Making Some Modest Strides: The Story of Downtown Elementary School (DES)1

This paper discusses research, (its process and results), on an inner city school. It highlights the methods of data collection used in the research and discusses the findings. Methods of data collection include observation, interview and documentary information. Results indicate that the school in question is making modest strides, in terms of serving its students and the community in which it is located, through its school improvement programs. Besides making other strides, Downtown Elementary School (DES) strives to be a pedagogical community and a place where praxis (simplified definition: the interrelationship/interaction between practice and theory) is being practiced at its best. DES is unique because it concurrently runs two contemporary school reform programs, namely, magnet3 and professional development school (PDS)4. The paper describes how these innovative ventures operate at DES and the implications of the juxtaposition of the two programs.