Educational scholars have argued that poverty can hamper student achievement. In this critical discussion paper, we provide a historiography of how urban poverty increased in America over the last 30 years of the 20th century. We contend that educators and educational researchers working in P-12 urban schools should understand how federal urban…

The lack of quality of instruction in urban mathematics classrooms in the United States has received much attention in the scholarly literature. Other classroom mechanisms such as relational interactions, however, have not received much attention of mathematics education researchers. Relational interactions go above and beyond content instruction…

Considers how science inquiry may be different with diverse groups of students. Discusses teachers' role in identifying effective approaches to science inquiry and uses data from empirical research to illustrate differences in the ways urban fourth-grade teachers perceive and engage in science inquiry with diverse students. Focuses on three…

Teachers' beliefs related to teaching practices, knowledge, and social relations in and beyond the classroom were studied in urban schools serving African American children primarily. Two hundred forty-four teachers from six schools completed surveys about their beliefs. Of these teachers, 94% taught grades kindergarten through five, and 10%…

Classroom discourse has participation structures that can be interpreted as the verbal equivalents of being sent to the corner, and when these structures operate repeatedly enough, educational authority and resistance become locked into ongoing opposition. The discursive details of classroom life, from a poststructuralist perspective, are what…

This is a summary of work done as part of a multiyear series of professional development engagements between staff in an urban school district and staff of the Urban Education Project at Research for Better Schools. The content section of this report describes the Urban Learner Framework (ULF), a model of the urban learner synthesized from…

This study reports the results of the implementation of Project SEED, a mathematics program for urban elementary school students, in five urban districts: Camden (New Jersey); Dallas (Texas); Detroit (Michigan); Indianapolis (Indiana); and the West Contra Costa Unified School District in Richmond and San Pablo (California). Students exposed to at…

A disproportionately high number of minority students are referred by general education teachers for placement in special education. Teacher perception of social skills and problem behaviors of African American male students with and without identified disabling conditions was studied with 44 African American urban male students in grades 3, 4,…

This paper presents the findings of a literature review undertaken to identify behaviors and practices demonstrated by successful urban teachers in their preparation for teaching and interacting with students. The literature search focused on competencies for urban teaching and on urban education. The search yielded two broad areas of competence:…

Robert W. Coleman Elementary School in Baltimore (Maryland) is a school that is exemplary by virtue of its efforts to build on the strengths of students and the community. Although it is not yet a model of curriculum or instruction, it operates in an ethical and theoretical framework with much to say to the urban educator. The school, which serves…

This manual for first grade teachers provides suggestions and teaching materials that reflect the multicultural composition of New York City's (New York) public schools. It is organized into two sections: the first is in English, and the second is in Spanish. The English section contains the following six sections: (1) "Planning for the First…

The Exit Skills Summer Learning Academies of the Detroit Public Schools (Michigan) provided additional instruction to students in kindergarten and grades one and two who did not master specific objectives during the regular school year. A total of 174 schools participated, and 7,675 students received program services. The primary feature of the…

This manual for first grade teachers provides suggestions and teaching materials that reflect the multicultural composition of New York City's (New York) public schools. An introduction describes the philosophy that supports a high-quality, developmentally appropriate program through a multicultural perspective. The manual is organized into the…

This handbook focuses on five long-standing correlates for effective schools postulated by the late Ron Edmonds. Edmonds searched long and hard for those variables that were present in successful inner-city schools populated primarily by African American children. His work demonstrated that it is possible to educate so-called hard-to-reach…

This publication offers the 57th Yearbook of the National Reading Conference (NRC). This Yearbook begins with a preface and presents profiles of two awardees, John E. McEneaney and Scott G. Paris. Included in this Yearbook are the following papers: (1) The Education of African-American Students: Voicing the Debates, Controversies, and Solutions…