduled for relief. Fifteen appendices present data on Chicago's elementary schools: enrolment, student ethnicity, design capacity, extent of overcrowding, and status of relief projects.

2. Opotow, Susan, (2006), Rationalities and Levels of Analysis in Complex Social Issues: The Examples of School Overcrowding and Poverty. Social Justice Research, Mar2006, Vol. 19 Issue 1, p135-150, 16p, 2.

Abstract: This paper presents a 5 × n table for charting complex social issues, particularly those characterized by oppression and injustice. Its five columns are Paul Diesing's rationalities: technical, economic, social, legal, and political. Its n rows are levels of analysis from individuals, groups, organizations, communities, regions, and nations to international and global perspectives. Utilizing school overcrowding and poverty as examples of local and global social issues, the paper describes the relevance of this analytic framework for social action and research. The framework contributes a complex view of social issues that avoids oversimplifying them and suggests how they are experienced by people living with social injustice. The framework proposes cross-disciplinary projects among scholars and collaborative projects among scholars, practitioners, and advocates.

3. Muraskin, Lana; Stullich, Stephanie. (1998), Barriers, Benefits, and Costs of Using Private Schools To Alleviate Overcrowding in Public Schools. Final Report 158 pp. (ED432063)

This study examined the benefits and drawbacks of using private and parochial schools to alleviate overcrowding in public schools. The extent of overcrowding in urban school systems; the amount of excess capacity in private schools; and the willingness of private schools to participate in a transfer program are ...