The current case demonstrates the complexities of utilizing Youth Court as a restorative practice in an urban high school, by focusing on the complexities it presents for one student in particular. In this case, there are reasons why Youth Court clearly is not working at this particular school site as intended. However, more importantly for…

Persistent educational inequity for immigrant and refugee students and their families calls for instructional practices centering on access, quality, and social justice. Drawing on two qualitative case studies, this article examines how three U.S. urban school teachers attended to the systemic inequalities and unique challenges confronting…

Social justice, ensuring that all students receive access to equitable educational resources and opportunities to succeed academically, is a guiding principle for school counselors. With this ideal in mind, specific sociocultural factors that affect the academic achievement of African American students in urban school settings are considered.…

Urban education systems serve nearly 16 million students and employ almost one million teachers in the United States. The preparation of teachers for urban settings must attend to the unique and complex historical and sociocultural context of urban communities. This includes disrupting dominant stereotypes, particularly of urban communities of…

Despite their long history and importance in the American curriculum, music programs must constantly justify their place in the twenty-first century. Urban areas that are economically depressed sometimes may not be able to offer music instruction due to the emphasis on raising test scores as well as unfavorable economic conditions that may limit…

This one year study examines the journey of two preservice urban high-school teachers in Arizona as they enact Culturally Responsive Teaching in a year-long student teaching residency. Factors that influenced their Culturally Responsive Teaching practices are discussed along themes that emerged from interviews and classroom observations.…

In this article we explore recent history to uncover the role that public engagement has played in the effort to reform America's urban schools. In the place of narratives that focus on elite actors (foundations, unions, corporations, etc.), we focus on the role of local stakeholders. Specifically, we look to how the changing political context…

This volume illuminates the most pressing challenges faced by urban schools, teachers, teacher candidates, and teacher training programs and offers a range of insights and possibilities for urban teacher education and teaching. Covering issues spanning the broadly theoretical to the urgently practical, it goes beyond the traditional discourses in…

After over 40 years of education reform policies and strategies, America continues its need for systemic education reform. The greatest challenge confronting the nation remains within large urban metropolises where large numbers of minority students attend underfunded and low-performing schools with low standardized test scores and high dropout…