The racial/ethnic populations in public schools have changed dramatically in recent years and will continue to shift to a majority non-White population. The National Center for Education Statistics (2010) reports 67.3% of the student population in urban districts is composed of students of color. Yet, the population of teachers in the United…

As a part of the United States Department of Education Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants (TQE) program, a professional development project was conducted to support selected urban teachers from a Professional Development School to think reflectively about their teaching and learning. The 24 survey items were developed based on the three domains of…

Many new teachers in urban settings understand that the ways in which they are required to teach stem from local implementation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), entitled "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB). Unfortunately, they find the legislation confusing, the implementations baffling, and the effect on the practicing…

Research about educational resilience provides a framework for understanding why some at risk children are successful in school, while others are not. It can inform and guide teachers as they strive to improve the odds of urban student achievement. This research, an instrumental multiple case study, gathered the experiences of three experienced…

Each year, the National Center for Educational Statistics, through the US Department of Education Institute of Educational Sciences, publishes information about the need for millions of new teachers in the USA. Many of these positions are in urban schools. What makes new teachers beat the odds and remain in challenging schools? This study…

The article suggests that though narrative inquiry as a research methodology entails free conversations and personal stories, yet it should not be totally free and fictional as it has to conform to some recognized standards used for conducting educational research. Hence, a qualitative study conducted by Russ (1999) was explored as an exemplar…

School climate is created through the combined culture of the adults and students within a school--both the culture they share as an organization and the diverse cultures they bring from home. This study compared the school climate of two elementary schools, one urban and one suburban, by measuring 179 fourth and fifth grade students' and 65…

This study considers the lives of two veteran, urban high school teachers who have persisted in the profession over several decades, and who demonstrate an investment and enthusiasm for the work that is unusual among teachers in "difficult" schools. Through ethnographic, open-ended interviews and observations, the study seeks to identify those…

This anthology places art at the center of meaningful urban education reform. Providing a fresh perspective on urban education, the contributors describe a positive, asset-based community development model designed to tap into the teaching/learning potential already available in urban cities. Rather than focusing on a lack of resources, this…

A concern of the public and of local school districts is that of staffing well-qualified teachers for the education of America's youth. Staffing, however, is a multistage process that involves attracting a viable candidate pool and retraining those selected. To determine if attraction and retention are sequential or related administrative…

The purpose of this study was to examine urban teachers' identified strengths in varied cognitive, affective, and psychological capacities, and their impact on self-efficacy and teacher practices. Clifton and Anderson in the Gallup Organization's Strengths Quest (2004) presented compelling evidence suggesting a mind-set of "what's right with me"…

This article presents a new notion of teacher "quality" and defines the progressive outcomes upon which urban teacher preparation might be founded. The paper includes a description of the masters licensure program with which the authors are involved and the program's portfolio system that assesses future urban teachers' integration of this social…

Existing problems identified in the literature on teacher retention and resilience include (a) a gap in understanding factors influencing urban teacher retention; (b) lack of clarity on multiple factors swaying teachers' decisions to remain despite challenges; (c) overlapping definitions of teacher retention, attrition, and resilience; and (d)…

Urban districts suffer from a severe shortage of qualified science teachers. Therefore, many new science teachers will need to take positions in urban districts with little or no exposure to urban communities. As a result, prospective teachers find it difficult to learn how to negotiate the cultural contexts of urban teaching. Consequently, it is…

This article describes how one university-based center, UCLA's Center X, has worked to prepare and sustain urban educators over the past 16 years. Synthesizing findings from more than 20 articles, papers, books, and dissertations that report on Center X's work, we argue that three key activities are necessary to spur change and ensure a…