Hope is positively correlated with educational attainment and health. Interventions based on project-based learning (PBL) may increase youth hope. This study examined how a PBL intervention affected hope among urban students of color. Students in health classes were invited to participate. A PBL health class was implemented in four classrooms. The…

In urban districts, homeless and highly mobile students are an important contributor to achievement disparities-and their numbers are rising. To date there has been little inquiry into how broader education and housing policies shape the schooling experiences of homeless and highly mobile families. Using semi-structured interviews with 132 key…

Latino students are significantly underrepresented in higher education. As the largest and fastest growing racial/ethnic population in the US, this is cause for national concern. Additionally, this rapid population growth is a call for community and school leaders from underserved communities to assess their service areas and focus on…

Although a growing body of literature is produced on reform of urban school districts, few studies examine shifts in the culture of managers resulting from reorganization in these bureaucracies. This article engages an analysis of central office managerial culture in the New York City Department of Education during a culminating moment of district…

Drawing from observations and interview data, this essay examines the role of "hormiguero agency" in nurturing empowered identities amongst Latin@s in Phoenix, Arizona. Specific links are made to how dehumanizing state level policies are resisted in multiple spaces, including schools, activist organizations, and within underground business…

The author uses geospatial analysis to examine the "educational opportunity spaces" of two adjacent urban neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Organizing insights are gathered from Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological perspectives on human development, which posit that students are significantly impacted by multiple environmental…

School shootings loom large in the collective imagination and young, White males commit a majority of these horrific crimes. Although many of the descriptions of school shooters in the media and scholarly studies attribute their actions to psychological problems and/or personal/social failings, these events are also often placed in a comparative…

This article concentrates on the educational experiences of urban and suburban Mexican American youth, from recent immigrants to those that have been in the United States for generations. The article seeks to unravel the relationship between acculturation and school success by offering a holistic and longitudinal approach of three time periods:…

In this article, the author reports the "voices" of four academically successful African American men, in their early 20s, as they explicitly respond, in retrospect, to questions regarding the applicability of the "burden of acting White theory" to their schooling experiences--responses made after reading research articles written by Signithia…

I am the Coordinator of the Urban Teacher Education Center, a teacher preparation program located at a very low income, culturally diverse elementary school that serves children from two neighborhood public housing projects. As a White, middle-class, Ph.D. educated, female, I must consistently consider how people in the neighborhoods may take a…

This qualitative study examines the collaboration and leadership practice that influences the education of homeless students in a large Mid-Atlantic city. The perspectives of administrators and staff members from three homeless shelters are analyzed with insights from Spillane's (Distributed leadership, 2006) distributed leadership theory.…

Superintendent James Redmond created a desegregation plan for Chicago Public Schools in 1967, which affected a limited amount of students, but caused great uproar. This article examines the numerous White responses in opposition to busing including those that appear legitimate, such as a desire to maintain neighborhood schools. However, given the…

Historically, the progressive ideas of innovative schools have influenced the professional practice of North American educators since the latter part of the 19th century. Indeed, since the beginning of an industrial society, and now with the birth of globalization and a knowledge economy, there has been a need for public schools to sustain their…

This paper investigates research methods for studies of school drop-outs and push-outs, populations that are very difficult to find since they no longer have an institutional affiliation. The work argues that street corner research, which was in favor among the early urban researchers of the Chicago school, may have a renewed role in these…

Prior research documents the almost universal preference for schools that are "convenient." Drawing on longitudinal interview data gathered from 36 urban parents, I argue parents' preference for "convenient" schools is more complex than previously understood. Conceptions of geography used by policy makers do not adequately capture the ways in…