This article focuses on the role of cooperating teachers (CTs)/mentors in supporting pre-service teachers in urban middle schools. This article examines stories of ten middle school teachers at Baldwin Middle School, located in a mid-Atlantic urban center, who served as CTs in the Spring of 2016. After comparing the mentors' experiences, four…

Despite multiple creative approaches to integrating Minnesota's segregated urban public schools, students of color in these schools remain the majority. The state's progressive, anti-racist sentiment toward education has not evolved into action on the part of White families, which leaves under-resourced urban districts struggling beneath a mere…

There are significant inconsistencies in the levels of preparation of teachers placed in high-need urban schools and those placed in suburban, middle-class schools. In this qualitative research study, I surveyed, interviewed, and observed three highly qualified teachers and one principal from an urban-intensive, high-need school community.…

This research examines the relationship between student ratings of school climate and three student outcome variables: Number of credits earned in one semester, number of days in attendance in one academic year, and number of discipline referral incidents in one academic year. The research further examines whether these relationships were…

"Rules of the game" are the social expectations one must enact for success in a specific environment. From veteran public high school educators in Washington, D.C., this study found: (1) "Rules of the game" for high school success are most consistently communicated through interventions after students have not met academic,…

This paper presents a set of testimonies from three LGBTQ families about the advocacy work they took up in their schools. The stories they share are part of an interview study undertaken from 2014-2020. Each family responded to the cisheteronormative cultures of their schools by challenging ideas teachers and principals held about gender,…

State takeover has become a consistent policy prescription for school districts who become financially insolvent and/or have low academic achievement. A look at the state of Michigan's state takeover laws and the case study of Detroit Public Schools (DPS) demonstrates the negative consequences and nuances of the policy to improve academic…

Teachers in urban schools often struggle with being micro-managed by administration, especially when vertical alignment and assessment policies are heavily enforced. This study explores a culturally responsive teaching (CRT) approach to mandated curriculum within an urban classroom. By examining the teacher's use of 19th century British…

Relationships matter. In urban education, the positive relationships between students and teachers are vitally important. Stories can be powerful tools that, when utilized effectively, help forge and enhance relationships. Story sharing is an effective strategy to promote and expose the common connections that lead to positive relationships. This…

This exploratory grounded theory study examined teacher perspectives of social competence in urban alternative high schools. Research questions elicited teachers' conceptualizations of social competence and descriptions of how their views on students' social-emotional behaviors influence pedagogy. The specific school context was behavior-focused…

This paper uses literary analysis of 21 st century U.S. history textbooks and the theoretical frameworks of post-colonial theory, racial pedagogical content knowledge, and critical race theory to argue that students at urban schools continue to be "made ahistorical" by classroom instructional conditions that devalue history instruction,…

The mathematics performance data from 12,738 high school students were examined to determine the relationship between students' racial-ethnic and linguistic background, participation in higher level mathematics courses, and performance on a norm-referenced measure of achievement, explicitly accounting for important urban school context indicators.…

In this study, the researchers highlight differences in district level value-added growth data of gifted students in urban and suburban districts, as categorized by the Ohio Department of Education. In addition to analyzing the difference between the academic growth of urban and suburban gifted students, the researchers sought to synthesize…

Paula Lane, who has supervised student teachers at a university in the suburban wine country of northern California for the past 12 years, describes a field experience with a group of new student teachers in an urban school. Like the majority of teacher candidates in education programs, the pre-service teacher education students were White and…

In a nationwide effort to create standardized performance criteria, there has been an emphasis on testing data as the strict measurement of teacher and student success or failure (Volante & Sonia, 2010). These testing accountability systems, developed under No Child Left Behind (2001), were based on assumptions that high-stakes assessments…