Spreading accountability from the teacher back to the education school is an idea the Obama administration is also promoting in its efforts to remake teacher training. This spring, a federal panel looking at teacher-preparation programs debated, among other things, rating education schools based on how much their teachers add to student learning.…

This article explores how preservice elementary teachers change their negative beliefs toward mathematics into positive ones after taking a mathematics methods course that follows the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA) instructional method. Also explored is the relationship between those beliefs and sociomathematical authority. By administering…

The purpose of this concurrent mixed-method study was to explore how special education intern teachers, placed in an urban secondary special education school setting developed an ability to implement content literacy strategies after completion of a professional development graduate seminar and internship experience. This was done by studying both…

Background/Context: Teach For America (TFA) affiliates with universities in most of its 40 regions nationally; however, few researchers intentionally study the content and processes of a partnership between TFA and a college of education. Purpose/Research Question/Focus of Study: To ensure that investments both organizations were making had a…

This paper reports on a study of elementary preservice teachers' inquiry-based practices, their efficacy beliefs, and the role beliefs had on two preservice teachers' practices in urban classrooms. Results show inquiry-based practices can be cultivated through field-based experiences and preservice teachers' efficacy beliefs, as it relates to…

A university near a major city in Georgia and a large, urban school district established a Professional Development School (PDS) in which the majority of junior and senior-level preservice teacher coursework and fieldwork took place at seven urban, high-needs public schools. The purpose of this study was to provide preliminary feedback to the…

This article explores how exposure to aesthetic education approaches can help novice teachers reconsider their literature instruction in an age of mandated curricula and increased pressures to "teach to the test." The guiding questions were as follows: What similarities exist between transacting with a text on the page and aesthetically…

This study encompassed four different projects implemented in one urban College of Education. Projects included discussions in the faculty diversity self-study group, teaching and learning about culturally responsive pedagogy in an early childhood methods class, the use of fieldwork as a site for student learning about educational change, and…

An urgent goal for science teacher educators is to prepare teachers to teach science in meaningful ways to youth from nondominant backgrounds. This preparation is challenging, for it asks teachers to critically examine how their pedagogical practices might adaptively respond to students and to science. It asks, essentially, for new teachers to…

Preparing teachers to work in urban settings poses unique challenges, as urban communities are complex and require systemic understanding of students and their families, culture, and community. Pre-service teachers often harbor misconceptions about what it means to work in urban settings and many bring to their teacher education program minimal…

This action research study acknowledged the possibilities of culturally responsive pedagogy by examining digital storytelling via online workshops that were facilitated for a group of educators and educational leaders. The presence of cultural biases and cultural discontinuities in Pre-K-12 education has the propensity to contribute to the…

This article explores how student teaching experiences provoke preservice art teachers to rethink curriculum and pedagogy as an organic and living space that is connected to place, community, and local knowledge. Based on a larger qualitative study of urban preservice art education student teachers, the journeys of two student teachers are…

The George Washington University's Urban Initiative Professional Development School (UI-PDS) partnership used interviews, surveys, focus groups, and observations to research its effectiveness in preparing urban educators. The research conducted with UI-PDS preservice teachers and first year graduates, indicates they were well equipped to meet the…

School districts often struggle to recruit and retain effective math teachers. Alternative-route certification programs aim to expand the pool of teachers available; however, many alternate routes have not been able to attract large numbers of teacher candidates with undergraduate degrees in math. In response, some districts, including Baltimore,…

Teachers are leaders when they function in professional learning communities to affect student learning, contribute to school improvement, inspire excellence in practice, and empower stakeholders to participate in educational improvement. From an equity perspective, teachers also lead when they serve as change agents who collaborate to use…