"The More We Look, the Deeper It Gets: Transforming the Curriculum through Art" provides inspiration and practical guidance for teaching with works of art in order to deepen engagement and improve student learning. The book introduces the Pyramid of Inquiry, a flexible framework that teachers of all subject areas can use to support…

"Place: it's where we're from; it's where we're going. . . . It asks for our attention and care. If we pay attention, place has much to teach us." With this belief as a foundation, "The Power of Place" offers a comprehensive and compelling case for making communities the locus of learning for students of all ages and…

Drawing on culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) and the development of cultural competence, this study explores how teacher learners in a critical inquiry group narrated and discussed their urban field experiences, particularly in regard to equity-oriented literacy education. More specifically, this study demonstrates both the impact that…

"The Wiley Handbook of Action Research in Education" is the first book to offer theoretical, conceptual, and applied/practical presentations of action research as it is found and conducted solely in educational settings. Covering primarily PK-12 educational settings, the book utilizes a cross-section of international authors and…

In this autoethnography, I examine the challenges I faced as a private-to-public-sector novice CFO entering a resource-constrained 41-thousand-student K-12 urban school district in Colorado. This study chronicles how I deliberately slowed down my interactions within a complex adaptive system (CAS) through ethnographic interviewing to identify the…

Assuming the responsibility of ensuring that hundreds or thousands of students obtain the instruction and knowledge that they will need to be successful in life is a serious undertaking. Courageous school principals who accept this challenge are held responsible for providing the organization and leadership that provides the foundation for an…

The application of technology in classroom settings has equipped educators with innovative tools and techniques for effective teaching practice. Integrating digital technologies at the elementary and secondary levels helps to enrich the students' learning experience and maximize competency in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and…

A federal policy in the United States has required sweeping changes in K-12 education. With No Child Left Behind legislation, schools are challenged to create conditions that bring each student to federally-set academic proficiency levels. Many schools have become more attentive to data about student performance and how it can inform their…

This book describes a professional development model for new and experienced principals -- a collaborative leadership inquiry seminar. The authors combine existing models of structured professional conversations about education into an on-going leadership development experience that will work in large, urban school districts. They examine how to…

Three teachers in an inquiry group reflect on what it takes to be an excellent, persistent urban teacher. Analysis of the data generated from this inquiry included such themes as teaching as intellectual work and teaching as democratic practice. Highlights problems confronting urban schools, among which are teacher retention; teacher diversity and…

This paper discusses recent trends in the field of after-school education and addresses how today's climate of after-school education promotes a pro-learning/anti-development stance, albeit unintentionally. It uses research from one urban after-school program to illustrate this point, framing staff and children's understanding of the developmental…

In improving urban public schools, the urgency of demands placed on research should not be allowed to reduce the complexity of answers to the problem. Heeding the call for complexity and examining areas not currently studied (e.g., implications of race, class, and gender) are key to generating research on teacher education that will be useful to…

Florida's Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) is preparing all children for success in the mathematics and science, technology-dependent 21st century. Ongoing National Science Foundation funding catalyzed substantial changes in the systemic reform movement of mathematics and science education from 1994-99. The Miami-Dade USI produced…

Directed to improve administrative leadership effectiveness, the Philadelphia School District's new regional superintendent determined that participant research and practitioner inquiry would encourage principals, teachers, and support staff to become a community engaged in thinking, learning, and working together to educate urban learners. Staff…

At Central Park East (CPE) schools in East Harlem, New York City, 90 percent of students graduate from high school and 90 percent of those go on to college. Starting with the CPE success story, this book shows why good education is possible for all children, and why public education is vital to the future of our democracy. Begun in the mid-1970s,…