Urban Education

The purpose of the current study was to examine the roles of acculturation, economic value of education, and gender in the academic achievement of Latino adolescents. Participants (N = 143) were 12th-grade students at an urban public high school. Analyses revealed that a higher economic value of education was related to higher academic achievement. In addition, female participants reported higher levels of economic value of education and had higher grade point averages (GPAs) than male participants. Significant associations were found among aspects of acculturation and academic achievement. Gender differences were also found on acculturation variables. Language preference, an acculturation variable, and economic value of education were found to explain why girls had higher GPAs than boys. This study’s findings shed light on factors that contribute to Latinos’ educational performance. Future directions and implications are discussed.

State takeovers of local school districts represent one of the most recent kinds of education reform. Americans favor both local control over education and state takeovers of failing schools. African American leaders tend to oppose takeovers, but survey data suggest that African American citizens support greater state influence over local education. To explain these paradoxes, this study examines conditions under which jurisdictions support state intervention. It concludes that opposition to this reform emanates from jurisdictions where large percentages of African American voters turn out at high rates. The percentage of a jurisdiction’s schools eligible for takeover because of academic deficiencies exerts a statistically insignificant effect on aggregate-level votes for intervention.

Zero tolerance policy was created as a result of the Gun Free Schools Act of 1994. Varied views exist on zero tolerance policy that include its substantive impact, for whom it is intended, and its viability to address the problem of school violence. Parents, politicians, principals, and teachers have stated their views on the issues. However, there is a voice that is conspicuously absent in this dialogue—that is, students for whom the policy was created to protect. Therefore, in an effort to understand the impact of zero tolerance policy, this study examines urban student perceptions regarding their sense of safety in their schools.

This study is a longitudinal analysis of the early career decisions made by graduates of an urban-focused secondary teacher preparation program. By matching graduates’ self-reported commitment to teaching in urban schools at the end of the training program to the demographic data of the schools where they subsequently teach, the authors explore the relationship between preservice teacher attitudes about urban schools and their actual career decisions by tracking the urbanicity and student characteristics of graduates’ schools. The authors find that most graduates attain teaching jobs in urban schools, and higher percentages of graduates who exit the program more committed to teaching in urban schools take jobs in urban schools with higher percentages of students of color and low-income students. The vast majority of graduates remain in urban schools, but those graduates who transfer to work in less urban and/or schools with fewer students of color or teachers who leave the field altogether are those who reported lower urban commitment. Understanding how professed commitments to teaching in urban schools at the end of a teacher education program are associated with the subsequent career decisions of graduates represents an important step in understanding why some individuals elect to teach and remain in urban schools.

Student achievement data in schools are often analyzed in terms of ethnic and racial parameters. Such data categorize African immigrant students as African Americans, thus creating an impression of homogeneity within the African American racial group. Given that these immigrant students relocate to the United States with cultural backgrounds that shape their views on educational opportunities, their school experiences render a unique perspective on the dynamics of schooling in the United States. Students enroll in schools where their racial status is an important defining characteristic. Their response to the school system and the racial and social dynamics that accompany this status has definite implications for their academic and social school experiences.

The last two decades have seen dramatic change in U.S. schooling as a response to high-stakes accountability and market-based reform movements. Critics cite a number of unfortunate consequences of these movements, especially for students in urban schools. This article explores the troubling ironies related to one strategy for survival in this environment: constructing an image of a “good school.” Drawing from an ethnographic study of an urban middle school, the author argues that the administration developed and promoted an image of a good school in the public sphere but this image did not reflect the experiences of students and teachers. The author develops this argument by drawing out four ironies that resulted from image-building in a climate of high-stakes accountability and market-driven reform.