This exploratory design experiment investigates Black male youth's participation in a science-learning environment designed to conceptualize the practice of critique as improvisational performance. The research highlights the young men's deployment of a linguistic practice, signifying, used to co-construct and enact the practice of collaborative…

Students from urban high schools are usually faced with adverse environmental factors in their pursuit of academic success. These factors make learning more challenging and may confound the measurement of academic performance itself. This study explores how one such factor, ambient noise, affects the measurement of mathematics achievement.…

This article reports findings from a quasi-experimental study of the impact of a summer robotics program for urban middle-grade students. The study focuses on student engagement, measured by school attendance rate the year following the program. Program students, who were nearly all low-income minority students, were matched to comparison students…

Research stresses a need for more contextually nuanced urban teacher preparation programs that explore racially oppressive structures in society. This article presents a case study of five aspiring teachers who participated as mentors in a 2-year program for ninth grade students at Riverview Academy, an urban school. This study uses the…

Latino boys and young men often carry the debt of violence into different spaces. This invisible trauma manifests into disruptive behaviors in schools. It is well documented that violence in urban communities and schools has received significant attention from researchers, but little attention has been paid to Latino male youth as individuals and…

Teaching in an inner city school requires classroom management, resilience, and most importantly strategies to promote learning and growth. There is a constant need for acceleration in student growth in core subjects, especially Math. A blended learning model can be an effective option for schools to personalize learning experiences for students…

Urban public school districts in the U.S. vary in quality. Educational policies, distribution of resources, and the challenges that students bring to the classroom differ substantially across localities. Little surprise, then, that academic outcomes--such as high school graduation rates and average school performance on standardized…

A pre- and postcourse survey was used to collect quantitative data on university students' perceptions and experiences of one hybrid course within a middle level education program. In addition, the survey contained questions addressing the possible impact the hybrid course had on students' perceptions of feeling prepared for urban education and…

This article uses case study methods and theories of literacy as social practice to explore how an adolescent developed her religious identity and religious literacies in relationship with more secular identities and literacy practices across multiple social contexts. It further examines how the youth engaged her religious identity and religious…

This article reveals inequity as a longitudinal construction involving the cumulation of micro/macroaggressions for children who live in high-poverty communities and attend poorly funded schools. Drawing on critical race theory and empirical research that documents forms of micro/macroaggression, a longitudinal analysis is used to identify forms…

This study examined the intersections of race, class, gender, and exclusionary discipline in the lives of urban, middle school, Black girls. The lived experience of being Black, female, in an urban environment can not be understood from a lens of mutual exclusivity; Therefore, one must also include the interactions with institutions that…

Through the use of narrative inquiry, this research study explores the collaborative curriculum making experiences of six teachers (three males; three females) in one physical education (PE) department in an urban middle school in the U.S. Collaboration; as defined in this work, this has to do with teachers' voluntary interactions and their shared…

In this country we have done a poor job of helping students come to see the wonder, beauty and power of mathematics. Standards can be brought into the picture, but unless we think about what it means to truly engage students in mathematics we will continue to be unsuccessful. The goal of this book is to begin to change the way students experience…

Struck by his students' often hostile and apathetic responses to assignments and instruction and hoping to contribute to the knowledge of motivation, Dan LaSalle began to take an inquiry stance on his own practice. He studied his practice on three fronts with the help of an off-site teacher research group: (1) how his inquiry question changes as a…

A student's lack of belief in his or her own ability to do well in school can be a driving component of disengagement. In response, the author created art activities aimed to build students' confidence in their ability to learn, carry out a given art task, and identify a competence; such asset-based thinking approaches encourage students to reach…