The deficit paradigm--the assumption that poor student performance or behavior stems from problems with the students or their families that must be "fixed"--has long been deeply embedded in the culture of urban schools, writes Weiner, an expert in urban education. Now deficit thinking is becoming more pervasive in suburban schools, as these…

Reviews scholarship in a number of disciplines within education to identify implications for urban teacher preparation. A growing consensus among researchers that learning is enhanced when it occurs in contexts that are socioculturally, linguistically, and cognitively meaningful for the learner, but educational policy has been driven by…

Research suggests that using an ecological approach to school reform calls for understanding how urban school curricula, procedures, and regulations affect interactions among students, teachers, and parents and then devising solutions that do not blame any party. The federal program Trainers of Teacher Trainers exemplifies forging new…

Why is classroom management especially problematic for urban teachers, and why has research yielded so few helpful answers to this question? In this article I take up both questions, suggesting that the answer to both emanates from the same source: the reliance on deficit paradigms to explain underachievement of students who have historically not…