As we enter deeper into the 21st Century, there is a more urgent need to transform our educational system in the United States to better prepare our youth for the careers and technology of the future. This study examines how improving technology education at the high school level can improve the learning and college readiness of urban youth. It…

Urban gifted children encounter many forces that derail the development of their full potential. A report by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and Civic Enterprises found that more than a million children in poverty rank in the top quartile academically, but few of these children will find adequate opportunities to fulfill such potential in urban…

Transactional theories of development suggest that displaying high levels of antisocial behavior early in life and persistently over time causes disruption in multiple life domains, which in turn places individuals at risk for negative life outcomes. We used longitudinal data from 1,137 primarily African American urban youth (49.1% female) to…

In recent years, schools have become a focal point for general delinquency and gang prevention programs for a variety of reasons. One premise behind this approach is that schools can serve as ideal settings for providing delinquency and intervention services because youths spend so much time there. School-based gang prevention efforts are supposed…

This paper presents the results of an exploratory, small-scale qualitative research enquiry into the perceptions and experiences of young people in communities afflicted by deprivation in Glasgow, Scotland's largest city. The context within which we address this focus contains a culture reputed to involve sectarianism, territoriality and gangs.…

Students attacking other students. Students attacking teachers, support staff, and even community members. Disrespectful and threatening language, overwhelmed or inattentive parents, and an administrative system that often appears unable to bring back order in the classroom. These are stories have become an everyday part of teaching in urban…

One of the primary aims of education in the United States is to prepare youth to contribute to civic life in a democracy. Urban youth have daily school and community experiences with poverty, violence, and injustice that complicate their relationship with civic life. In this article the authors explore the ramifications of these experiences for…

Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Project Green Reach (PGR) is a children's program that has offered garden-based youth education since 1990. PGR focuses on Grade K-8 students and teachers from local Title I schools who work in teams on garden and science projects. In this exploratory study, the authors used field observations, document analysis, and past…

Psychological distress has been inconsistently associated with sexual risk behavior in youth, suggesting additional factors, such as substance use, may explain this relationship. The mediating or moderating role of substance use on the relationship between psychological distress and sexual risk behaviors was prospectively examined over the four…

Emerging from Rap music, Hip Hop has become a lifestyle to many modern youth around the world. Embodying both creativity and controversy, Hip Hop mirrors the values, violence, and hypocrisy of modern culture. The authors dispel some of the simplistic views that surround this evolving youth movement embraced by millions of young people who are…

One of the most striking features of crime in America is its disproportionate concentration in disadvantaged, racially segregated communities. In this paper we estimate the effects of court-ordered school desegregation on crime by exploiting plausibly random variation in the timing of when these orders go into effect across the set of large urban…

Brendtro, Brokenleg, and Van Bockern (2002) describe the Circle of Courage model for creating environments in which all children can thrive. This approach blends youth developmental research, the wisdom of pioneer workers, and Native American philosophies of child care. This model for reclaiming youth at risk posits four elements as essential for…

This study examines the association between trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among 157 help-seeking children (aged 8-17). Structured clinical interviews are carried out, and linear and logistic regression analyses are conducted to examine the relationship between PTSD and type of trauma exposure controlling for age, gender,…

Purpose: By examining data from interviews with students in the Upward Bound (UB) Program (a federally sponsored program that provides academic support to students at risk preparing for college entrance), this study seeks to strengthen understanding of the stages of trust in educational organizations that serve urban youth and in so doing provoke…

The study examines how urban school principals lead schools that make a difference for children in challenging settings. This research delves deeply into the experiences of three urban public school principals in the School District of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, who used technology as an avenue to improve educational options for their students.…