With the recent increase in the number of available options for families to consider when selecting a school, diverse publicly funded public schools are now competing for both students and funding. This study intended to contribute to the available research on the changes at inner-city schools during increased school choice options. The purpose of…

This study addressed teachers' perceptions of barriers faced by inner-city African American high school female students in STEM courses. This qualitative descriptive study examined STEM teachers' perceptions of barriers inner-city African American female students encounter when enrolled in STEM courses. The research questions addressed STEM…

Mathematical modeling is a challenging and creative process. If one considers only interim or final solutions to modeling problems or interviews modelers afterward, often only their "explicit" models are accessible -- those expressed in work products or evinced in verbal and written reflections. The inner world of tacit knowledge and its…

The lack of support for transfer students, specifically students with individualized education plans (IEP) into school environments, is problematic. At times, IEP students face additional obstacles and challenges due to their disabilities compared to the regular education population. The authors formulated a case that follows an IEP transfer…

How can restorative justice, an increasingly common alternative to zero tolerance discipline, serve as an opportunity to both close the racial discipline gap and promote more critical awareness of structural inequality? Using Knight and Wadhwa's (2014) concept of critical restorative justice, I analyzed interviews with youth leaders and staff at…

School counselors play an integral role in supporting students academically, socially, and emotionally. However, due to various demands, school counselors often face time constraints that limit them from providing social and emotional support to students at the secondary level. In this case study, an analysis of qualitative interviews with 13 high…

We present results from the first year of a three-year extramurally funded project involving a partnership between an ethnically diverse urban high school and professional research botanists. The goals are to provide students exposure to real-world science, broaden interest in scientific fields of study, and increase floristic data and herbarium…

Residential stability matters to a young person's educational success, and the housing crisis spurred by the Great Recession (2007-2009) has disrupted the residential stability of many families. Using data from a large high school district in San Bernardino County, California, as a case study, this study utilizes a multilevel model to examine the…

Full-service community schools (FSCSs) are broadly viewed as a strategy to address the multiple challenges faced by low-income children and families that can create barriers to students' learning. Several studies have investigated the perceptions and experiences of a variety of key stakeholders involved in this reform strategy. However, no studies…

This case study examined the collaborations between an urban school district and various entities, as part of their district-wide implementation of high school career academies. Specifically, the study addressed the following research question: How has cross-sector collaboration shaped the development and implementation of career academies in an…

A key concern in education today is the overwhelming number of students who leave high school unprepared for college in the core courses of English and Math. As a result of student unpreparedness, more and more students are entering college having to take developmental courses. A high number of those students are students in the state of…

In light of increasing emphasis on the importance of post-secondary education to personal economic security, there is growing interest to promote college readiness initiatives in high schools, particularly for low-income and minority students for whom the harmful effects of institutional inequities on college readiness is well-documented.…

Background: In this case study, multiple participants in a large urban school district used the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model to guide development of a district wellness policy. The model's health education component is highlighted, focusing on concerns for special needs students and ones speaking English as a New…

This article presents data from a two-year ethnographic case study to explore how immigrant and refugee youth in the United States made sense of participation in a weekly human rights club after school. Three types of student responses to human rights education are exemplified through the profiles of students. The article offers new insights on…

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of multilingual and multicultural students in U.S. schools. Because of high-stakes testing and English-only mandates, instructional practices and curricula in most urban school districts neglect the cultural and linguistic interests of their diverse student populations. In this interpretive study,…