We study the role of Hip-Hop teaching artists in a school change initiative. A school-university-community partnership in a Canadian city, the project sought to develop a school-wide focus on the "urban arts" for student learning and wellbeing. The experiences of nine teaching artists over four years, examined through the lens of…

This article provides an account of the ways in which students and adult supporters of an urban turnaround high school mobilized to defy the rhetoric of neoliberal reforms and the subsequent deficit narrative imposed on them and on their school. Their counternarratives refute the master narratives advanced by federal and state educational reforms.…

In this response to the call for transformative models of teaching students in urban contexts, the author presents his own experiences in becoming a critical pedagogue, the path that led him there, and three models of classrooms that he sees in such contexts. He emphasizes the need to reject an apolitical stance in urban education, and provides a…

In 2010, the Obama administration called for schools with low standardized test scores, often in high poverty, urban communities, to be targeted for rapid school improvement through reforms in teacher professional development, curriculum, and other areas. Since that time, many of schools deemed in need of improvement have experienced a vast array…

This research study examines the learning experiences of 11th- and 12th-grade Black girls participating in a precollegiate program committed to increasing the number of Teachers of Color entering the profession by viewing a teaching career as an act of social justice committed to educational equity. The pipeline functions as an education reform…

Using a South Los Angeles charter school of approximately 650 students operated by a non-profit charter management organization (CMO) as the primary field site, this two-year, ethnographic research project examines the implementation of a one-to-one tablet computer program in a public high school. This dissertation examines the variety of ways…

Some of the most dramatic gains in urban education have come from school districts using what many call a "portfolio strategy." Others call it "reinvention," a "21st century approach," or "relinquishment." By whatever name, it generally means that districts negotiate performance agreements with some mix of…

In this paper, I provide a window into the lived experience of a group of urban high school science students confronted with the stigma associated with special education, disability, and academic failure and present tools to understanding the ideological forces and institutional structures that undermine the ability of schools to create a culture…

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 purpose of this case study was to discover the critical attributes of a student achievement program, known as "Think Gold," implemented at one urban comprehensive high school as part of the improvement process. Student achievement on state assessments improved during the period under study. The study draws upon perspectives on…

Today's public school principals lead under conditions of significant pressures for change. At the local level, principals are the primary receivers and interpreters of the discourses and demands for change coming from central administration. Principals must make sense of these discourses and demands for change at the local school level, and they…

The U. S. Department of Education has adopted using data for school improvement as one of its major education reform priorities. However, as states, districts, and schools develop new approaches to track academic progress, both accessing and understanding data are often out of reach for average parents. While school leaders and teachers have begun…

This dissertation examines how eight urban high schools responded to mandates to raise graduation requirements in mathematics. The change process was complicated by challenges such as the conditions of poverty, lack of adequate financial support for schools, and large numbers of students who come to high school with inadequate preparation in…

In 2003, a few years after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began implementing its small schools reform agenda, the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education (DOE) announced a plan to replace large failing high schools in New York City with 200 small schools. In short order, the foundation and the Chancellor became partners…

In 2003, a few years after the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began implementing its small schools reform agenda, the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education (DOE) announced a plan to replace large failing high schools in New York City with 200 small schools. In short order, the foundation and the Chancellor became partners with…