Youth from families with greater economic means have seen an increase in their participation in extracurricular activities, while the participation levels of youth from working class families have decreased. Knowing the benefits to youth participation in extracurricular activities, communities where youth of marginalized backgrounds reside have an…

The Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture is a non-profit organization that has been developing place-based education models since it was established in 1970. Situated in an urban environment, the Chicago Center operates at the intersection of higher education and place-based education with a pedagogical approach that centers and elevates…

Although we often look to schools to solve complex social problems, many educators are not ready to address the structural racism behind many contemporary conflicts. Pedro Noguera and Julio Angel Alicia present a brief history of the socioeconomic forces that drove school closures and gentrification in Chicago, the remaking of New Orleans after…

Chicago's magnet schools were one of the nation's earliest experiments in choice-driven school desegregation, originating among civil rights advocates and academic education experts in the 1960s and appearing at specific sites in Chicago's urban landscape during the 1970s. The specific concerns that motivated the creation of magnet schools during…

Although the mixing of quantitative and qualitative data is an essential component of mixed methods research, the process of integrating both types of data in meaningful ways can be challenging. The purpose of this article is to describe the use of data labels in mixed methods research as a technique for the integration of qualitative and…

Educational discourse, particularly since the advent of recent educational reform initiatives, has become saturated with a discourse of "high expectations." One can hardly hope to hold a conversation regarding the problems facing American schools without someone innocently remarking that of course students need to be held to "high…

Traditional campus-based teacher education programs, located on college or university campuses, have been criticized for being removed from the "real world" of community life, and a number of programs have moved directly into urban communities in order for preservice teachers to become immersed in the life of the community. This article…

Preparing special educators for the highest-need schools remains an ongoing challenge in urban districts across the United States. One university's collaborative community-based immersive partnership model, with emphasis on service learning, has demonstrated promising levels of impact on candidates' preparation as preservice teachers learning how…

In Part I of this continuous improvement brief on selection, UIC Center for Urban Education Leadership researchers and UIC Ed.D. program administrators describe the development of an admissions process to the EdD in Urban Education principal preparation program to assess characteristics associated with school leader success. [For Part II of this…

In the second of two continuous improvement briefs on selection, UIC Center for Urban Education Leadership researchers and UIC Ed.D. program administrators describe how they build program capacity to assess & measure the characteristics they associate with school leader success. [For Part I, see ED622510.]

This Issue Brief explores the promising role that career and technical education programs play in addressing key student achievement issues facing urban schools. CTE programs engage urban students by providing rigorous and relevant coursework, fostering positive relationships, establishing clear pathways and connecting education and…

Eleven papers describe and evaluate state and city programs which appear to have been successful in helping the educationally disadvantaged realize their potential. To pinpoint possible factors which hinder achievement, the papers also identify some of the characteristics of these students and their homes and communities. (NH)

Describes the Chicago High School for the Agricultural Sciences, one of the U.S. Department of Education's 10 "New American High Schools," that graduates 93% of its students, all of whom take a rigorous college-prep curriculum tied to agricultural careers. (JOW)

This social history of public education in Chicago focuses on the problems encountered and the subsequent changes that took place. The transformation of the frontier schools to accommodate industrialization is traced. The unionization and organization of Chicago teachers are shown. The political, racial, and financial problems that now face…

Examines a multi-city study of school reform and civic capacity. Related to urban education, results found cities ranged from having low levels of civic capacity, in which diffuse concerns never became synergistic, to having high levels of civic capacity, with key actors collaborating for action on issues with the potential for controversy.…