This article compares charter schools and other public schools in New York State. School Report Card (SRC) data measuring student, teacher, and school characteristics from the state's 16 urban school districts with charter schools were examined. Descriptive and multivariate analysis was used. The findings suggest that there are more similarities…

The current study examined the association between home-school dissonance and academic cheating among 344 high school juniors and seniors at two urban high schools. Students completed two subscales of the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scale (PALS) and one subscale of the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS). Analyses revealed that home-school…

The present study investigated the relationships between the timing of women's first childbirth and their postsecondary education using an inner-city minority cohort. The study sample (695 females) was drawn from the Chicago Longitudinal Study (CLS), an ongoing investigation of a panel of low-income minority children (94% African American) born in…

This mixed methods study explores the pilot implementation of a Response to Intervention framework in the first grade classrooms in three urban schools. Two schools in a fully implemented condition (FI) with a facilitator and a partially implemented condition (PI) without a facilitator were investigated using student achievement data, field notes,…

This article explores practitioner inquiry and culturally relevant pedagogy to create academic success with students facing high school exit examinations in Reading. In Florida, about one-third of African American students passed the test in 2010. Student perspectives on achievement, school processes, and engagement were incorporated with…

In urban secondary schools where underpreparation and dropping out are real world concerns, students understand that their relationships with teachers affect their learning. Using descriptive coding and thematic analysis of focus group data, we explore adolescents' perceptions of the "bridges" that foster and the "barriers" that inhibit supportive…

Understanding teaching as a political act is often assumed to be a strength for teachers; however, this assumption conceals important aspects of their processes of becoming politicized. I argue that seeing teaching as a political act can be a liability for prospective teachers of color who engaged with college student activism if these assumed…

This article presents 7 years of qualitative research into the emerging understandings of a population of 456 beginning 7 to 12 urban teachers who supplied 130 participants who were enrolled in a total of 26 MSEd English Language Arts courses over 7 years. These were interviewed while teaching in urban schools focused primarily on testing and…

The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) shows a civic knowledge gap similar to the achievement gap, showing urban youth struggling in particular. However, research has shown that urban youth can be civically engaged when they are involved in projects or organizing intended to improve community conditions, not simply absorbing civic…

This article reports on a review of the mathematics education research literature 1989-May 2011 specific to K-12 African American students' opportunities to learn mathematics. Although we identify important developments in the literature, we conclude that the existing research base generally remains at the level of broad principles or orientations…

The purpose of this article is to describe several conceptual areas that warrant attention by scholars and practitioners interested in improving access and opportunity to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning in urban cities. Thinking conceptually about the urban context has been a part of intellectual traditions in the…

Advancing the literacy development of African American males in contexts that are characteristically urban has been a challenging task for educators across the P-12 spectrum. Frames that have been traditionally used to improve the reading achievement of African American males have not reversed trends in reading achievement that find many of these…

This article examines how stereotypes operate in the social construction of African Canadian males as "at risk" students. Cultural analysis and critical race theory are used to explain how the stereotypes of the youth as immigrant, fatherless, troublemaker, athlete, and underachiever contribute to their racialization and marginalization that in…

Addressing the seemingly perpetual turbulent landscape of urban schools, the role that elementary educators and teacher educators can play in reversing negative trends and trajectories is considered. Three urban education journals were examined over a 5-year period (2005-2010) to determine the emphasis on elementary students or schools. Of the 429…

This article presents a variety of issues related to the effects of restrictive language and educational policies that ultimately limits important resources for English language learners (i.e., services, funding, time, and information). The authors spotlight the state of Arizona as an unfortunate case of language control through policies, which…