On the surface, this trickle-down view of educational change--what T. Nichols calls "innovation-from-above"--makes sense. Teachers learn about new devices, apps, teaching techniques, and leadership strategies as they show up in articles, reports, and other professional resources, or after they have already been implemented elsewhere.…

On the world stage, youth are using their voices to effect change. Shouldn't we also listen to them in our schools? University of Rochester's Valerie Marsh and Superintendent Shaun Nelms describe what happened when a struggling urban high school, on the brink of closure, put student voice at the center of its turnaround.

"Having spent my career as a teacher in urban schools with large majorities of black and brown students, I've witnessed the school-to-prison pipeline at work too many times to deny it," writes James E. Ford. In this article, he draws from research and from his personal experience as a teacher to examine the root causes of high suspension…

When Deborah Peterson reluctantly accepted the principalship of Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon, a high-poverty school no other qualified applicants would touch that her supervisor assigned to her, books for new principals were no help. The books suggested actions like crafting a school vision and developing professional learning…

The deficit paradigm--the assumption that poor student performance or behavior stems from problems with the students or their families that must be "fixed"--has long been deeply embedded in the culture of urban schools, writes Weiner, an expert in urban education. Now deficit thinking is becoming more pervasive in suburban schools, as these…

A recent study revealed that stress is not as devastating for most teachers as commonly imagined, but it can be a real problem for the urban, middle-aged, high school teacher. The biggest stressor for these and other teachers is the small number of problem students who chronically misbehave. (Author/JM)

A general conclusion can be drawn that the values of teachers and their perception of the values of the principal are more positive or higher in inner city elementary schools characterized by a more open organizational climate than in schools with a closed organizational climate. (Authors)

The public school serves as an example of institutional racism which allows a cycle to come into effect: the institution says you are inferior, the individual is judged to be inferior, and the individual finally becomes inferior. (Author/MB)