School leaders enrolled in CPED-influenced and practitioner focused doctoral programs require specific research-based skills and knowledge that bridge both educational scholarship and practice in order to be relevant for both their dissertation process and school practice. In doing so, these doctorate in education (EdD) programs must critically…

Purpose: From book challenges to anti-critical race theory and anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning legislation, US English teachers have been on the receiving end of a considerable amount of far-right conservative pushback. This study aims to explore the effects of conservative pushback on individual English teachers…

The COVID-19 pandemic has propelled educational communities across the world into emergency remote models of instruction. This study documented the perceptions of 11 teachers from the State of Illinois regarding the quality of online instruction in their schools and their unexpected challenges from March of 2019-2020 academic year. Three points of…

Several social processes guide and shape how school actors engage with high stakes state and district policies relative to mandated curriculum and instruction. In this article, we use rhetorical argumentation analysis to explore how stakeholders mobilize resources through argumentation and rhetorical appeals (logical, emotional, and…

STEM education has received significant attention in the USA and is largely fueled by rhetoric suggesting the USA is losing its global competitive edge and that there is a lack of qualified workers available to fill growing STEM jobs. However, a counter discourse is emerging that questions the legitimacy of these claims. In response, we employed…

This paper reports findings of a qualitative study exploring the changes in secondary teachers' learning orientation through the use of literacy coaching. The study took place within a large suburban district in the Chicagoland area and explores the question from the perspective of participants sampled across three departments and two campuses in…

Because the dynamics of race are wrongly ignored in a current shroud of post-racialism (i.e. re-election of Barack Obama as president of the USA, shifting racial demographics in the USA, etc.), there are still communities in the USA and throughout the world that experience the damaging effects of racism entangled with the realities of class. Many…

The faculty research residency (FRR) model was launched in 2010, with the goal of transforming coursework to improve the preparation of teachers for high-need schools. The FRR model leveraged school-university partnerships and situated university faculty in high-need schools to conduct research related to the university courses they taught. This…

This piece explores questions of power, conflict, and community in education through a story of Chicago educators engaging in experiential inquiry processes. One of these processes is a "Theatre of the Oppressed" exercise for dealing with conflict in education settings. The other process described here focuses on a text that emerged from…

"Turnaround" has become the new buzzword in education. From states and districts paying for principals to be trained as turnaround specialists to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's call to turn around the country's 5,000 lowest-performing schools, the concept of rapid, large-scale reform in individual schools--not just incremental…

This study examines 4 years of small school reform in Chicago, focusing on schools formed by converting large traditional high schools into small autonomous ones. Analyzing systemwide survey and outcome data, the authors assess the assumptions embedded in the reform's theory of change. They find that these schools are characterized by more…

In "The Transformation of Great American School Districts", William Lowe Boyd, Charles Taylor Kerchner, and Mark Blyth argue that urban education reform can best be understood as a long process of institutional change, rather than as a series of failed projects. They examine the core assumptions that underlay the Progressive Era model of…

Older cities in the United States have long been trying to "bring back" the middle class in order to increase tax base. The poor quality of schools and the presence of public housing often were cited as deterrents for attracting higher income families. When the 2000 Census data revealed improvements in many cities, some elected officials…

At first glance, academic assessment is simply another request for more paper. But it goes well beyond the design of a plan or blueprint. Instead, assessment involves the much more difficult task of creating a new culture. Borrowing from both the experience of the Department of Political Science at Northeastern Illinois University and from the…

This paper examines the changing nature of metroregions and their schools. It discusses the influence of global neo-liberalism and resistance on processes of social differentiation through case studies of Chicago metroregion communities and schools. Using spatial theory, the paper argues that while the restructuring of metroregions creates…