While general arts programs have declined in many schools across the United States and Canada, the number of specialized art programs in public secondary schools has swelled since the 1980s. While this increase is often celebrated by arts educators, questions about the justification of specialized arts programs are rarely raised, and their value…

Schools tell stories. The materials, designs, and aesthetic flourishes found in and on older schools built during the Progressive Era of American Education can be examined and unpacked for their purposes, subtle messages, and audiences. This type of analysis is of great importance, as many of these schools are still in use today and have served…

Research shows that gang-associated youth are less likely to complete high school and earn a postsecondary educational credential. However, scholars have not determined "why" gang youth do not persist into higher education. This ethnographic study aims to focus on the narratives of 13 Latino high school young men to understand what…

This study explores the association between school-level poverty rates and young peoples' perceptions of student empowerment, drawing on survey and administrative data from a large urban district. Participants included 29,318 diverse youth in grades 6-12 from 211 schools. We used multilevel linear regression models to estimate the relationships…

Urban public universities play a critical role in the higher education missions of access and success of historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged populations. Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) also attract similar scholarly attention to understand the impact of these institutions on marginalized and underrepresented racial…

This digest provides descriptive, aggregated statistics related to the experiences of 10 cohorts of graduates of City Schools from school years 2010-11 through 2019-20. The compilers use multiple indicators of college access, including the process of applying for college and financial aid, enrollment in the fall following high school graduation,…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) have difficulty with academic engagement during independent seatwork tasks. The goal of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Behavior Bingo, a novel interdependent group contingency intervention, on the academic engagement, off-task, and disruptive behavior of students with…

Literacy has been defined in the literature frequently. Each new interpretation leads to the idea that the definition can change based on the relevant environment, instruments used and/or the intended objective and there might be different types of literacy including computer literacy, media literacy and visual literacy (Reinking, McKenna, Labbo…

Districts make and implement policies aiming to improve structures, practices, and outcomes. Instructional coaching has become a popular lever to catalyze instructional improvement efforts. However, many questions remain about the alignment between coaching and reforms. This article draws on coupling theory to analyze the relationship between…

Although schools administer many assessments, there is a lack of consensus regarding the best way to combine different pieces of information to facilitate evidence-based decision-making, particularly within multitiered systems of support. Although largely unheard of in education, the nomogram is an evidence-based assessment tool that is widely…

The authors describe an undergraduate research program at the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) organized around high-altitude ballooning and carried out primarily in an open, maker-space environment. Two cohorts of students were recruited. They undertook projects in biology, chemistry, engineering, environmental science, and physics. Via the…

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a widely implemented, culturally responsive framework using prevention and intervention activities to promote a safe school climate and positive academic and behavioral student outcomes. Using a qualitative single-case study design, authors provide a rich description of PBIS implementation…

Students from urban high schools are usually faced with adverse environmental factors in their pursuit of academic success. These factors make learning more challenging and may confound the measurement of academic performance itself. This study explores how one such factor, ambient noise, affects the measurement of mathematics achievement.…

While teaching is often touted as the single most important factor for the success of students, at the core of instruction is a foundation rooted in the classroom relationship between students and teachers. Despite teachers being regarded as the authority of instruction within their respective classrooms, what is frequently missing is the voices…

Drawing on a mixed methods study of a district-wide initiative to integrate civic learning practices into the high school humanities curriculum in an urban school district in Northern California, this article examines the relationship between face-to-face versus online civic learning opportunities and students' motivation for engaging in practices…