This is the executive summary for the report, "Bridging the School-to-Work Divide: Interim Implementation and Impact Findings from New York City's P-TECH 9-14 Schools." This study offers initial impact and implementation findings from the first rigorous evaluation of the model, evaluating the first seven P-TECH 9-14 schools that opened…

In a nationwide effort to create standardized performance criteria, there has been an emphasis on testing data as the strict measurement of teacher and student success or failure (Volante & Sonia, 2010). These testing accountability systems, developed under No Child Left Behind (2001), were based on assumptions that high-stakes assessments…

Adolescents are often disengaged in the learning process, being more focused on social media and self-interest than classroom content. Full circling is a process that can be used to help students collaboratively engage in learning and actively reflect on historical events--especially those that are under reported in history books. In the present…

Urban principals lead complex schools. Although such schools often serve racially marginalized students from low-income families, they also exist within an environment that negatively stereotypes the students and their parents. Such stereotypes are even often held by school leaders and teachers in these environments. At the same time, there are…

This case highlights a school principal's leading practice as she worked to transform the social and educational status of students, teachers, and community in a small urban primary school. We employ shadowing, a technique popularized in work-based education and photography, as reflective and research tools. Teaching notes provide insight into the…

This article explores Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as a powerful practice that re-imagines the who, what, why, and how of research in the English classroom. Three educators share classroom journeys in helping students ask and answer questions about their worlds in ways that inspire personal, academic, and civic change.

On a spring morning in Maine, traps made of nets rise above vernal pools in a small wetland, ready to collect salamanders. The traps were designed by groups of rural and urban high school students from Maine and Massachusetts participating in the University of Maine Upward Bound Math Science Program (UBMS) at the university campus in Orono, Maine.…

This article describes learning walks that focus on enhancing student intrinsic motivation and learning at a dual-language pre-K-8 urban public school. Descriptions in this case study are a composite based on the authors' actual experiences as well as ideas from literature and other schools. About once a week at Chicago's Talcott Fine Arts and…

Through case studies of five states with varying facilities policies, the study presented in "What about the Schools? Factors Contributing to Expanded State Investment in School Facilities" examines the factors contributing to expanded state investment in equitable public school facilities and how those factors can be leveraged to…

Two decades ago, the New Jersey Supreme Court in "Abbott v. Burke" mandated that the state establish high quality preschool education in the 31 highest-poverty school districts. New Jersey created a pre-K program with high standards and a continuous improvement system that transformed a patchwork of private and public programs into a…

This ninth annual High School Benchmarks Report provides the updated data on high school graduates' college access, persistence, and completion outcomes. This report was designed with several features particularly tailored to secondary education practitioners and policymakers. First, results presented in this report update last years' findings on…

From the early 1960s through the early 1970s, a new idea drew the interest of local leaders and national networks of educators seeking to further desegregation but concerned about how to do so within the bounds of white resistance. Huge single- or multischool campuses, called education parks, would draw students from broad geographical areas and…

St. George's has nearly 1,150 students on three campuses: an elementary campus in Germantown and a middle/upper school campus in Collierville, both suburbs of Memphis, and a second elementary campus in Memphis. The Memphis campus serves 140 students in pre-K-5th grade. All Memphis campus students receive financial aid based on need, and…

In this article, we address various complexities associated with teaching and the literacy development of K-12 youth in urban poor school and community contexts. As such, we consider various conceptions of urban education through an honest conversation on the vexing issues and questions facing teachers, students, and families who work and live in…

Student clubs and sports often struggle to raise funds. With limited revenue streams, coaches or advisors and parents routinely find themselves managing candy sales, car washes, raffles, and ticketed fundraisers to support programming. In this case of a swim team fundraiser, school leaders see the range of problems that can occur when a routine…