In this statement to the Rhode Island State Legislature, Ian Rowe presents a case for education equality. He acknowledges that America is not perfect, but there is a need to confront the inequities faced united rather than divided. In preparing for this testimony, he pulled 8th grade NAEP reading proficiency scores for Rhode Island students since…

This chapter outlines an interview conducted with a principal of a high-performing high school with a majority Latinx student population, regarding how she fostered and engaged in activism in her school and with her students.

Guided by the concept of nepantleras and critical race nepantlera methodology, Nancy Acevedo presents the testimonios of Citlalli Bejarano and Natalie Ibarra Collazo, two Chicana students who attend urban high schools. Citlalli and Natalie share various forms of inclusion and exclusion that they experience as Chicanas attending private and public…

This article explores how TCTELA's 2024 Teachers of the Year forged the future through their literacy teaching at the elementary, middle school, high school, and college levels. Each essay captures how they understand their work as literacy educators and intentionally educate their students toward a brighter future amid trying local contexts. The…

Angela Chapman and Allan Feldman (2016) conducted a study that aimed to exam how a group of diverse urban high school students were affected by the participation in a contextually based authentic science experience. The analysis of all data led the authors to conclude that the experience of authentic science positively influenced the science…

Black and brown people are being murdered by police officers at an alarming rate, and nothing is being done about it.

Rochelle Gutiérrez has spent 15 years researching effective, urban high school mathematics departments that served Black, Latin@ and low-income adolescents (see, e.g., Gutiérrez, 1996, 1999a, 1999b, 2000, 2002). These were schools where students took more mathematics than was required by their district; where English learners, recent immigrants,…

This article illustrates how elements of praxis within George Spindler's cultural therapy and Paul Willis's cultural production are useful precedents for a praxis-based pedagogy. I argue that combining the praxis elements within cultural therapy and cultural production engenders a third mode of ethnographic praxis that I call "cultural…

This paper argues that Spanish-for-native-speakers (SNS) instruction at the secondary level can play a key role in narrowing the Latino achievement gap. To this end, SNS curricula and practices should be configured to: 1) support Spanish-English biliteracy, 2) support and facilitate learning across the curriculum, 3) socialize Latino students and…

Every day, an estimated 2,500 students across the nation drop out of high school. In the last decade, approximately 30 percent of students who enrolled in high school have failed to graduate four years later. The situation is even more dismal for youth of color. In 2003, only 55 percent of African Americans and 53 percent of Hispanics graduated…