This article draws awareness to the subtle and seeping "common sense" mentality of neoliberalism and deficit thinking assumptions about racially marginalized students in inner-city schools. From a literature review conducted on deficit thinking and deficit practices in schools, I developed three different frameworks for understanding the…

The purpose of this study was to identify the strengths and challenges that emerged from the first year of a district and university partnership focused on improving a high needs urban elementary school. This research utilizes an instrumental case study design. The elementary school and the university involved in this study are both public serving…

Based on ethnographic fieldwork and 39 formal interviews with 42 participants, we examine the influence of higher education institutions on a transitional, revitalizing neighborhood in Central Baltimore: Station North, a state-designated Arts and Entertainment District. This case study applies new urban regime theory to the development strategies…

An extensive meta-analysis, including 52 studies, was undertaken on the relationship between character education and student achievement and behavioral outcomes. Additional analyses were done to determine whether the effects of character education differed by student grade level, locale, race, and so on. The results indicated that character…

Teachers of urban higher education institutions often explore new methods of teaching using innovative techno-pedagogical approaches. This study reports on postgraduate students' perceptions of the blended learning mode of delivery, co-taught by two lecturers concurrently during the "Qualitative Research" elective course offered for the…

What constitutes an urban school? This question has confounded social researchers and educators who often limit definitions to population data. H. Richard Milner suggested a framework for defining urban schools that includes population data as well as the racial and social context of schools. This article applied Milner's model to school districts…

This research addresses the problem of teacher shortages in urban, high-needs schools. A grounded theory methodology was used to expand insights related to teacher recruitment and retention by collecting and analyzing qualitative (interview and observational) data from nine successful urban teachers. A two-part model of recruitment and retention…

This research study examines the learning experiences of 11th- and 12th-grade Black girls participating in a precollegiate program committed to increasing the number of Teachers of Color entering the profession by viewing a teaching career as an act of social justice committed to educational equity. The pipeline functions as an education reform…

Due to the recent racially motivated killings in Ferguson, Missouri (2014); Staten Island, New York (2014); Cleveland, Ohio (2014); Charleston, South Carolina (2015); Baton Rouge, Louisiana (2016); and Dallas, Texas (2016), racial and ethnic tensions have heightened across the United States. Whereas schools would seem like optimal spaces for…

Many Black men interested in special education careers enroll in alternate route special education programs over traditional preparation programs. However, there is little research that focuses on their reasons for choosing special education alternate route programs and what makes these programs an effective choice for Black men pursuing teaching…

School district--university research collaborations represent one strategy to increase educators' ability to use current, research-based information in program decision making and efforts to improve student achievement. However, differences in organizational structures, goals, values, and prior collaborative experiences have made successful…

Chicago Public Schools and school districts throughout the country are seeking new ways to foster racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic equity as desegregation consent decrees are being lifted. One of Chicago's selective enrollment high schools drafted parents, educators, administrators, and community representatives to address its own diversity…

This manuscript begins by distinguishing the common structural and cultural arguments that tend to guide popular urban achievement gap research. It highlights Jencks and Phillips, and Payne, as two cases of popular texts followed by critical responses to them. It concludes by imagining a compass to guide burgeoning scholars toward reading into…

This article addresses the need for novice teachers to receive exposure and experiences related to family engagement as part of their academic preparation to better facilitate their actual parent involvement practices. In a graduate-level parent involvement in education course, early childhood educators had an opportunity to engage in a variety of…

Preparing new teachers to work in urban schools has become a priority for many teacher education programs. This study explored 20 preservice teachers' responses to a scenario about working in an urban school as a beginning teacher. Specific attention was placed on what participants believed were key challenges and concerns. Findings indicated that…