One liner: Examines the range of arts programming partnerships in the Los Angeles Unified School District and provides feedback from principals, teachers, arts organizations, and district arts advisors on the challenges and obstacles in these partnerships 450-character abstract: The Los Angeles Unified School District in 1999 approved a ten-year program to implement a substantive, sequential curriculum in arts education. A central goal of the plan calls for schools to build partnerships with the Los Angeles arts community to provide educational programming, beginning with elementary schools in the Arts Prototype Schools (APS) program. This study examined the range of partnerships in operation and identified partnership challenges and facilitators through interviews with APS principals and teachers, local district arts advisors, and directors of arts organizations.

In Focus on the Wonder Years: Challenges Facing the American Middle School five authors, experts in education reform, offer ways of tackling these issues: reassessing the organization of grades K-12; specifically assisting the students most in need; finding ways to prevent disciplinary problems; working with proven professional-development models; helping parents understand the school's goals and methods and how they can help their children learn at home; and exploring how other countries promote the well-being of and provide positive school climates for students of comparable age to support academic achievement.