Julia Kearney and Lori Bingham (pseudonyms), two middle school social studies teachers in a large urban school, have a problem. They want to have their students asking and exploring important questions about American history, and they want them to have the vocabulary knowledge needed to do so. While Julia and Lori recognize the rich linguistic…

Recently, makerspaces have captured the imaginations of educators as resources for transforming school-based learning. Aligning informal making practices with the formal aims of the school curriculum, however, can present challenges. In this article, Philip Nichols and Kurt Salisbury show how educators in two very different contexts -- a suburban…

Sustainability practices that lead to greener schools are often overlooked in leadership preparation programs and in school improvement efforts. An urban middle school principal recognizes the potential to build community, foster a healthy learning environment, and redefine her school through focusing on sustainability practices in a collaborative…

Among the many factors contributing to the historical lack of reading gains of our Black male students is the absence of texts accurately and authentically representing African American characters in today's schools. In addition, well-meaning educators are not adept in identifying and selecting these types of texts in order to provide African…

Principal Vanessa Sanchez assumed leadership of a high-need, high-poverty urban school with a mandate from the district superintendent to change the school culture and to build an instructional team aligned to the principal's theory of change. The central dilemma of the case is how to lead organizational change while managing interpersonal…

Monica Williams, a beloved counselor of an urban middle school, is shocked to learn that she is being terminated for a comment she made on Facebook. This case was developed for use in an educational leadership course for students to evaluate an educator's right to freedom of speech in relation to social media. Instructors can use the case to…

Discover the teaching practices that make the biggest difference in student performance! The new edition of this practical, research-based book gives leaders and teachers an even closer look at instructional practices from top award-winning urban schools. With refreshed examples from high-performing teachers and detailed analyses of these…

In today's globally connected world, it is essential for students to have an understanding of multiple cultures and perspectives. In this edited collection, Kathy Short, Deanna Day, and Jean Schroeder bring together fourteen educators who use global children's literature to help students explore their own cultural identities. The book lays out why…

Discourse requires students to evaluate and interpret the perspectives, ideas, and mathematical arguments of others as well as construct valid arguments of their own. That is, students develop deeper understandings of mathematics when they engage in meaningful social interactions such as whole class discourse. Both the National Council of Teachers…

The focus of this qualitative study is to document two middle school science teachers' perceptions of social justice and how these teachers implement various aspects of social justice in their science instruction. The two teachers teach science in an urban school that serves students from low-income, immigrant, and ethnic minority families. The…

Erika was a failing student at a large urban public middle school. She was poor, Hispanic, bilingual, and had repeated fourth grade. She scored low on her standardized tests and was failing several subject areas. In class, Erika was a student who sat silently with her head on her desk, and rarely turned in any of her assignments. She was a…

As the education reform movement increasingly focuses on teachers and teaching, educators, policy-makers, and researchers need valid and reliable measures that can be used to evaluate individual teachers, provide guidance for improving teaching performance, and support research in ways that advance instruction and classroom dialog and practice. A…

Early career science teachers are often assigned to classrooms with high numbers of English language learners (ELLs). For the underprepared early career science teacher, these circumstances are challenging. This study examines the changes in beliefs and practices of an early career science teacher who taught high numbers of ELLs in an urban…

There is a documented need for more opportunities for teachers to learn about students' mathematical reasoning. This article reports on the experiences of a group of elementary and middle school mathematics teachers who participated as interns in an after-school, classroom-based research project on the development of mathematical ideas involving…

Classroom management continues to be a serious concern for teachers and especially in urban and diverse learning environments. The authors present the culturally responsive classroom management practices of two teachers from an urban and diverse middle school to extend the construct, culturally responsive classroom management. The principles that…