The present study sought to examine the perceptions of giftedness and identification procedures held by experienced teachers of gifted minority students. Twenty-seven 4th-grade teachers of gifted students in an urban school system with a high representation of minority and economically disadvantaged students were surveyed. Results indicated that experienced teachers still held a narrow conception of giftedness and were not aware of how culture and environmental factors may influence the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Economically Disadvantaged, Minority Group Children, Family Problems, Urban Schools,...
A multiple baseline design across participants was used to determine how teacher greetings affected on-task behavior of 3 middle school students with problem behaviors. Momentary time sampling was used to measure on-task behavior during the first 10 min of class. Teacher greetings produced increases in students' on-task behavior from a mean of 45% in baseline to a mean of 72% during the intervention phase. Teacher greetings represent an antecedent manipulation that can easily be implemented in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Time on Task, Teacher Student Relationship, Middle School Students, Middle School...
The after-school City School Outreach youth program captured the attention of high school male students by offering them a physically and psychologically safe environment to talk about issues they faced. The students of color who attended the program used various forms of creative written expression (i.e., poetry, spoken word, and hip hop) to document and share their lived realities as African American and Latino youth. An analysis of their writings and subsequent interviews revealed a variety...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Youth Programs, Poetry, Urban Schools, Males, Coping, Adolescents, Minority Groups,...
The racial, ethnic, linguistic, and economic diversity within urban areas necessitates the creation of scholastic environments that are responsive to the varying academic and social needs of the student population. This qualitative study investigates ways in which teacher and administrator behavior and the school environment contribute to the successes or frustrations of minority students in AP and IB courses. Classroom observations and interviews with 9 administrators, 4 counselors, 43...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Advanced Placement Programs, Educational Environment, Teacher Behavior, Administrator...
This paper reports on a qualitative study which generated detailed case study information about the transition experiences of seven Indigenous students as they moved from Year 7 in their community school to Year 8 in their new urban high school context (Rennie, Wallace, Falk & Wignell 2004). In particular the study aimed to document the literacy and numeracy practices valued in the home community, community school and urban high school and highlight any continuities and discontinuities...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Numeracy, Community Schools, Student Attitudes, Literacy Education, Indigenous...
Presumably, everyone shares the understanding that teaching for social justice means providing students with a supportive learning environment that is just, fair, democratic, and even compassionate. In reality, people are probably using this term to mean many things without actually embracing it as a perspective for educating students in urban school settings. In this article, the author examines the different definitions and conceptualizations offered by a number of educator-researchers on...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Justice, Urban Schools, Student Diversity, Cultural Pluralism, Teaching Methods,...
This comparative study explores the experience of two first-year teachers in starkly different school systems, one in a small city on the northern plains and the other in a Midwest urban community. Using this comparative method, the authors looked at the similarities and differences of two different educational settings to collect data regarding the practices that best support first-year teachers. The individuals in this study are brothers, and both were employed as first-year teachers in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Grade 8, Comparative Analysis, Grade 7, Middle School Teachers, Beginning Teachers,...
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the publication of Mina Shaughnessy's groundbreaking book, "Errors and Expectations," a roundtable discussion was held at the March 2007 Conference on College Composition and Communication in New York City. This article, based on the earlier discussion, examines the question of CUNY's multiple identities within the legacy of Shaughnessy, who coined the term "basic writing" and founded the Journal of Basic Writing in 1975. Composition...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Basic Writing, Writing (Composition), Democracy, Open Enrollment, Urban Schools,...
The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of Ramp Up to Advanced Literacy, an unbundled Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) model, on the reading achievement of ninth grade students in a large urban school district in Kentucky. Using a pre- and posttest impact evaluation design, data from participating and non-participating schools and students were compared. The posttest data were derived from 9th grade scores of 12 Ramp Up high schools and 9 comparison high schools....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, School Restructuring, Reading Achievement, Grade 9, Pretests...
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the district temporarily lost 100% of its students and did not reopen a single school for more than two months. As it became apparent that the district was not prepared to bring the schools back from such a devastating blow, educators began to see a silver lining in Katrina's dark clouds. State School Board member Leslie Jacobs said, "The Diaspora of New Orleans represents the opportunity to rebuild our public school system" (Inskeep, 2005b)....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, State Schools, Public Schools, Boards of Education, Board of Education...
This study examines how rural elementary school administrators perceive the effects of high-stakes testing in comparison to suburban and urban elementary administrators. High-stakes testing had a greater impact, both positively and negatively, on rural administrators than on their counterparts in suburban and urban schools. Specifically, the positive effects were that rural administrators were more motivated by the testing program to do a better job, found the test results more useful in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Test Results, Testing Programs, Testing, Academic Achievement, High...
School variables, such as school size and school location, matter. School size and location impact many areas of education, including the characteristics of the school, curriculum, and post-school outcomes. Research reveals that students in rural schools face many personal and education hardships--from living in poverty to having less opportunity and sophistication in technology. Rural schools also have fewer course offerings. While rural schools are a unique, urban and rural schools may be...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Rural Schools, Poverty, School Size, School Location, Institutional...
Students, faculty, administration, and community members of three Iowa rural school districts were interviewed to identify educational issues in their communities. The results of the Iowa investigation are compared with the results of the Claremont Graduate School investigation published in "Voices from the inside: A report on schooling from inside the classroom" (1992). The Claremont study investigated large urban schools. The Iowa study provides insight into small, rural school...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Rural Schools, School Districts, Teacher Student Relationship, School...
In the attempt to gage innovative approaches to school leadership, this article seeks to investigate the possible application of Critical Race Theory (CRT) to school leadership. Expounding on Solorzano and Villalapando's application of CRT (1997), the hope is to engage the field of school leadership with constructive critique and suggestions for administrators who are dedicated to social justice and the well-being of students and staff. This article further seeks to address the question: How...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Race, Justice, Instructional Leadership, Principals, Critical Theory,...
This study was conducted to assess and improve an introductory multicultural-designated course in an urban teacher preparation program. The course aimed to promote candidates' positive response to multiculturalism, especially White/Caucasian candidates. Results suggest that this approach effectively laid the foundation for almost all candidates' further growth as multicultural educators. The study suggested that an introductory course combined with field experience and focused on critical...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Language Minorities, Urban Schools, Research Needs, Introductory Courses, Education...
Preparing European-American preservice teachers for diverse urban school settings pose multiple challenges. Of primary concern are the differences in race, culture, and community between teachers and students. Because new teachers prefer to work where they grew up, most preservice teachers want to teach students who are like themselves in familiar settings, and they are often uncomfortable interacting with families from ethnic and language minorities. Despite these challenges, preservice...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Language Minorities, Preservice Teachers, Urban Schools, Teacher Student...
For decades, educators and researchers have observed practices of educational inequality in U.S. schools. In a multicultural democracy, schooling without educational equality constitutes injustice. This article explores the limitation of the current traditional teacher education in preparing highly competent and socially conscious teachers needed for today's urban school communities. Specifically, it explores traditional practices in teacher education and how they might contribute to the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Education, Urban Schools, Equal Education, Teacher Education Programs,...
Photographs taken by urban students, along with the associated interview transcripts, were provided to their teachers partway through the subsequent school year. The teachers were prompted to describe their impressions of the photos relative to their knowledge of the students. In addition, the teachers were asked how these insights might shape their instructional practices. The photographs proved to be informative to the teachers, and they were able to propose changes in practices for...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Teaching Methods, Photography, Elementary School Teachers, Interviews,...
This study describes the improvement in 20 sixth grades students' reasoning abilities in the context of structured or semi-structured inquiries conducted during an after-school science club. The findings shed light on the improvement in student reasoning and on the specific areas of student difficulties. Overall reasoning skills showed more or less continuous improvement; whereas, the warrants changed in a non-linear pattern--like waves--with crests of improvement and troughs of setbacks. The...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Concept Formation, Elementary School Students, Grade 6, Thinking Skills, After School...
The purpose of this case study was to document the journey of three novice career change science inductees as they became middle-level science teachers in urban low socioeconomic status (SES) schools and included post-internship employment status data on all nine science teachers who completed the alternative certification program, up to the time of this writing. All teachers participated in a fast track master's alternative certification degree program and received in-depth education...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Classroom Techniques, Urban Schools, Mentors, Middle Schools, Teacher Effectiveness,...
The society is violent, the urban neighborhoods are violent, and the schools are violent. People who want to teach in urban schools need to recognize the reality of the situation they will enter. Beginning teachers must recognize that preventing violence is an integral part of their legitimate work; the more effective they are at empowering youngsters, the less violence they will engender; the less effective they are, the more violence they will cause. Beneath the surface and not very far...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Neighborhoods, Urban Teaching, Violence, Teaching Conditions,...
This qualitative study explores the experiences of women administrators in high-poverty community schools, investigating four women's perspectives on work demands and the impact on their families. Their work demands are related to the characteristics of impoverished communities, whereas their work resources are based on intrinsic rewards and social justice. Family demands and resources are related to the developmental stages of families, and therefore vary among the women interviewed. The...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Community Schools, Poverty, Females, Social Justice, Developmental Stages, Women...
Our study investigated patterns of female participation as secondary principals that have varied across contexts and changed slowly. Researchers interviewed decision makers from a purposive sample of 10 urban and rural school districts in Ontario, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, gathering data from structured telephone interviews, policy documents, and statistical information. The needs of a system took precedence over those of individuals. Many participants denied that gender...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Females, Leadership Styles, Foreign Countries, Gender Differences,...
This article addresses how teacher preparation programs can best respond to the broad, complex calls for reform in ways that are locally meaningful and honor academic integrity, but that are also true to the intent of the reform mandates. The authors begin with an overview of some of the federal and state initiatives that are presenting challenges for schools and teacher preparation programs. They then look at "lessons learned" from several teacher preparation programs that have...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, College School Cooperation, Teacher Educators, Teacher Education...
Jonathan Kozol's visit to Portland, Oregon, in April 2005 included a dialogue with 55 urban middle and high school students about inequities in American schools. Students left this conversation with a stronger sense of the systemic impediments to equal education. They also felt that their voice had been heard on a topic of national import. This essay suggests that Kozol provided students with a model of patient civic engagement and that teachers who use Kozol's work should build on this...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Equal Education, Middle School Students, High School Students, Urban Schools, Citizen...
In October 2002, the multiple and single subject credential programs at a large urban Los Angeles Basin California State University campus, were approved as Early Adopters of the SB 2042 Professional Teacher Preparation Program. These programs resulted from a complex and multi-faceted process of change supported and influenced by reform initiatives at the regional, state and national levels over approximately a 15 year period. An analysis of the process that occurred at this urban, diverse,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Educational Change, Urban Education, Program Implementation, Case...
This article captures how a web-based course, designed as a part of the School Leadership Grant Program, meets some challenges of leadership training and development. The content, structure and discussion board exercises of the sample course are designed to provide more reflective and practical opportunities for leader-learners to develop expertise. In addition, the article discusses the opportunities and problems that lie in the written form, including the rich information sources and e-mail...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Web Based Instruction, Leadership Training, Grants, Instructional Leadership,...
Brian Jacob examines challenges faced by urban districts in staffing their schools with effective teachers. He emphasizes that the problem is far from uniform. Teacher shortages are more severe in certain subjects and grades than others, and differ dramatically from one school to another. The Chicago public schools, for example, regularly receive roughly ten applicants for each teaching position. But many applicants are interested in specific schools, and district officials struggle to find...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Salaries, Urban Schools, Urban Teaching, Mentors, Teacher Effectiveness,...
Eric Hanushek and Steven Rivkin examine how salary and working conditions affect the quality of instruction in the classroom. The wages of teachers relative to those of other college graduates have fallen steadily since 1940. Today, average wages differ little, however, between urban and suburban districts. In some metropolitan areas urban districts pay more, while in others, suburban districts pay more. But working conditions in urban and suburban districts differ substantially, with urban...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Qualifications, Teaching Conditions, Teacher Salaries, Student Problems,...
The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a middle school epidemiology curriculum called Detectives in the Classroom. The curriculum presents epidemiology as the science of public health, using health-related issues that capture the interest of young students and help prepare them to make evidence-based health-related decisions. The curriculum was field tested among seventh-grade urban students using a quasi-experimental design. Analysis of covariance of pre- and post-test...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Quasiexperimental Design, Curriculum Evaluation, Science Interests,...
Over the past decade many university-based teacher education programs and school districts have forged partnerships creating restructured, collaborative programs aimed at improving teaching and learning for credential candidates, as well as the children that they serve. According to data from the California Department of Education, progress is being made in raising the percentage of fully certificated teachers teaching in urban schools; however, it is unknown whether this progress will be...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Professional Development Schools, Inservice Teacher Education,...
Some colleges of education and urban school districts have established collaborative Professional Development Schools (PDSs) to prepare teachers across the learning-to-teach continuum (pre-service to in-service to instructional leaders) to address the particular needs of low-income, culturally and linguistically diverse (LI/CLD) students. Outcomes, either in regard to K-12 pupils or to pre-service and in-service teachers, have been infrequently examined despite the proliferation of these...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Schools of Education, Professional Development Schools, Elementary...
This study focuses on three new teachers, Arnie, Andrea, and Frank, who are New York City Teaching Fellows (NYCTF), a program of alternative teacher recruitment and certification that is in its third year at an urban public college in New York City. This study focuses on just three of the Fellows in order to have a more intense look into the thinking of new teachers who have made a commitment to teach in poor urban schools for two years and who are now choosing to either remain urban teachers,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Urban Teaching, Public Colleges, Teacher Recruitment, Alternative...
This article presents a professional development initiative developed by a university-school partnership based on the Japanese lesson-study model described by Stigler and Hiebert (1999) in "The Teaching Gap." Lesson study ("jugyoukenkyu"), an inquiry model of teacher professional development, is used extensively throughout Japan and has begun to capture the attention of the American educational community as a potential strategy for enhancing teacher professional development...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Teacher Characteristics, Active Learning, Foreign Countries,...
The divergence between a predominately White teacher education population and a diverse public school system poses this question: how do universities best prepare teacher candidates to teach children of racially and linguistically different backgrounds than their own? Teacher education programs have addressed this issue in a variety of ways, such as requiring multicultural coursework and/or requiring placements in urban schools. States, too, vary with respect to their requirements for...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Public Schools, Education Courses, Multicultural Education, Teacher...
The author leads a program that teaches teachers in a public university, most of whom work in struggling urban schools serving students from predominantly poor and minority backgrounds. The courses in her program share a common purpose: to develop understandings about the active nature of children's learning and to use these understandings to guide teaching. One of the major mechanisms for accomplishing this goal is to provide opportunities for candidates to inquire about and reflect on their...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Program Effectiveness, Professional Development, Teacher Researchers,...
This article documents implementation and critically reflects upon the results of a partnership between a predominately white rural college and a multicultural urban school district. The partnership was intended both to recruit high school students of color from an urban school to teacher education and to encourage teacher candidates from a rural college to seek employment in urban areas. Establishing a school-university partnership is a challenging task, and the literature suggests that few...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, College School Cooperation, Rural Areas, Minority Groups, Models,...
This article represents a preliminary exploration of the impact of mayoral control of two large urban school systems and the legislative changes in school governance and policies--spearheaded by business leaders and politicians--which affect students, teachers, and traditional school leaders in terms of accountability, decision making, and school renewal. Through the voices of university professors who teach in teacher education and administrative preparation programs, and the teachers and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, City Government, Public Officials, Public Education, Governance,...
The discourse on teacher quality has centered on issues of teacher knowledge and teacher skill, yet a third element that is central to all professional standards is teacher dispositions. Although there is no consensus about a definition of teacher dispositions, there are several models in use regarding how dispositions are being addressed. Most prevalent in terms of assessing dispositions are the standards of professional organizations such as National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Personality Traits, Teacher Characteristics, National Standards, Teacher...
Looping is the practice in which a teacher instructs the same group of students for at least two school years, following them from one grade level to the next. Once a "loop" of two or more years is completed, the teacher may start a new loop teaching a new group of students. This evaluation study of the practice of looping in a large urban school system was intended to explore its effect on student instructional outcomes, attendance, and retention rates, as well as to assess...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Looping (Teachers), Urban Schools, Elementary Schools, Comparative Analysis, Matched...
The prevailing situation in which students of color represent over one-third of school enrollments, yet teachers of color represent merely one-tenth of the nation's teacher force, is an important yet rarely considered factor amidst the constant claims of teacher shortages. Urban and rural schools struggle with an inadequate supply of teachers, but shortages are more concentrated in selected fields such as bilingual education and special education. In urban school districts that are majority...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Public Schools, Bilingual Students, Teacher Shortage, Bilingual...
Without question, the role of business, philanthropy, and other private sector interests in the day-to-day operation of public education has increased significantly over the past 25 years. Pundits of this phenomenon contend that a number of factors have contributed to the increase, such as (1) public dissatisfaction with the performance of school systems; (2) the physical decay of the nation's schools; (3) public dismay over school efforts to eliminate student academic, attendance, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, School Restructuring, Private Sector, Intervention, School Districts,...
The goal of this article is to move beyond the more traditional question, "Does business have a role in public education?" A historical overview of education suggests that the involvement of the private sector is not a new phenomenon and is not likely to end in the near future. Here, the authors argue that a much more fruitful line of inquiry is to examine how the characteristics of public education and privately managed education meet (or not) the unique needs of a highly vulnerable...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Urban Youth, Public Education, Privatization, Educational Legislation,...
Although the mixed heritage population of the U.S. continues to grow, few (if any) attempts have been made to examine educational needs specific to this group of children, especially from the family's perspective. This article uses ethnographic data to examine the experiences of one mixed heritage family--with an African American father and a Chinese American mother--in an urban middle school. The data revealed that the family experienced several sources of tension from the school, from the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, African Americans, Educational Needs, Ethnography, Chinese Americans, Middle Schools,...
After over 40 years of education reform policies and strategies, America continues its need for systemic education reform. The greatest challenge confronting the nation remains within large urban metropolises where large numbers of minority students attend underfunded and low-performing schools with low standardized test scores and high dropout rates. African American children and youth constitute over 50% of all students in urban school systems. The social work profession has a long history of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, African American Children, Urban Schools, Educational Needs, Standardized Tests,...
This article presents initial findings from a study that examined how African American mothers from a low-income neighborhood conceptualized their roles in their children's mathematics learning. Based on interviews and observations focusing on ten mothers' involvement in their children's education, we offer a framework that expands typical characterizations of parent involvement. This framework privileges practices that are both traditionally visible and invisible to the school and highlights...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Mathematics Education, Mothers, Income, Parent Participation, Parent...
While the literature on parent involvement cites many examples of challenges to parent involvement and suggestions to overcome them, few models of extensive parent involvement in urban, public high schools have been described. The Boston Arts Academy is an example of a school in such a setting. It engages a vast majority of its parents in school-based activities through multiple entry points, a welcoming school environment, and frequent communication among staff and parents. By focusing on...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Parent Participation, Parent School Relationship, Educational Environment, Case...
Involving families in their children's education is not only a legal requirement in special education, it also predicts academic achievement, social and emotional development, and a variety of other positive school outcomes for all children. Unfortunately, school-home relationships often have been ignored or underdeveloped. Disconnections between home and school may be especially acute in urban areas where school personnel may not understand the culture of the students and families with whom...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, School Districts, Urban Areas, Conflict Resolution, School Personnel,...
This paper describes a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation in which graduate and advanced undergraduate students from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines partnered with local science and mathematics middle school teachers in a large, urban school district serving mostly low-income minority children. Results from the evaluation of the program indicate that the program was successful in providing learning opportunities for the participating...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Undergraduate Students, Urban Schools, College School Cooperation, Minority Group...
This case study contributes to a small but growing literature on African American educational leadership. Previous studies have shown that, building on a history of segregated schools for Black students staffed by Black teachers in which strong school-family-community relations were essential for the survival of their schools, Black principals understand the predominantly disadvantaged African American students and families they serve and communicate well with them. The danger of this analysis...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Community Leaders, African American Students, Urban Schools, Student Behavior,...