This guide aims to present district instructional leaders and staff with a core set of criteria for what high-quality professional development entails. What makes this particular document different and useful is the focus on practical issues of district-level implementation in multiple teaching and learning environments. This is a guide designed…

To help new and prospective urban teachers deal with the practical problems and moral dimensions of the occupation, this book offers advice about successful urban teaching. The chapters are: (1) "A Book of Advice for Prospective and New Urban Teachers"; (2) "What's Different about Teaching in Urban Schools?"; (3) "Dealing with the Urban School…

The Richmond Volleyball Association is an example of a meaningful sports program offered to urban school children and developed as a result of individual physical education student interest. (MJB)

Describes techniques that help teach urban and suburban children the virtues of trees and forests. Includes a listing of book titles that may help teach children about trees. (MCO)

Topics discussed are: what the city is, what a good urban school is not, and criteria of good urban schools. Approaches that maximize and utilize the city as a center for learning are given through an examination of five models of urban schools. (Author/AM)

Maintaining that urban teaching and learning is characterized by many contradictions, this book proposes that there is a wide range of social, cultural, psychological, and pedagogical knowledge urban educators must possess in order to engage in effective and transformative practice. It is necessary for those teaching in urban schools to be…

This paper deals with six sets of concerns and suggestions that arise as attitudes toward urban teaching are assessed. The first set arises from the complexity of measuring attitudes. It is strongly recommended that critiques of attitude data be based on plausible rival hypotheses. The second set involves the identification of beliefs related to a…

Concrete suggestions for using out-of-school objects to help inner-city students learn mathematical and scientific concepts are given. (MK)

Describes ways that groups and businesses involved in the urban forestry movement educate both the general public and specific audiences. Includes various lessons these groups seek to teach. (MCO)

This paper reports on how reform efforts since 1991 have affected teachers in an urban, K-6 elementary school of approximately 450 students. Teachers were predominantly female, middle-aged, and of European descent, while students were increasingly African-American and poor. Children were considered well-behaved by teachers, but less respectful…

Contends that the nature of U.S. urban life has created profound challenges for urban schools. Asserts that music educators must examine innovative trends in policy, programming, and curricula to determine how music can contribute to better schools and a better quality of life in urban areas. (CFR)

Explains a project where urban gifted students designed and wrote a 62-page activity resource book for children. Participants (aged K-junior high) visited the marsh, researched topics, and created activities for inclusion in the book. Teachers believe that the writers used creative abilities, problem-solving, and higher levels of thinking in this…

This book tells the stories of two young male first-grade teachers in an urban public school. From the perspective of a white male teacher, the book describes the complexities of establishing a personal and professional relationship with a co-teacher of different ethnicity (Hispanic American) and somewhat different philosophy, and the difficulties…

This study of six urban children ages 8-12 years challenges the prevailing misconception that poor city children are troubled, passive, and unintelligent. The research involved interviewing children about how and what they played and having them discuss drawings that they made about play. Guided by these children, who live in New York's East…

The objective of this book is to present techniques that urban elementary school teachers reported using successfully to handle specific problems. The information comes from a larger national study of teacher training and teaching in urban schools which used a sample of 248 teachers, none of whom had been teaching for more than five years. Half…