Download or read book When Middle Class Parents Choose Urban Schools written by Linn Posey-Maddox and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades a growing number of middle-class parents have considered sending their children to—and often end up becoming active in—urban public schools. Their presence can bring long-needed material resources to such schools, but, as Linn Posey-Maddox shows in this study, it can also introduce new class and race tensions, and even exacerbate inequalities. Sensitively navigating the pros and cons of middle-class transformation, When Middle-Class Parents Choose Urban Schools asks whether it is possible for our urban public schools to have both financial security and equitable diversity. Drawing on in-depth research at an urban elementary school, Posey-Maddox examines parents’ efforts to support the school through their outreach, marketing, and volunteerism. She shows that when middle-class parents engage in urban school communities, they can bring a host of positive benefits, including new educational opportunities and greater diversity. But their involvement can also unintentionally marginalize less-affluent parents and diminish low-income students’ access to the improving schools. In response, Posey-Maddox argues that school reform efforts, which usually equate improvement with rising test scores and increased enrollment, need to have more equity-focused policies in place to ensure that low-income families also benefit from—and participate in—school change.
Download or read book Improving Urban Middle Schools written by L. Mickey Fenzel and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2014-02-07 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2010 Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award in the category of "The Professional Studies" , presented by Association of Jesuit Colleges and University and Alpha Sigma Nu Nativity schools—there are over forty in urban areas throughout the United States—provide an important alternative to urban middle schools failing to provide their students with an adequate education. Nativity schools, which are privately funded, provide a year-round educational experience for at-risk urban children. They feature small classes, an extended day, and attention to students' social and spiritual developmental needs. L. Mickey Fenzel visited eleven Nativity schools in seven cities, conducting interviews and classroom observations, and collecting standardized test scores and survey data. Fenzel examines features of the Nativity model that distinguish it from other educational programs and takes a close look at the controversial use of volunteer teachers. The Nativity model is also discussed with respect to its social justice mission that is rooted in Jesuit tradition.
Download or read book Leadership in America s Best Urban Schools written by Joseph F. Johnson, Jr. and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-02-03 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leadership in America’s Best Urban Schools describes and demystifies the qualities that successful leaders rely on to make a difference at all levels of urban school leadership. Grounded in research, this volume reveals the multiple challenges that real urban elementary, middle, and high schools face as well as the catalysts for improvement. This insightful resource explores the critical leadership characteristics found in high-performing urban schools and gives leaders the tools to move their schools to higher levels of achievement for all students—but especially for those who are low-income, English-language learners, and from various racial and ethnic backgrounds. In shining a light on the essential qualities for exceptional leadership at all levels of urban schools, this book is a valuable guide for all educators and administrators to nurture, influence, support, and sustain excellence and equity at their schools.
Download or read book School Improvement Planning in Two Urban Middle Schools written by Genevieve D. Cepela and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: School improvement planning in two urban middle schools.
Download or read book Challenges of Urban Education written by Karen A. McClafferty and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2000-02-03 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents current research and theoretical perspectives on the challenges facing educators in U.S. urban schools.
Download or read book Factors Leading to the Improvement of Urban Middle Schools written by Karen Ann Morgan and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Creating Successful Urban Schools written by DR SANDY D. WOMACK JR and published by Lulu Publishing Services. This book was released on 2018-10-26 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creating Successful Urban Schools will provide the readers with specific unique strategies to increase the current levels of performance in public schools. The strategies are effective and incorporate the case study of Hartford Middle School. A 98% poverty - 90% minority school that moved from Academic Emergency to the Effective rating over a three year period. the case study along with the month by month guide with helpful hints will support novice to veteran administrators become servant leaders and successful educators.
Download or read book Teaching Practices from America s Best Urban Schools written by Joseph F. Johnson, Jr. and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-16 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover the teaching practices that make the biggest difference in student performance! This practical, research-based book gives principals, teachers, and school administrators a direct, inside look at instructional practices from top award-winning urban schools. The authors provide detailed examples and analyses of these practices, and successfully demystify the achievement of these schools. They offer practical guides to help educators apply these successful practices in their own schools. Teaching Practices from America's Best Urban Schools will be a valuable tool for any educator in both urban and non-urban schools-schools that serve diverse student populations, including English language learners and children from low-income families.
Download or read book The Urban School System of the Future written by Andy Smarick and published by R&L Education. This book was released on 2012-10-12 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than two generations, the traditional urban school system—the district—has utterly failed to do its job: prepare its students for a lifetime of success. Millions and millions of boys and girls have suffered the grievous consequences. The district is irreparably broken. For the sake of today’s and tomorrow’s inner-city kids, it must be replaced. The Urban School System of the Future argues that vastly better results can be realized through the creation of a new type of organization that properly manages a city’s portfolio of schools using the revolutionary principles of chartering. It will ensure that new schools are regularly created, that great schools are expanded and replicated, that persistently failing schools are closed, and that families have access to an array of high-quality options. This new entity will focus exclusively on school performance, meaning, among other things, our cities can thoughtfully integrate their traditional public, charter public, and private schools into a single, high-functioning k-12 system. For decades, the district has produced the most heartbreaking results for already at-risk kids. The Urban School System of the Future explains how we can finally turn the tide and create dynamic, responsive, high-performing, self-improving urban school systems that fulfill the promise of public education.
Download or read book Listening to Urban Kids written by Bruce L. Wilson and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2001-01-11 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Independent researchers interview urban middle school students to get their impressions of the teachers that help them to succeed in schools.
Download or read book Working in Urban Schools written by Tom Corcoran and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This document on the working conditions of urban teachers reports data from a survey of 31 elementary, middle, and secondary schools in five urban school districts. More than 400 interviews were conducted with teachers, school administrators, central office personnel, district officials, board members, and union officials. The observations, interviews, and analyses confirm that, in most of these schools, the working conditions of teachers are bleak and would not be tolerated in other professions. Among the findings are the following: (1) physical conditions are sub-standard because of a lack of maintenance, repair, and space; (2) safety is not a serious problem to teachers, except in very depressed neighborhoods; (3) teachers do not have even the basic resources needed, let alone access to new technologies; (4) teachers consider hiring more personnel to address the personal problems of students a higher priority than hiring more teachers to reduce class size; (5) teachers generally understand the cultural gulf between them and their students but are unable to deal with what they consider aberrant student behavior; (6) teachers perceive that they are losing control over what they teach, primarily because of district-wide testing policies although they are in control of how they teach; and (7) teachers have little confidence in supervision, staff development, or central office leadership. Characteristics of good working conditions are identified. Tables illustrate the data. Appendices compare these findings with those of other studies, provide a list of about 100 references, describe the methodology, and compare school effects. (BJV)
Download or read book Can Formal Informal Collaborations Improve Science Literacy in Urban Middle Schools written by Meryle Weinstein and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This brief presents findings from a study on Urban Advantage (UA), a collaboration between the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), other New York City informal science institutions, and the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) to improve the science literacy of NYC public school students. The analysis draws on a rich longitudinal database, containing student- and school-level data for all NYC public schools and students from 2004-05 to 2009-10. Results indicate that these collaborations can have a positive impact on student achievement and science learning. Key findings include: (1) Students at UA schools outperform students at non-UA schools. In 2006- 07, the third year of the program, 44.2% of students at UA schools are proficient on the Intermediate Level Science Test (ILS) exam, compared to 40.5% at non-UA schools. In 2008-09, 55.5% of students at UA schools are proficient, compared to 46.2% of students at non-UA schools; (2) The magnitude of the difference between students at UA and non-UA schools increases over time. Little change is seen in student performance on ELA or math for eighth-grade students, suggesting the effect is not merely reflecting coincident overall school improvement; (3) UA has grown from 35 schools and 63 teachers in 2005 to 174 schools and 386 teachers in 2010 and serves approximately 35% of middle schools and 20% of students in NYC; and (4) UA schools are similar to other NYC schools serving eighth graders, despite larger enrollments.
Download or read book Community Organizing for Urban School Reform written by Dennis Shirley and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Observers of all political persuasions agree that our urban schools are in a state of crisis. Yet most efforts at school reform treat schools as isolated institutions, disconnected from the communities in which they are embedded and insulated from the political realities which surround them. Community Organizing for Urban School Reform tells the story of a radically different approach to educational change. Using a case study approach, Dennis Shirley describes how working-class parents, public school teachers, clergy, social workers, business partners, and a host of other engaged citizens have worked to improve education in inner-city schools. Their combined efforts are linked through the community organizations of the Industrial Areas Foundation, which have developed a network of over seventy "Alliance Schools" in poor and working-class neighborhoods throughout Texas. This deeply democratic struggle for school reform contains important lessons for all of the nation's urban areas. It provides a striking point of contrast to orthodox models of change and places the political empowerment of low-income parents at the heart of genuine school improvement and civic renewal.
Download or read book Focus on the Wonder Years written by Jaana Juvonen and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2004-03-25 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young teens undergo multiple changes that seem to set them apart from other students. But do middle schools actually meet their special needs? The authors describe some of the challenges and offer ways to tackle them, such as reassessing the organization of grades K-12; specifically assisting the students most in need; finding ways to prevent disciplinary problems; and helping parents understand how they can help their children learn at home.
Download or read book Improving School and Family Partnerships in Urban Middle Grades Schools written by Joyce Levy Epstein and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An Analysis of an Urban Middle School s Strategies to Comply with the Accountability Provisions of No Child Left Behind written by Carol L. Staten and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The No Child Left Behind Act had a positive agenda-setting function on this urban middle school, forcing it to re-examine the strategies it was employing to improve student achievement. Changes or adjustments, in some part attributable to NCLB, were found in the manner in which teachers were assigned, professional development implemented, data utilized, and parent involvement focused. Staff perceived several of these changes as potentially important in theory to improving student achievement, although they saw substantial barriers, no discernable improvement in achievement was realized across the years studied. At the same time, the study found that NCLB had some negative consequences for the school. These included consequences such as: narrowing the curriculum due to the law's math and reading emphasis; reducing the availability of Title funds as a result of mandatory set asides and student choice; failing to recognized that HQT, while important, is not the only teacher quality that matters in advancing student performance; and hindering some on-going relationships between the school and families and among staff. Finally, the study questions as they applied to the fairness of NCLB to urban schools since their diversity multiplies the number of AYP targets that must be met, and heightens the difficulty of avoiding school improvement status and the sanctions that accompany it. The study employed a case study methodology. The triangulated and analyzed data included federal and state laws, state and local archival records and transcribed key-informant interviews of more than a dozen central office personnel and teachers of the urban middle school engaged in implementing the NCLB in this case study.
Download or read book Can Formal Informal Collaborations Improve Science Literacy in Urban Middle Schools The Impact of Urban Advantage written by Meryle Weinstein and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This brief presents findings from a study on Urban Advantage, a collaboration between the American Museum of Natural History, other New York City informal science institutions, and the New York City Department of Education to improve the science literacy of NYC public school students. The following analysis draws on a rich longitudinal database, containing student- and school-level data for all NYC public schools and students from 2004-05 to 2009-10. Results indicate that these collaborations can have a positive impact on student achievement and science learning. The findings from this study are especially timely given that U.S. students consistently show low levels of achievement on tests of science literacy. On the 2009 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), only 63% of eighth-graders demonstrated “partial mastery of the knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work” in science. For urban school districts like New York City, the NAEP scores are even more alarming.
