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This research examined content and task decisions of 11 urban secondary physical educators who placed a high priority on social curriculum goals. Transcript data from a stimulated-recall protocol were analyzed using constant comparison to determine the extent to which content and task decisions represented social justice and reform goals of social reconstruction or of citizenship and positive interaction more consistent with social responsibility. Results suggested that teachers' content decisions were consistent with the goals of cooperation, teamwork, and involvement within the social responsibility value orientation. Task structures for middle school programs involved large group activities, while high school tasks focused on individual activities performed as a member of a small group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how four urban elementary teachers designed their literacy instruction in ways that sought to sustain students’ cultural competence—maintaining their language and cultural practices while also gaining access to more dominant ones—amid expectations to prepare students for high-stakes testing. A large part of their teaching involved taking their students’ backgrounds into account and selecting classroom texts to provide examples of the contributions made by successful culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse people with space for dialogue about inequity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many most well-known charter schools in the United States use a “No Excuses” approach. We conduct the first meta-analysis of the achievement impacts of No Excuses charter schools, focusing on experimental, lottery-based studies. We estimate that No Excuses charter schools increase student math and literacy achievement by 0.25 and 0.17, respectively, for approximately each year of attendance. These are large and meaningful gains. Moreover, these effects are substantially larger than those of attending other kinds of charter schools. We discuss policy implications and offer necessary caveats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role re-location has played in shaping the status of elite and middle-class schools in and around London. A Bourdieusian lens is applied to understand the institutional trajectories of 51 schools which moved from central London out to the suburbs and beyond between the 1860s and 1970s. It is argued that this strategy served to maintain, reinforce and create institutional prestige within the ‘field’ of schools serving the upper and middle classes. These re-locations have had a lasting effect on London’s school system, pushing key institutions of elite social reproduction outwards and away from the city centre. In discussing the motivations for re-location, Bourdieu’s (1996) theory of field and elite formation is used with specific reference to urban change, thus developing a Bourdieusian-historical approach to understanding the geography of social reproduction (Thiem, 2009). The focus on London also sets these re-locations in the context of broader socio-spatial shifts within the British upper and middle classes, in which new social formations were emerging, with an aristocratic-financial elite concentrated in the south-east of England (Anderson, 1964; Rubinstein, 1977). Re-location formed part of a broader process of urban and socio-economic transformation which created a powerful educational infrastructure for the upper and middle classes in and around London. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter applies a qualitative theoretical approach, drawing on critical literacy frames including socio-cultural theory and auto-ethnography to examine the journey of a language arts teacher in her struggle to respond to her students' resistance and create a classroom context of mean-making and empowerment. Asserting the process as the decolonization of pedagogy, the chapter asserts the language arts classroom as a borderland, a site for both critical analysis and a source for creativity and possibility (Giroux, 2001) to teach students who are traditionally underserved in the educational community. The chapter points to ways students' rich cultural heritage and the teacher's autobiographical narrative can become part of the classroom pedagogy and result in a rich learning experience that is transformative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diffusion theory posits that information is disseminated throughout a social network by the persuasion of key opinion leaders (KOLs). This study examined the relative and combined influence of peer-identified KOL teachers (n = 12) and mental health providers (n = 21) on classroom teachers' (n = 61) self-reported use of commonly recommended classroom practices for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in 6 low-income urban African American communities, relative to teachers (n = 54) at 4 matched schools who received mental health provider consultation only. Mixed-effects regression models showed that KOLs in collaboration with mental health providers promoted higher rates of teachers' serf-reported use of recommended strategies than mental health providers alone, and that these effects were mediated by KOL support but not by mental health provider support. The results suggest an expanded role for KOL teachers as indigenous and natural supports for the dissemination and implementation of school-based mental health programs. Keywords: key opinion leaders, urban schools, diffusion, ADHD, community mental health consultation

This article examines how school leaders in a religious school serving traditionally marginalized students improve their school communities through constructing space for caregiver engagement. This study suggests how counter-narratives of critical care can inform social justice leadership in schools. The results, from a case study of a Catholic urban elementary school that uses innovative and effective strategies to engage caregivers, show that educational leaders create spaces for engaging caregivers by developing relationships with them and systematically reducing barriers to their participation in the school community. Analyzing these results through the critical care theory lens illuminates how these spaces value diverse forms of social and cultural capital are strengthened by alliances with nontraditional support structures. This research contributes to our evolving understanding of caregiver engagement by presenting a textured analysis of a case study as viewed through a critical care conceptual framework. KEYWORDS. Caregiver engagement, catholic schools, critical care theory, school community relations, social justice leadership, urban schools

The article discusses a study on the role of preservice teachers' articulations when teaching literacy in urban schools and understanding the terms urban, literacy and teacher. It provides an overview on the teacher education and research on metaphors which involves the constructed literacy in participants. It also emphasizes the significant influences of faculty members in preservice teachers who are becoming professionals and deserve careful consideration.

The changing role of the teacher in the urban campus with a focus on racial discrimination, online teaching and other changes is discussed.

A conversation between two urban educators is presented. It provides insight into the racial and influence social influence on urban education and also practical implications for its improvement.

The reasons for failures in school are critically analyzed with respect to the socioeconomic status of the children. The strategies of urban schools to prevent academic failures are studied.

The article reviews New Zealand's changing admission policies and their impact in urban areas.

The article examines the sociospatial issues for two forms of school choice, magnet schools and charter schools.

Abstract For the most part, the focus of distributed learning has steered away from pre-tertiary education; however, there is a growing demand today to consider alternative methods of delivering instruction [...]

This paper attempts to retheorize school 'choice'; to begin to unpack dominant contemporary misconceptions through an examination of the 'choices' available to 454 inner city 10 and 11 year-olds engaging in the process of primary--secondary school transfer in England. The prevalent focus within educational theorizing on choice as a form of agency often masks the fact that 'choice' is a marker of economic privilege. The more distant subjects are from economic necessity the more 'choice' becomes a possibility. In contrast, the majority of children in our research study had no 'choice' but to make a virtue out of necessity. They were forced to accept the least bad option. Particularly disadvantaged were the large numbers of refugees in the sample and those children, cutting across class and ethnicity who chose 'against the grain'. We conclude that school 'choice' is an issue of power and constraint, of class and racial processes, although the possibilities of 'choice' cannot in any straightforward way be seen as conterminous with class positioning, implicating, as it does, both ethnicity and fractions and differences within classes as well as between them. KEY WORDS: children / demonized schools / ethnicity / school 'choice' / social class

Disciplinary records for 3rd through 8th grade students (n = 314) in an inner-city, public school were examined for one school year to assess students' variation in response to discipline. Rates of disciplinary referrals were compared for students who received no detentions or suspensions throughout the year ('never group' n = 117), students who received one or more detention or suspension in the fall but not in the spring ('fall group' n = 62), and students who received one or more detention or suspension in the fall and one or more detention or suspension in the spring ('fall + spring group' n = 75). Results indicated that during the fall, the 'fall group' had nearly equivalent rates of referrals to the 'fall + spring group'; however, the 'fall group' exhibited significantly lower rates of referrals during winter and spring that were nearly equivalent to the 'never group,' as would be expected for a punishment procedure. In contrast, the 'fall + spring group' evidenced increases in referrals across the year , suggesting the possibility that detentions and suspensions were functioning as rewards for this group. The 'fall + spring group' was rated by teachers and peers at mid-year as highly aggressive, lacking social skills, and high on hyperactivity, whereas the 'fall group and the 'never group' were statistically equivalent on teacher and peer ratings. Implications for mental health programs for urban schools are discussed, especially the need for alternatives to detention and suspension for the subset of students who account for the majority of school discipline. KEY WORDS: school discipline; urban schools; school violence; punishment.

The objective of this study was to compare urban and suburban preschool and school age activities. A prospective survey using a convenience sample was conducted at one urban and one suburban primary care pediatric office. Questionnaires were completed for 66 urban preschool children, 70 suburban preschool children, 57 urban school age children and 61 suburban school age children during the school year. Also, questionnaires were completed for 63 suburban school age children during the summer. The suburban preschool children spent more time outdoors, were read to more frequently, visited the library more frequently and more often attended summer camp. The suburban school age children spent more time outdoors, more frequently participated in a community sport league and more often attended summer camp. The urban school age children watched more television or videos. During the summer, suburban school age children spent more time outdoors, while during the school year, suburban school age children used the library more frequently. Important differences exist between the activities of urban and suburban children in two practices in the New York metropolitan area. Pediatricians caring for urban children may have an important opportunity to promote participation in sports and educational activities. KEY WORDS: childhood activities; urban vs. suburban; television; sports; outdoor activities.

Policy makers and school district administrators have responded to the current teacher shortage with a characteristic focus on the short run. Popular responses include Peace Corps-like recruitment strategies to persuade [...]

Study 1 examined the relationships between parental attachment, academic achievement, and psychological distress among a multiethnic sample of academically successful inner-city high school students (19 White, 54 Black, 9 Asian, 18 Hispanic). These students participated in an enrichment program designed to prepare high school students for college success. The results suggest that the affective quality of maternal attachment is positively associated with grade point average, and the affective quality of paternal attachment is negatively associated with depressive symptoms. In Study 2, case examples provide an examination of sources of support, life stress, and patterns of resilience. Implications for prevention and intervention are also discussed., Adolescence is a time of normative developmental stress, but for students living in urban environments and attending inner-city public schools, the developmental challenges of adolescence can be complicated by multiple […]

This article offers a variety of culturally responsive approaches and activities so as to better know and understand our students' diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. These methods will not only help to make more equitable classrooms where we make meaningful connections with our students—but also yield useful data so as to inform our yearly curriculum and instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author argues that urban school reform falters, in part, because of the lack of an organized political constituency among the stakeholders with the most direct interest in school improvement, that is, parents whose children attend urban schools. The author examines community organizing as a potential strategy to build such a constituency. Drawing primarily on extensive fieldwork research, he constructs a case study of one of the country’s largest community organizing networks, the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). He analyzes the network’s Alliance Schools initiative to promote school reform in 120 public schools in districts across the state. This article finds that organizing efforts like the IAF, despite important limitations, are beginning to create an external force for change in district policy as well as to collaborate internally with educators to produce change in the practice of education within schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the teaching of mathematics in U.S. urban schools in a culturally responsive way. The author reviews educational statistics relating to race and academic achievement in U.S. schools and universities. Topics include the prominence of ability grouping in U.S. high schools and its impact on minority students, the cultural and historical factors of mathematics neglected, according to the author, by mathematics educators, and the mathematics teaching of African American students. Also discussed is a qualitative study which the author undertakes to explore culturally responsive teaching practices in order to integrate culturally relevant content and social issues into mathematics teaching.

The urban school context is rife with descriptors that frame children's lives in deficit ways: "under-prepared," "below grade level," "limited English proficient." In this study, I reframe my perception of the life of one child in my second-grade class to better understand the funds of knowledge he brings to school each day. The data include neighborhood and home visits and interviews and conversations with the student and his parents. Collaborative analysis of these data led me to view this student in the context of his strengths, including his technological skills, his emerging biliteracy, and his parents' investment in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher attrition is a costly and persistent problem in urban schools. The objective of this study was to evaluate senior volunteers' potential impact for improving teacher retention. We conducted interviews with six principals, 20 teachers, and six retired educators participating in the Experience Corps Baltimore program. Findings indicate that older adult volunteers may enhance teacher retention by improving classroom environments and by positively influencing some factors related to teacher attrition, including effort and satisfaction, as well as reducing absenteeism. While all senior volunteers can provide benefits with adequate training, retired teachers may provide greater benefits in teacher retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the introduction of technology and its impact to American education during the 1980s. It discusses the argument of the proponents that technology can revolutionize the nature of teaching and learning. It features the socioeconomics of technology in the urban environment particularly the issue on digital divide. Excerpts from the report of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration which reveal disparities in information, communication, and technology access are also presented. It notes the need for adoption, use of technology, and urban schools in order to achieve high academic standards. Other issues and trends related to technology adoption in urban schools are also presented.

This article examines how effectively a curriculum designed for a sixth grade classroom in a low income urban middle school was adapted utilize the funds of knowledge that existed among the students. The author discusses how all students draw on information that they obtain from their environment in the classroom and that this is often difficult for students in science classrooms in urban areas. The curriculum that is examined was for a unit that explored food and nutrition. The authors examine what funds of knowledge the students did bring into the classroom and how they were able to utilize this knowledge in the food and nutrition unit.

This study uses national data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study to model educational inequality as a feedback process among course placement, student engagement, and academic achievement, separately for students in schools with high and low percentages of African American students. Results find strong effects of placement, engagement, and performance on one another over time and across both school types. However, the results also show that racial segregation is detrimental to the overall learning process for students between 8th and 10th grade. The author concludes that White and African American students in predominantly Black, particularly urban, schools are significantly disadvantaged at each point of the learning process compared to students in other school types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a multiple case study that explored teachers' and families' collaboration in two urban and four rural state elementary schools in Cyprus. The analysis of the data shows that teachers' approaches to their collaboration with families may be traced not only to differences among teachers but also to the ideological approach of the parents' community to schooling and school-family relationships. The study suggests that teacher-family networks and how these relate to different parent ideologies can be beneficially used to actively strengthen social network closure between the school and the students' homes that could lead to improved learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents' perceived connection to school has been consistently associated with positive development across a range of domains, with strongest evidence for the quality of student-adult relationships in school as a core factor. Using a purposive sample of 32 high seniors from 9 urban schools who had participated in a quantitative study 5 years prior, this multimethod study examines the experiences that promote or undermine these adolescents' feelings of connection to school—in particular, their feelings of respect for and caring by teachers, and their sense of belonging to their schools. Adolescents in our sample respected teachers with engaging instructional styles and a commitment to student learning; most viewed even small efforts by teachers to get to know them as evidence of caring. Further in-depth analysis of 5 participant cases using interview data and quantitative data from middle and high school provides a contextualized view of adolescents' trajectories of connection to school overtime, and highlights the differentiated profiles of belonging to school and affective relationships with teachers reported by these youth. Theoretical and methodological implications for the study and promotion of perceived school connection are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an introduction to this issue of the "Journal of Education Policy." The articles in the issue focus on urban education and the challenges posed to education policy and practice through urban revitalization strategies in advanced industrial nations. The issues discuss factors that both rely on and impact urban schools.

The primary purpose of our study was to explore the effects of rurality on school adjustment and other school-related variables. Using data from 167,738 7th–12th graders located in a national sample of 185 predominantly white communities, multilevel models were estimated for perceived school performance and school liking using a variety of individual-level (e.g., gender, ethnicity, and peer school performance) and community/school-level variables (e.g., school size, rurality, and percentage free/reduced lunch) as predictor variables. Rurality was not significantly related to school adjustment, but rather, the characteristics of individuals living within those communities were. Results also indicated that participation in school and non-school activities, a strength of rural schools, can play a positive role in school adjustment. Given the significant relationships of income and parental education to all of the school-related variables, a key long-term strategy may lie in improving the economic climate of rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the perspectives of school administrators on factors that contribute to the recruitment and retention of teachers in urban districts. Findings indicate that administrators are aware of factors that influence employment, such as the need for higher salaries and improved teacher support, but prioritize them differently than teachers.

This article provides an overview of an educational program at George Washington University designed to prepare teachers for the unique challenges of working in an urban school. The program trains student teachers to use effective teaching practices, promote student achievement, and resist burnout in a challenging urban environment.

This article provides an overview of a program designed to help urban districts recruit teachers from nontraditional sources. Results indicate that recruiting and training uncertified teachers, paraprofessionals, and former Peace Corps volunteers has alleviated staffing problems in participating districts and has provided a diverse pool of motivated instructors.

This article provides an overview of programs and policies that will aid in the preparation, recruitment, and retention of a qualified, multicultural teaching force in the United States. The equitable distribution of qualified teachers will help to improve overall educational quality and alleviate the achievement gap in disadvantaged communities.

Objective: The authors examined perceived norms and drinking among college students who attended high schools in rural and urban communities. Participants and Methods: Undergraduates (99 men and 85 women) who attended high schools in communities with populations ranging from less than 100 to more than 400,000 completed surveys assessing perceived norms and alcohol consumption. Results: Analyses revealed that students from smaller towns and in smaller high school graduating classes reported heavier drinking and that perceived norms were positively associated with drinking. Perceived norms were unrelated to population variables, and the relationship between perceived norms and drinking did not vary as a function of population variables. Results suggest that differences in drinking as a function of coming from more rural areas contribute to drinking behavior in college independently of perceived norms. Conclusions: College students may adjust to campus drinking norms relatively quickly, and longitudinal research would be useful in understanding this transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the No Child Left Behind Act was intended to help "all students meet high academic standards," it is focused on subgroups of low-achieving students. The authors analyze the possible impact of the legislation's requirement for performance reporting by racial subgroup in light of the considerable racial segregation in U.S. schools. In particular, using data on elementary and middle schools in New York State. the authors show that the schools are so highly segregated that more than half are too homogeneous to report test scores for any racial or ethnic subgroups. In addition, they show that the racial achievement gap is greatest across segregated schools rather than within integrated ones. The authors analyze the characteristics of schools that are and are not accountable for subgroups, finding that urban schools and large schools are particularly likely to be accountable, and conclude with implications for the reach of the law and for incentives for school segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do beginning teachers experience the complex process of learning to teach in an urban setting? This article contributes to the literature on teaching in urban settings by theorizing the process of learning to teach based on longitudinal interview data generated from practitioners who were viewed by the researcher as critical informants. The author argues that beginning urban teachers' sense of efficacy is enhanced if they develop a transformative teaching practice focused on "we." highlighting the mutual learning between teacher and pupils. Findings highlight critical components of "getting to we:" bi-directional learning, relational knowing, humanizing pedagogy, and reflective, dialogic discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent to which the UK government's full service extended schools programme has the capacity to ameliorate educational inequality in urban contexts. It starts by examining a variety of explanatory narratives for educational inequality in urban contexts in the UK and suggests that the dynamics of social exclusion created by urban decline has generated particular types of polarised urban communities whose analysis has often been decoupled from research on educational reform programmes in urban schools. The paper argues for the need to re-couple educational process with the dynamics of urban context and suggests that the most recent educational policy development of full service extended schools (FSES) may present distinctive opportunities to complete such a synthesis. The paper then locates FSES within a broader set of government approaches that attempt to deal with social exclusion and educational disadvantage. It then draws on research conducted by the authors and others that has examined notions of FSES in the UK and beyond. It will argue that at present the evidence for the capacity of such an initiative to synthesise effectively educational process with the dynamics of urban context and hence resolve successfully the problems of educational inequality in such contexts is at best inconclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. The study on which this paper is based examined the experiences of students in order to develop a theoretical and empirically grounded account of the dynamic social forces of inclusion and exclusion experienced by youth in their unique contexts of North American urban schooling. The ethnographic scenes, organized into four "beats," theatrically render the cultural performances of youth and researchers in the context of a diverse urban drama classroom. In this classroom, students, teacher, and researchers engage in a lively and often disturbing debate. Questions about the ways in which sexuality and other identity markers are socially constructed and performed, how the moral, gendered and discoursed cultures created in classrooms re-inscribe historical inequties are central to the ethnographic scenes, drawn from field notes, researcher reflections, interview transcripts, and the epilogue which follows. Aspects of youth culture, performance (cultural and artistic), the construction of identides-particularly in relation to theories of masculinity and the (heterosexual) "pass"-are deconstructed in the epilogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]