This article focuses on issues of childhood identity and urban environment. It discusses how a performance art pedagogy inspired by nomadic and relational aesthetics can provide a framework to promote creative learning experiences that address migratory conditions and forms of public alienation lived by young people today. As Lefebvre (1991)…

In this essay, Jeff Duncan-Andrade explores the concept of hope, which was central to the Obama campaign, as essential for nurturing urban youth. He first identifies three forms of "false hope"--hokey hope, mythical hope, and hope deferred--pervasive in and peddled by many urban schools. Discussion of these false hopes then gives way to…

Julie E. Braciszewski, recipient of the APA/APAGS Award for Distinguished Graduate Student in Professional Psychology, is cited for her noteworthy efforts to decrease mental health and academic service disparities among low-income, urban African American youth. Braciszewski recognizes that educational achievement is the clearest and most reliable…

Winners and finalists for the annual Broad Prize for Urban Education have consistently outperformed peer districts serving similar student populations. What makes the difference? These districts consistently demonstrate a learning loop that influences the district's ability to learn, which ultimately influences student opportunities to learn.…

In the world of corporate philanthropy, there are those who give to educational causes, and this article describes one such philanthropist, Eli Broad, who shares his take on schools in America. Broad is in a category unto himself not only because of the amount of money he has given--more than $280 million since 1999--but also for his unique…

This paper describes Scratch, a visual, block-based programming language designed to facilitate media manipulation for novice programmers. We report on the Scratch programming experiences of urban youth ages 8-18 at a Computer Clubhouse--an after school center--over an 18-month period. Our analyses of 536 Scratch projects collected during this…

Physical education time has been reduced or even eliminated in middle and high schools in favor of more time for standardized test preparation, especially in urban schools and inner cities. One way to replace the time lost is by providing it after school as part of a comprehensive program. After-School All-Stars (ASAS) is such a program, networked…

With 55 percent of the 53,400 students on free and reduced lunch programs, a 78 percent mobility rate, and a diverse population, Columbus City Schools (CCS) in Ohio faces the challenges common to other urban districts. In spite of the challenges, CCS has made a long-term commitment to engage students in high-quality physical education and physical…

Like schools in the early twentieth century, urban schools in the early 21st century pose challenges to educators at all levels. Large and growing numbers of students whose first language is not English, students with special needs, students of color and students from low-income homes demand new approaches for which many educators might not have…

This article provides a rich representation of how in-school practices that recruit students' "out-of-school" literacies, such as hip hop, can be used as critical bridges in students' learning. Hip hop, conceptualized in this article as an "out-of-school" literacy, works as a vehicle for curricular change at Eastview School for Pregnant and…

Hip hop culture is typically excluded from conventional educational spaces within the U.S. Drawing on the experiences of an educator who works with urban high school students and university level pre- and in-service educators, this article examines the role of hip hop culture for student engagement in two settings--an alternative high school…

With the explosion of technology, librarians are not the only ones who sometimes feel that reading has taken a backseat as a recreational activity. Readers are not reading like they used to. However, while overall readership is down in almost every demographic group, African-Americans, a faction traditionally considered reluctant readers, are…

In the inner-city of Washington, D.C., lives a generation of young people for whom violence, discrimination, and poverty are a daily reality. This article describes one youth organization that encourages these young people to voice their hopes and concerns for their community and work to create solutions. The out-of-school-time programming of…

This article describes the formation and enactment of a student and teacher-generated framework for re-authoring a troubling representation of Black masculinity in a popular culture narrative. This data-driven framework highlights the ways students and teacher provided a means for literacies to serve students' desire to re-author images and words…

This article builds upon the concept of hybridity to affirm the relevance of poetry, music, and other forms of popular culture in the lives of urban youth. Its focus examines the blending of seemingly disparate forms to understand how young people, in particular young people of color, negotiate their multilayered social worlds. One of these worlds…