Postsecondary institutions of education, similar to the broader society in which they are embedded, are steeped in and further trans* oppression. In addition, the knowledge produced at these institutions is inflected with trans* oppression, and continues to reify the notion that trans* lives and experiences are abject, abnormal, unintelligible,…

In this article, the Tennessee's Voluntary Prekindergarten (TN-VPK) program in general and the Shelby County Schools' VPK program in particular are analyzed using the policy instruments of regulation, finance, and support services. The geospatial analysis (Geographic Information Systems or "GIS") indicates that many of VPK's site…

This research explores the historical development of African American teacher and principal hiring and placement in Columbus, Ohio, from 1940 to 1980. In 1909, the Columbus Board of Education established Champion Avenue School creating a de facto segregated school to educate the majority of African American children and to employ Black educators.…

To understand the long shadow of education policy and reform in the United States, especially in the urban core, requires a full and elaborate understanding of the neighborhoods and communities that have transformed in the last 20 or 30 years. Studying classrooms and educational spaces without concomitant understanding of the dynamics and facets…

An African American community and an all-White school board struggled along racial lines over re-naming an elementary school. In opposition to the name change, the school district enforced its school naming policy via a race-neutral approach in practice. The study chronicles an African American community's successful political actions in…

Adopting a Freirean perspective, the purpose of this autoethnography is to reframe the typical relationship between university educators and communities in poverty by highlighting the educative impact of such a community on a university professor's academic, cross-cultural critical and civic learning. By reframing communities in poverty as sources…

This article addresses the discourse on career and technical education (CTE) from a multiperspectival approach to challenge the persisting academic-vocational divide. The author illustrates the paradoxical rhetoric in CTE, then shares a personal experience, and draws on ethnographic research to reveal a different understanding of enabling human…

Culturally relevant, ongoing project-based learning was facilitated in a predominantly African American urban elementary school via a community garden project. The project involved teachers, students, university members, and community members. This article evaluates the project through two classroom-community collaboration models, noting common…

Describes one urban education program that provides student teachers with firsthand experiences in urban settings and the observations and lessons learned by the participants. Implications for urban teacher-preparation programs conclude the report. (GR)

The Public Policy and Public Schools Program, piloted in 1982-83 in Paterson, New Jersey, trains parents in understanding the administration and organization of their local schools and school district, in order to develop a network of informed citizens who can play an active role in the improvement of their schools. (GC)

Analyzes two paths to creating a broad community support network to enhance urban education reform. The first is a mayoral path, exemplified by Boston, in which the mayor assumes political and fiscal responsibility for school reform. The second is a corporate path, exemplified by Pittsburgh in the 1980s, in which the private sector establishes a…

Focuses on the parochial school as a supportive agent of ethnic socialization in Buffalo's Polish immigrant communities. Describes diverse motives for development of the parish school system as an alternative to the public schools and summarizes the distinctive, communal functions of parish schools. (CMG)

Alarming numbers of students, particularly minority students, are being suspended and expelled from our nation's schools. The surface issue is discipline; however, the underlying issues are literacy and barriers to academic success. To address these issues, a large urban district opened a new school for students who were not succeeding in…

Examines how an interracial coalition of radical teachers from the Teachers Union of New York City and community activists from Harlem promoted black history and intercultural curriculum and collaborated with parents for school reform during the 1930s-40s. Their efforts to develop more culturally responsive schools were derailed in the late 1940s…

Unlike school-aged youth attending well-resourced suburban schools, working-class poor students attending inner-city public schools are oftentimes denied the opportunity to develop a sense of agency within their schools and communities. In this article, the author addresses one way that educators and researchers can encourage young people to…