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)

Eric Hanushek and Steven Rivkin examine how salary and working conditions affect the quality of instruction in the classroom. The wages of teachers relative to those of other college graduates have fallen steadily since 1940. Today, average wages differ little, however, between urban and suburban districts. In some metropolitan areas urban…

The word "attitude" has different meanings. While some educators wish their students had less attitude, others are looking for ways to help students develop the kind of questioning, critical attitude that will allow them to interrogate and rethink what they already know or take for granted. This article describes a teacher education program that…

This paper focuses on the challenges faced by faculty in the urban teacher preparation programs, particularly in the area of technology integration by pre-service and in-service teachers in their classroom instruction. The paper discusses the issues of first-order barriers (access to technology, infrastructure support) and second-order barriers…

Urban schools are challenged to improve teacher retention and quality. Unfortunately, research on effective teaching and attributes of effective teachers rarely has considered urban contextual influences. The purposes of the current study were (a) to develop and validate an instrument for evaluating urban teacher attributes and (b) to determine…

This study rests on written statements made by New York City teachers and administrators. The study documents what a sample of urban teachers of mathematics and school principals in elementary, middle, and high schools state are: impediments of, as well as supports to, their productive teaching of mathematics, and their suggestions of what is…

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)

In our current climate of standards-based reform, efforts abound to have all students reach the same goals. At the same time, other educational reforms, such as inclusion, are creating increasingly diverse populations of students in general education classrooms. Consequently, teachers often view inclusion and standards-based reform as incompatible…

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)

What teaching practices foster inquiry and promote students to learn challenging subject matter in urban schools? Inquiry-based instruction and successful inquiry learning and teaching in project-based science (PBS) were described in previous studies (Brown & Campione, [1990]; Crawford, [1999]; Krajcik, Blumenfeld, Marx, Bass, & Fredricks,…

How can the "revolving door" at the nation's high-poverty schools be slowed down? How can diversity be taught in teacher preparation that relates to teaching and learning? How can teachers learn to use the diverse urban classroom as a rich asset? By focusing on reconceptualizing general education studies, addressing key urban understanding and…

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…

This study examines six teachers' responses inside and outside of their classrooms to increasingly mixed messages about how they should develop the literacy of California's youngest and most at-risk students. While they must develop highly developed knowledge and skills to teach literacy in linguistically diverse classrooms, they must also adhere…

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…

In 1984 the Urban Mathematics Collaborative (UMC) project was initiated to improve mathematics education in inner-city schools and to identify new models for meeting the ongoing professional needs of teachers. UMCs are located in Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Durham, Pittsburgh, San Diego, St. Louis,…