Within urban elementary schools are Black students who continue to challenge the normative deficit characterization of the educational opportunities of students like them. This study attempts to provide a more holistic picture of the scholarly trajectories of 13 African American males who are particularly talented in mathematics and who attended…

In this critically reflective article, we share our perceptions of the epistemologies that shape our own understanding of successful ESL education and that of a school district that asked us to help redevelop its ESL program. Our differing epistemologies, ours critical and aimed toward social justice, theirs built on what we describe as neoliberal…

In this article, I critique the labels and terms used to frame practices aimed at closing the achievement gap. I examine how an unacknowledged "achievement gap Discourse" has emerged from the language that informs practices and policies of contemporary school reform. I use Gee's uppercase "Discourse" and a cultural…

The racial "mismatch" between a non-White student public school population and a primarily White teaching force continues to be underexamined through an appropriate cultural lens. This literature review provides examples of how White teachers must properly recognize non-White students' actions and rhetoric in classroom settings as…

Recently, we have witnessed three trends impacting educational experiences for undocumented Mexican students: (a) a dramatic increase of Mexican-origin people, (b) organized and openly supported anti-immigrant policies with a racial dimension, and (c) increased participation by politicized migrants in national public discussions on immigration.…

School "turnaround" has received significant attention recently in education literature and policy action, especially as a means to dramatically improve urban education. In current common education usage, "turnaround" refers to the rapid, significant improvement in the academic achievement of persistently low-achieving schools.…

This study explored the relation between classroom interactions and exclusionary school discipline practices within and across four classrooms in a disciplinary alternative school. Critical social practice theory and critical microethnographic methodology supported the examination, interpretation, and analysis of interactive power to illuminate…

Teach For America (TFA), an organization that places college graduates as teachers in low-income areas for 2 years, contributes to teacher attrition. With this mixed methods study in one urban region, we investigated teachers' professional decisions at the end of 2 years. Respondents fell into categories in relation to the organization's…

The purpose of this article is to investigate the multiple political histories that have coalesced to produce support for or resistance to the Oakland Unified School District's full-service community schools policy. It analyzes oral history interview data from eight stakeholders who represent the district's major constituencies to…

To understand the long shadow of education policy and reform in the United States, especially in the urban core, requires a full and elaborate understanding of the neighborhoods and communities that have transformed in the last 20 or 30 years. Studying classrooms and educational spaces without concomitant understanding of the dynamics and facets…

Culturally responsive practices in schools and classrooms have been shown to be an effective means of addressing the achievement gap as well as the disproportionate representation of racially, culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse students in programs serving students with special needs. While there has been much research discussing…

The academic performance and engagement of youth from under-represented ethnic groups (African American, Latino, and Indigenous) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) show statistically large gaps in comparison with their White and Asian peers. Some of these differences can be attributed to the direct impact of economic…

In this research, situated in a small urban district with a state-imposed school board, we analyze participation of community members during a three-year effort to improve schools. Through a qualitative analysis of forms of community engagement, this article offers a framework for understanding participation. We present two overlapping continua of…

Informal "teacher talk" about students is ubiquitous, but it remains largely unexamined. This study critically examines casual, everyday teacher discourse about students perceived to be racially or culturally "different." Data were collected through participants' journal entries, group discussion, and interviews. Findings…

I investigated eight preservice teachers' understandings about culturally responsive pedagogy as they tutored children in writing from different ethnic, socioeconomic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds in an afterschool program at a local community center. I utilized an embedded case study and chose constant comparison, within-case analysis and…