This article focuses on the increased power of venture philanthropy to shape education in urban communities of color in the USA. The author situates venture philanthropy's expanded influence in urban school districts in the nexus of urban disinvestment, neoliberal governance, wealth concentration, and economic crisis. The author argues that…

Information about the MIT Media Lab PLATFORM, a Summit of Innovators, is presented. This Summit was comprised of engineers, computer scientists, coders, activists, designers, and technology wizards, a gathering of people of color who have been remarkably successful, provocative, and creative against the odds. The event enabled the author and other…

The author, a teacher-activist with Teacher Action Group-Philadelphia (TAG), presents her views on the need for teachers to get involved in the battle for public education. She expresses her concerns about the political games being played to advance a neoliberal agenda that seeks to dispossess students of their right to a quality education and…

This paper documents Pittsburgh's transformation from a typical, adversarial district-union dynamic to one of deep, substantive collaboration over the course of several years. This work has catapulted Pittsburgh to the vanguard of efforts to improve teacher effectiveness, and helped secure more than $80 million in philanthropic and federal grants.…

This study evaluates how welcoming thirty American cities--the twenty-five largest and five smaller "hotspots"--are to "nontraditional" problem-solvers and solutions. It assumes that the balky bureaucracies meant to improve K-12 education and hold leaders accountable are so calcified by policies, programs, contracts, and…

Urban education is an interdisciplinary field, characterized by introducing many perspectives to research pertaining to educational policy and to the practice of educating youth whose lives unfold in densely populated urban metropolitan areas. This book celebrates Constance Clayton's eleven-year tenure as superintendent of the School District of…

This study is the result of my work as a teacher educator in an English methods course and a member of an inquiry community I formed with eight of my students, all middle and secondary student English teachers at the University of Pennsylvania. I investigate what was at stake for them in learning to teach English in Philadelphia urban schools in…

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…

Leadership is key in the success of any reform, especially one as ambitious and complex as that in Philadelphia. "The case of Philadelphia is noteworthy as an exemplar of the implementation of paradigm-breaking new reforms in the governance and delivery of urban education." This report follows the first five years of the state takeover…

The Urban Development Component at Research for Better Schools, Inc., attempted to attack problems facing urban secondary schools in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania by using the "natural channels" of educational and civic associations to disseminate research and development information and to work collaboratively toward improving…