Academic interest in homeschooling has increased over the last decade, as what was once perceived as a marginal development, has, in fact, turned into a significant and growing phenomenon. There has been, in recent years, a noticeable surge in African American involvement in the homeschooling movement as well. However, there continues to be a…

Over the past 20 years, there have been numerous calls to reform the practices of school counselors. Some have situated these calls for school counseling reform within the context of urban schooling. This study examined the practices of school counselors in one urban school district, and how those practices aligned with the school district's…

As the postscript for this special issue of Education and Urban Society, this article considers the struggles urban schools report confronting as they implement standards-based reform and high stakes testing and discusses the implications these challenge have for future accountability policy aimed at promoting educational equity. Among the issues…

This study investigated the recent histories of the urban public school districts of St. Louis, Missouri and Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States of America. The purpose was to identify the similar challenges that each had recently faced in regard to the maintenance and development of its public school systems, as well to gauge the level of…

Students need a strong, positive relationship with caring adults in school. Although the vast majority of adults in authority interact respectfully with students, some adults physically and psychologically bully students. This article examines the extent to which 50 alternative education students reported being victimized by teachers or other…

Narrative inquiry and self-study are used as analytic and conceptual lenses to examine the author's teacher education course where he attempted to introduce the relevance and centrality of race and racism in society and thus education. Implications of the study point to the important role of personal experiences in curriculum development and…

The 50th anniversary of the historic 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in "Brown v. Board of Education" provides an opportunity to trace the origin of "Brown" and the long journey by African Americans to achieve quality elementary and secondary education in this country. This journey began with passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S.…

This article proposes that four major educational developments resulted from the Supreme Court's decision in "Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka": Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title I and Title VII, school finance, affirmative action, and multicultural education. Each of these major efforts was targeted to overcome discriminatory…

Discusses the political nature of urban school districts, the job of urban school superintendents, and the continuing impact of Brown v. Board of Education. Examines demographic changes experienced in many urban areas since Brown; highlights the impact of white flight, federal and state education policy, and school takeovers on urban districts;…

Investigated the racial view of students from a predominantly white, all-male midwestern U.S. high school. Survey data indicated that students lacked proper understanding of affirmative action (AA). Over 40 percent lacked knowledge altogether, 30 percent opposed AA in job hiring and promotion, and 65 percent supported AA as an academic scholarship…

Using data from the 1992 National Education Longitudinal Survey, this study examined the effects of student religious commitment on academic achievement. Results indicate that very religious urban and non-urban children performed better on most academic measures than their less religious counterparts, even when controlling for race, gender, and…

Examines four models for secondary education (magnet schools, school reform models, small high schools, and Catholic high schools) that have been shown to strongly improve educational outcomes for urban minority children, or at least strongly influence the reform movement, explaining why the comprehensive high school design has failed in urban…

Tested the effects of prior knowledge and two instructional models--structured problem solving and guided generation (GG)--on mathematical problem solving and transfer to an analogous task. Data on students with high and low prior knowledge highlighted significant main effects for prior knowledge, significant differences on transfer to analogous…

Describes the characteristics of one successful inner city elementary school. Interviews with teachers, the former principal, and an educational consultant who helped teachers in the writing process in past years indicated that nine factors significantly impacted the school's success: strong instructional leadership by the principal and teacher…

Asserts that closing the racial achievement gap does not necessarily require more competition and choice, but does require that educational objectives are clearly defined, practices adequately aligned, and evaluations based on long-term effectiveness. Highlights the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), discussing sociological and historical…