In the seminal work "But What Is Urban Education?" from 2012, Richard Milner proffered a typology to better represent urban spaces as conceptions of urbanization's evolution. The typology consists of three descriptors, to which each highlights the manner in which population density influences the availability of resources to support…

Despite rich and growing school choice and school marketing literatures, little is known about if and how principals of zoned public elementary schools engage in marketing. We address this gap by drawing on in-depth interviews with principals of nine schools--in different neighborhoods--in the Baltimore school district. We find that principals…

There is continued concern over the inequitable distribution of highly experienced and effective teachers among historically marginalized student populations. Using longitudinal data from Tennessee, this study assesses whether students of racially/ethnically minoritized and economically disadvantaged backgrounds have unequal exposure to teachers…

I examine the effect of out-of-school suspensions (OSS) on attendance in a large midwestern urban district with high rates of chronic absenteeism. I do so from an ecological perspective and using daily attendance and discipline data. Out-of-school suspension has a modest and persistent negative effect on subsequent attendance, particularly for…

Young Black and Latino men face profound academic obstacles in transitioning to college. Few studies have interrogated college readiness practices in urban schools through the lens of masculinity. Drawing on a yearlong ethnography, this study investigated how young men respond to college-readiness practices while enacting masculinity. Many young…

African immigrant youth adaptation processes in US schools remain under-researched. Using qualitative case study, this article examines West African immigrant middle- and high-school youth adaptation experiences in US urban schools. Findings show that racialized experiences, English proficiency levels, and multilingualism affected social…

As part of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project to create culturally responsive curriculum that uses critical spatial thinking and geospatial technologies to address spatial justice in urban neighborhoods, students from a predominantly African American inner-city public high school in Toledo, Ohio participated in two summer workshops…

In this research article, the authors examine the intersections of culturally sustaining pedagogy and critical family engagement to explore the possibilities for equitable family-school partnerships in urban schools. Based on the common values of trusting and caring relationships and power disruption within those fields, as well as data from a…

Though culturally responsive practices (CRP) are widely lauded as important for educational practice, the field to date does not have a systematic video-based strategy to observe CRP across classrooms. Through a qualitative review of 68 classroom videos from the Measures of Effective Teaching dataset, we examined the presence, absence, and…

We used the emerging postcolonial frame of plantation pedagogy to understand parent involvement within urban Bahamian schools. We report on survey (parents, n = 377; teachers, n = 96), interviews (n = 33), and forum (n = 17) data to identify barriers and solutions to involvement. Findings demonstrate pervasive plantation ideologies and practices…

The Atlanta Schools Critical Education Network for Distinction (ASCEND) is an ongoing interdisciplinary coalition supporting the critical consciousness of social justice educators. ASCEND partners include: (1) activist faculty from two university departments: Middle and Secondary Education and African American Studies; (2) a justice-oriented…

This article presents findings from an education design research program to advance the development of the Cultural Proficiency Continuum Dialogic Protocol (CPCDP). The CPCDP is a primary data source that uses andragogical and asset-based pedagogies and approaches to assess and codify educators' cultural competence systematically. Findings…

I provide a broad frame for understanding racial disproportionality in special education by showing how the inequity is a byproduct of the educational debt. I used a single case study design that relied upon qualitative semi-structured interviews, document analyses, and school board meeting transcripts gathered from a mid-sized urban school…

Informed by austerity politics, struggling school districts have closed buildings to pursue cost savings. We investigate the factors affecting which schools are shuttered, proposing that the share of students with an Individualized Education Program (SIEP) influences the way building utilization is measured because of the different instructional…

Many urban public schools are often perceived as inclusive due to the demographics of their diverse student populations. This myth of inclusivity reifies notions of equity in both education and broader society. However, upon closer inspection, this myth of inclusion crumbles once immersed within an urban high school. In this article, I present the…