Urban Education

City Views: Three new reports from the Council of the Great City Schools offer a mixed picture of administrative attitudes, funding, and other trends in America's urban schools.

One survey of 225 urban educational leaders found 85 percent of them "optimistic" or "somewhat optimistic" about the future of city schools in 1999-2000—slightly more than the 82 percent in 1997-98 and well above the 62 percent giving those responses in 1995-96.

"It shows that the people now on the job feel good about what they're doing and the job they're doing," said Sharon Lewis, the research director for the 57-member coalition of city school...