Although a growing body of literature is produced on reform of urban school districts, few studies examine shifts in the culture of managers resulting from reorganization in these bureaucracies. This article engages an analysis of central office managerial culture in the New York City Department of Education during a culminating moment of district…

The profusion of human rights atrocities and purported incidents of genocide across the globe in recent decades has increasingly forced multiple and complicated issues associated with combating these violations onto the political agendas of world leaders and institutions. Scholars are united in recognizing the growing importance and need for…

Through a Foucauldian lens, this article examines the affordances and constraints of an online peer-review program in four special education English language arts classes in two New York City middle schools. Data from classroom observations, teacher interviews, and online student spaces and artifacts provide insight into the technologies of power…

Positive youth development and youth organizing are strengths-based approaches to the lives, needs, and contributions of young people (Damon & Gregory, 2003). These approaches privilege the voices of youth as they engage with issues in their communities and challenge institutions to respond. Few studies, however, have explored the role of…

The psychological, social, and emotional aspects of education have enjoyed increased attention in recent years as often termed "non-cognitive factors" and "soft skills" have gained traction in research, policy, and practice circles as major drivers of student achievement. This renewed attention represents an important shift, as…

This qualitative case study investigates how service-learning may enable self-direction and the development of a critical consciousness for marginalized high school students by exploring the dynamics of service-learning through a theoretical framework of critical theory. Service-learning is theorized to counter the oppressive nature of schooling…

By 2008, New York City's school governing regime contained two market-creation policies. Each reshaped principal incentives. One closed large high schools, replacing them with four-to-eight small schools. Another replaced uniform district-provided services with eleven School Support Organizations (SSOs). Both aimed to empower principals with new…

Human service practitioners face challenges in communicating how their programs lead to desired outcomes. One framework for representation that is now widely used in the field of program evaluation is the program logic model. This article presents an example of how qualitative data were used to refine a logic model for the Cornell Family…

Teachers in high-needs settings working with diverse populations are typically cited as a central element for school improvement yet are often described as resistant to such efforts. We sought to investigate the reasons behind teachers' views and beliefs about school reform within the context of collaboration and professional development, rather…

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine, to what degree, African American teachers in five selected, urban charter schools in New York performed the historical roles of counselor, advocate, disciplinarian, surrogate parent, and role model in, to determine how African American Teachers perceived the importance of performing the…

Teacher leadership is "hard." Many of the reasons are obvious: Teaching is a highly labor-intensive profession to begin with, leaving little downtime for work with other adults. School schedules are notoriously stingy with space for adult collaboration. Teachers are rarely paid to exercise leadership; when they are, they are never paid…