The present case study investigated the impact of a short-term summer literacy approach on writing performance and self-perception of writing for young adolescents of low-income families residing in urban housing projects. The approach offered intensive literacy engagement to offset summer achievement loss; assisted ethnic-minority, low…

Urban agriculture initiatives are on the rise, providing healthy food while teaching a land ethic to youth. In parallel, increasing numbers of university graduates are obtaining Extension work requiring the effective communication of science in a diverse, urban, low-income setting. This study evaluates a pilot service-learning program, the…

The purpose of the study is to determine student views of the influence of the Eco Education Urban Stewards program's impact on their involvement in community environmental initiatives. Eco Education is a non-profit organization in St. Paul that facilitates an urban, environmental, year-long science curriculum delivered in middle schools in…

The purpose of this study was to examine to what extent a teacher education program prepares teacher candidates to be effective urban educators who are reflective, innovative, and committed to diversity based on the perceptions and insight from students. As the nation grapples with an extreme range of outputs from our public schools, an…

This article tells a story of practice, a story of theory, and how each informs and transforms the other through a two-way flow of people and knowledge from a city to a campus and back again. By reflecting with fellow participants on the events and outcomes of a sustained city campus partnership, the author introduces a theory of engagement from…

The Academy for Educational Development (AED) sent a research team to New York University (NYU) on December 8-9, 2008 to conduct interviews with individuals who play important roles in the university's teacher preparation program. These interviews, along with additional documentation provided by NYU and identified by the AED research team, provide…

This paper reflects upon the nature of a target-setting and mentoring scheme in an 11-16 school in England, through a series of retrospective interviews with students who continued into further education. It considers the extent to which the initiative impacted both upon students' formal academic achievement at 16+ and upon the subsequent…

In 1988, the Chicago public school system decentralized, granting parents and communities significant resources and authority to reform their schools in dramatic ways. To track the effects of this bold experiment, the authors of "Organizing Schools for Improvement" collected a wealth of data on elementary schools in Chicago. Over a…

Partnership is a dominant theme in education policy and practice in England and in other western countries but remains relatively under-researched, especially with respect to what sustains a partnership. This article draws on a study of partnership working in the field of post-16 learning that revealed the role of dimensions of social capital in…

The Academy for Educational Development (AED) sent a research team to the University of Dayton (UD) on November 5-7, 2008, to conduct interviews with individuals who played significant roles in the university's teacher preparation program (see Appendix A). These interviews, along with additional materials provided by UD and identified by the AED…

The Exploratorium is home to XTech, a science education program which began in 2006 and was primarily funded by a three-year National Science Foundation grant (Award # 05-25217) through its ITEST (Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers) initiative. XTech provided project-based afterschool activities in science, engineering,…

The Academy for Educational Development (AED) sent a research team to Jackson State University (JSU) on October 13-14, 2008 to conduct interviews with individuals who play important roles in the university's teacher preparation program (see Appendix A). These interviews, along with additional documentation provided by JSU and identified by the AED…

To help students through the difficult process of transfer, many institutions nationwide have developed Transfer Centers, physical locations where students can come to learn more about the transfer process. The mission of Transfer Centers is to promote and support community college students who are seeking to transfer to four-year institutions.…

This study examined the meaning of inclusion to different stakeholder groups and implications for the identification of effective educational practices for students with disabilities. Twenty individuals involved in inclusive education in urban and suburban settings were interviewed, including regular education teachers, special education teachers,…