Despite the widely recognized effectiveness of place-based education (PBE) by researchers in the science education community, there is a lack of resources and curriculum appropriate for the environment of urban schools. Unequal access to quality science curriculum materials is an ongoing issue facing urban schools in the United States. This basic…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to investigate the lived experiences of practicing teachers, including their origins of mindset related to urban education, and to explore how their preparation for teaching in urban schools enabled them to implement culturally responsive pedagogy in their classrooms. There is ample…

Problem: The high attrition rate among teachers poses significant challenges for schools (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2019; Covay Minor et al., 2019; Hammonds, 2017; Ingersoll & Strong, 2011; Kamrath & Bradford, 2020; Ryu & Jinnai, 2021), particularly in urban settings with diverse student populations (Carver-Thomas &…

Struggle is a behavior that is often perceived in a negative light in education. Students respond to struggle by avoiding them. Likewise, educators respond by removing obstacles (e.g., heavily scaffolded instruction) or providing assistance prematurely. The ability and opportunity to engage in struggle, specifically productive struggle, is…

Educators play a crucial role in student skill development; hence this dissertation explores incentive-driven public policies and understands the effect that educators have on students. The first chapter estimates relative contributions of the subjective (supervisor observations and student surveys) versus objective (value-added) evaluation…

The United States educational system currently lacks cultural competence. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of teachers and coaches as they participate in transformational coaching to determine the utility of Elena Aguilar's model in supporting the development of cultural competency for educators. This study employed a fixed…

Beginning teachers report that they are not prepared and reluctant to teach in an urban setting. New teachers struggle immensely during their first few years of teaching to the point where they transfer to a suburban school or leave the teaching profession altogether. The purpose of this study was to create a list of recommendations for teacher…

With the implementation of the "Common Core State Standards for Mathematics," school administrators expect teachers to teach students on grade-level while preparing them to be college and career-ready. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand how secondary mathematics teachers prepare mathematics students from…

This study uses qualitative case study analysis to explore the lived experience of teachers in one school building in a New York urban school district, and examines how they perceive the effects of school building conditions on the teaching and learning process. This study found that teachers are not able to make teaching and learning a priority…

There are 22 traditional public and 14 public charter schools in Central Harlem's Community School District 5 ("CSD 5"), educating approximately 9,200 students in grades 3 to 8, of whom 94% are Black or Hispanic and 84% economically disadvantaged. School results on 2019 statewide tests ranged from 99.8 % down to only 8.3% at grade level…

This study explores the impact of attending optional professional learning events on the critical consciousness development of Ready to Learn (RtL) mentors over the course of one program year. Ready to Learn is an out of school time math tutoring and mentoring program that seeks to address opportunity gaps in math learning for middle school…

With this dissertation I present a self-narrative autoethnography to share the pedagogical practices that have been found to be successful in the academic achievement of mathematics with a specific sector of Students of Color, Black/African American students, in the urban inner-city schools. A combination of self reflected teaching experiences in…

This research study explored minority teachers' experiences in their teacher preparation programs after 1 to 5 years of teaching. The researcher examined whether these preparatory programs prepared novice teachers to teach in an urban, under-resourced school. The researcher's goal was to give novice elementary teachers who identify as minority a…

Parent participation continues to decline among African American communities in urban schools. Parental involvement is essential to closing the achievement gap in urban schools. This grounded theory study explored the principals' perceptions and experiences of elementary school principals, parents, and district office staff as it relates to…

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that impact teachers' decisions to remain teaching in an urban school district. The researcher analyzed survey data provided by the Office of Planning and Accountability for an urban school district in Tennessee. The findings of the study are also discussed as well as any implication for…