As part of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project to create culturally responsive curriculum that uses critical spatial thinking and geospatial technologies to address spatial justice in urban neighborhoods, students from a predominantly African American inner-city public high school in Toledo, Ohio participated in two summer workshops…

Teacher education programs are increasingly taking up commitments to prepare new teachers for equitable teaching. Despite best intentions, programs feel challenged to help candidates translate these commitments into classroom practice. Using a context-specific teacher education framework, we conducted a mixed-methods study of seven urban-focused…

This study explores how community socioeconomic status (SES), geographical location, and administrator perspectives influence the implementation of exclusionary disciplinary policies. Using Geographical Information Systems mapping technology, in-depth interviewing, and document analysis, this study finds that schools located in high SES sectors…

The purpose of this inquiry is to consider how the U.S. Department of Education's Promise Neighborhoods (PNs) program can improve persistently low-achieving urban schools by making their "neighborhoods whole again" through community capacity building for education reform. As the "first federal initiative to put education at the…

This study investigates how community characteristics, student background, school climate, and zero-tolerance policies interact to affect school crime. The study articulates and fits a school crime model to 712 high schools participating in the 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety, confirming that school location and student socioeconomic status…

Explores the relevance of environmental education in modern society, focusing on urban areas. Environmental education can enable a relevant and fulfilling education within a community-specific environment. Properly conceptualized, environmental education has much to offer all communities. (SLD)

Explores the metaphor proposed by T. Sergiovanni (1992 and following) of school as community, an alternative to conceptualizing school as organization. An extended metaphor, which takes into account organizational aspects, is presented that conceptualizes schools as nested communities. This conceptualization is illustrated through the case study…

Describes backgrounds, educational philosophies, and the relationship between the 2 for 18 exemplary African-American teachers in 2 ethnographic studies emphasizing effects of differences in background. Teachers' knowledge of community norms and the position of the community within the larger society explains much of their success with students.…

A study was done to investigate the impact of public school building conditions on student achievement. An analysis of District of Columbia public schools showed that the size of an individual school's Parent-Teacher Association budget is positively related to the school building's condition and to student academic achievement. (JB)