In an era of school reform and high stakes accountability, the major challenge in education is to turnaround the nation's lowest-performing schools. National policy provides abundant resources with often restrictive prerequisites. Research indicates that quality principals and teachers are the most important factors for turning around the…

Several contemporary demographic trends suggest that school systems in America's central cities, typically characterized by high levels of racial and economic isolation, are being presented with new opportunities to create quality, diverse schools. Still, numerous obstacles linger. Using multiple sources of data and innovative mapping tools,…

Scholars have shown that educational experiences within the classroom may marginalize students of color which may result in psychological distress. However, the utilization of culturally responsive educational practices (CRE) can create environments in which marginalized students can thrive not only academically, but psychologically. The authors…

Although there is a great deal of theoretical and practical scholarship related to immigrant students, the extant literature most often conflates the needs of English language learners with the needs of immigrant students (Goodwin in "Educ Urb Soc" 34(2):156-172, 2002; Sox in "Theory Pract" 48:312-318, 2009; Yoon in "Am…

This article, co-authored by two research-active teachers with the support of their academic partner, reports on the resistance of an urban primary school in a northern city of England to the label "disadvantaged school" and various judgements that refuse to take into account its holistic work with students and families from different…

Educational leaders attempting to enact equity-focused change in their schools are frequently met with fierce opposition by politically powerful parents whose children are well served by the status quo. The purpose of this conceptual article is to: (a) explore the utility of "Critical Race Theory" as a framework for helping K-12 school…

Teaching for social justice means understanding students and advocating for them. These dispositions are especially critical for those who teach in urban communities where low-resourced schools and deficit perspectives toward students prevail. While many teacher education programs claim to prepare teachers for social justice (Zeichner in…

Presently, most physical education teachers in the United States are White Americans and from middle class families. In fact, 83% of all teachers in public schools are White Americans, whereas approximately 10% of all African American teachers are representative of all teachers in the United States. A student might feel cultural dissonance that…

Based on data collected from a year-and-a-half-long qualitative research project, this case study examines the early college experiences and identity negotiations of one urban-schooled Latino participant as he navigated a predominately White state university in his hometown. Recognizing the university as a figured world, this study highlights two…

This critical case study of one, Somali Bantu male high school student illuminates the struggle for recently arrived refugees at the high school level. Few educational research studies describe how recently arrived refugee students and their families make their transition to US schools (Ngo et al. in "Hmong Stud J" 8:1-35, 2007; Hones and Cha in…

The appropriateness of using statistical data to inform the design of any given service development or initiative often depends upon judgements regarding scale. Large-scale data sets, perhaps national in scope, whilst potentially important in informing the design, implementation and roll-out of experimental initiatives, will often remain unused…

This paper reports on a study of elementary preservice teachers' inquiry-based practices, their efficacy beliefs, and the role beliefs had on two preservice teachers' practices in urban classrooms. Results show inquiry-based practices can be cultivated through field-based experiences and preservice teachers' efficacy beliefs, as it relates to…

HIPP Indy is a collaborative effort between the Indiana Department of Correction, the Peace Learning Center, and program facilitators in pursuit of implementing curriculum in peace education, conflict resolution, and self-efficacy with incarcerated, juvenile girls. The Center for Urban and Multicultural Education embarked on a program to partner a…

This article presents the complex relationship between how black male and female identities have been constructed dichotomously in response to the gender framed "crisis" in black America. The ethnographic research study was conducted in an secondary African American History course, located in an urban school district in the southern portion of the…

This article reports findings from a four-year case study of an urban college preparatory charter high school. Through analyses of teacher and staff interviews, the author highlights how the school approached the idea of "college for all" under the archetypal influence of "college preparatory." The interview data show how the charter school staff…