After the summer nesting period, broad winged hawks are known for migrating nearly 10,000 kilometers, (6,200 miles) each fall from their breeding grounds in North America to tropical biomes in South America, where they spend the winter. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has labeled broad-winged hawks as a species of "least…

There was a time when universities located in cities set themselves apart from urban life, even, in some cases, building walls that isolated their campuses. As the Cold War and Space Race accelerated the demand for academic expertise, government funding for basic and applied research became a mainstay of higher education. With the end of the Cold…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of both the school counselor and the school psychologist in preparing students in urban school settings for college and/or the workforce. Throughout this paper, the authors discuss how collaboration is critical to ensuring students are successful at every school level (e.g., elementary,…

The Department of Urban and Inner-City Studies (UICS) is a department in the faculty of Arts at the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. The Department is located outside of the main campus in one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods. UICS is intentionally located here to offer access to postsecondary education to people who might not…

This essay is about teaching Shakespeare, based on my experience of exploring "King Lear" with a Year 7 class. The evidence I use is drawn from one lesson, in which I offered students the opportunity to reject Shakespeare's version of the story. In this, I hope to demonstrate that the act of offering students a choice is a simple but…

This article demonstrates how (bad) girl performances rupture the inherently violent logic undergirding exclusionary discipline through the schooling experiences of five Black girls on probation. In so doing, it reveals a clear need for the abolition of suspension, expulsion and school-based arrest and relays a new focus on freedom dreaming for…

School fundraising is a practice that is common in many schools in the United States. This is also true in high-poverty schools where there are many financial needs that are often not met. Lincoln Elementary School is one of these schools. A well-intentioned first-grade team of teachers develops and works to implement a plan to fundraise using…

Over the past two decades, research on urban schools has focused predominantly on achievement gaps. However, achievement gaps exist because of gaps in opportunities for urban, low-income, and racially/ethnically diverse students. Partnerships among schools, families, and communities can provide the enrichment opportunities, support, resources, and…

Many public high schools in large urban school districts face challenges staffing their sports programs with knowledgeable and well-qualified coaches. Compared to smaller and more suburban districts, these schools have low student participation in sports and high coach attrition rates. These challenges make it difficult for districts to provide…

In "Striving in Common," Jennifer Jellison Holme and Kara S. Finnigan seek to build a bridge between two largely disparate, yet interconnected, conversations--those among education reformers on the one hand, and urban reformers on the other. In this carefully considered volume, the authors show how the challenges faced by urban schools…

In collaboration with an urban public school, teacher candidates at a nearby university created a social-emotional skills project called Knight Brigade. The author discusses the project planning, implementation, and results as part of this ongoing partnership.

Critical thinking is one of the most highly sought skills in education, yet questions remain about instilling students with this elusive set of skills and dispositions. Is it generalizable or discipline-specific? How should it be taught? This article describes an approach by two middle school teachers who developed and taught an in-person and…

Over the past decade the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) has sought to expand participation in Advanced Placement (AP) courses in order to improve high school outcomes (attendance, achievement, and graduation) and longer-term outcomes (postsecondary enrollment and degree completion). DCPS wants to understand policies and recommendations…

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…

The culture of a school is a critical component of school improvement efforts. However, changing the culture of a school is no easy feat. In this qualitative, single case study, we describe the perceptions held and strategies employed by one female principal newly assigned to a middle school in an urban setting. We examined the principal's…