The Pathways program at Armstrong Atlantic State University (Georgia) is taking non-certified school district employees who have exemplary work records, better than average grades, and a sincere commitment to teaching and offering them tuition and other support so that they can take college courses and earn degrees leading to teacher…

As part of course requirements, preservice teachers in the reading/language arts early field program at the University of Southern Mississippi write two case narratives per semester about their teaching experiences in an urban elementary school. This paper discusses the benefits of case writing for preservice teachers and explains the specific…

The Special Education Professional In Training (SEPIT) program is a tuition assistance program designed to alleviate critical shortages of special education teachers and clinicians in New York City Public Schools. It gives individuals the opportunity to pursue post-baccalaureate study and obtain placement in bilingual and monolingual special…

This paper describes a project conducted to strengthen consumer and homemaking education programs in economically depressed, urban areas of New Jersey by increasing the competence of home economics educators. The project focused on meeting the needs of school-age pregnant and parenting students. Objectives included identification of relevant home…

This monograph critiques professional development schools (PDSs) and their role in the renewal of urban schools. Chapter 1 clarifies what is meant by the PDS model and describes the central goals of PDS initiatives. Chapter 2 critically assesses the value of PDSs to school renewal and the preparation of teachers for effective work in diverse urban…

In 1984, Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC) received an Urban Community College Transer Opportunity Program (UCCTOP) grant to develop a successful transition model to encourage minority student enrollment at MDCC, North Campus, to improve minority students' success in transferring to four-year institutions, and to improve the retention rate of…

Examination of college enrollment in Atlanta, Georgia, showed the starkest contrasts between White gains and Black declines of any of the five metropolitan regions studied by the University of Chicago's Metropolitan Opportunity Project: while there were no declines in enrollment for White or Hispanic students, there were substantial declines for…

This report is a compilation of reports from ten Task Forces convened by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in May 1977. The challenge was to examine what quality education is, what it takes for the system to deliver quality education to every student, and why the system has failed with many black youths. Ways…

Articles in this theme issue explore pathways into teaching, focusing on programs that recruit future teachers, and specifically on programs that target minority future teachers. "Pathways to Teaching: Building Quality and Diversity in America's Schools" by Segun Eubanks introduces a number of programs that are drawing from populations…

Center X (Where Research and Practice Intersect for Urban School Professionals) at the University of California, Los Angeles, is the school's teacher education program. It integrates preservice teacher education, beginning teacher induction, and continuing professional education in an effort to create a new culture of teacher education and…

Nine middle school teachers developed objectives and activities for a pilot early field experience to introduce freshman teacher candidates to the complexity and student diversity of urban education. Compared to 30 freshmen placed in a traditional (tutoring) field experience, project freshmen demonstrated greater personal teaching efficacy,…

A student teacher in a Toronto (Ontario) elementary school found that the lack of natural settings did not inhibit environmental education. When urban students explored local environmental conditions such as polluting factories and lack of species diversity, they were better able to consider how their lives were affected and how their attitudes…

Describes a 5th-year teacher education program created by social foundations faculty in partnership with inner city schools, arguing that as state and national movements favor broader performance-based standards over social foundations, social foundations faculty cannot rely on state regulations to safeguard their courses. The partnership…

A study examining the characteristics of students engaged in service learning and the association between service learning participation and student performance involved 699 college students in an American government course over three semesters. Females and lower-income students were more likely to be service learning participants, and service…

This study used a naturalistic, qualitative design to investigate 12 preservice teachers' views toward urban education during a two-week experience in an urban high school. In-depth case studies to two of the subjects were constructed using data sources consisting of essays and interviews (pre- and post-experience), student journals, and…