Making School Count reports on four years of classroom research in which alternative teaching strategies, designed to motivate under-achieving inner-city, African-American middle school students were used and evaluated. The book offers insights into the discrepancy between students' academic dreams (their high performance aspirations) and the realities of their classroom performance. Issues include: *the authors' convictions that the disproportionate under-achievement of African-American students is the result of inappropriate teaching strategies *the prevalent use of a Eurocentric curriculum *results of the authors' research *a guide for teachers wishing to carry out their own research *a study of the collaboration between a university and a schools in an attempt to bring about change from the ground up.