Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. Great City School districts that have embraced the challenge of educating America's urban children have recognized the value of benchmarking their performance and growth against the progress of others.…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether English as a Second Language (ESL) Hispanic students, attendance at Title I or Non-Title I schools, and percentage of Bilingual/ESL teachers on campus impacted academic performance as measured by standardized tests. With a rapidly expanding Hispanic population in Texas, it was prudent…

Research in the neighborhood effects tradition has primarily concerned itself with understanding the consequences of growing up in high-poverty neighborhoods. In recent years, however, the in-migration of relatively affluent households into disinvested central city neighborhoods--commonly referred to as gentrification--has markedly risen,…

Despite growing interest in culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP), little research has examined its effect on student performance. In this article, we place CRP in a sociohistorical context and document how one intervention, Fresh Prep, draws on CRP to engage and instruct high school students identified as high risk for not graduating. Using a…

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…

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…

Research concerning family preferences for schooling indicates that they value proximity to home as much as academic quality when choosing schools. However, preferences for proximity likely represent inability to access schools farther away from home, especially for disadvantaged students. I test whether distance and district boundaries constrain…

We conduct descriptive and inferential analyses of publicly available Common Core of Data (CCD) to examine segregation at the local, state, and national levels. Nationally, we find that higher percentages of charter students of every race attend intensely segregated schools. The highest levels of racial isolation are at the primary level for…

Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. Great City School districts that have embraced the challenge of educating America's urban children have recognized the value of benchmarking their performance and growth against the progress of others.…

Social justice, ensuring that all students receive access to equitable educational resources and opportunities to succeed academically, is a guiding principle for school counselors. With this ideal in mind, specific sociocultural factors that affect the academic achievement of African American students in urban school settings are considered.…

Teaching in an inner city school requires classroom management, resilience, and most importantly strategies to promote learning and growth. There is a constant need for acceleration in student growth in core subjects, especially Math. A blended learning model can be an effective option for schools to personalize learning experiences for students…

The Finnish comprehensive school system is regularly referred to as a uniform and "no-tracking". In this article, we show with novel urban case data in Finland that school performance differed significantly between schools, most strikingly between school classes, and was connected to the school's selectiveness in pupil admission. A…

This qualitative study investigated the schooling experiences of 20 young Black men who graduated from Douglass Academy, an all-boys public charter secondary school in a large urban city. Specifically, I explore how these students construct meaning from their school experiences and their efforts for academic success. The students articulated two…

In the last 20 years, the U.S. higher education system has witnessed the tremendous growth of for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs). In fact, FPCUs have quickly become the fastest growing segment of postsecondary education. With innovative practices and alternative delivery of educational services, FPCUs have established a considerable…

Released on the 25th anniversary of the opening of the first charter schools, David Osborne's "Reinventing America's Schools" explores the new paradigm of public education that is emerging to fit the realities of the 21st century. Osborne's new book offers a bracing survey of the most dramatic improvements taking place in urban education…