With or without pandemics, successful knowledge transfers and instilment of critical thinking in learners are strategic to teaching delivery. To revolutionize teaching practice and profession, the specific needs of every group of learners (such as gifted and talented, depressed, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder students, minority ethnic…

Insofar as urban school systems that are often identified as ineffective include such a large segment of U.S. P-12 students, it is vital to improve academic success. To provide context, the article first discusses key challenges facing urban schools. Second, the article identifies and briefly reviews a variety of approaches to reform models often…

The growing immigrant population in the United States consists of school-aged children who are in need of educational opportunities available through the country's existing educational system. Education, a basic human right, is mandated through compulsory education laws in the United States so that all children can learn, grow, and be prepared for…

The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, hip hop of the 1980s and early 1990s, and spoken word poetry have each attempted to initiate the dialogical process outlined by Paulo Freire as necessary in overturning oppression. Each art form has done this by critically engaging with the world and questioning dominant systems of power. However,…

As the postscript for this special issue of Education and Urban Society, this article considers the struggles urban schools report confronting as they implement standards-based reform and high stakes testing and discusses the implications these challenge have for future accountability policy aimed at promoting educational equity. Among the issues…

Research commonly finds that urban teachers bring deficit views about students of color with them into classrooms, and professional development efforts focused on this critical problem have been met with limited success. Therefore, scholars have called for work that integrates content and equity as a way to challenge teachers' deficit views at the…

Urban schools have historically struggled to create engaging learning environments for students. One of the emerging answers to this educational conundrum is the development of more personalized learning environments. Such environments draw on the natural interests of students but contextualize those interests within demanding academic structures.…

Poverty in the United States is migrating far beyond the urban core and transforming the suburbs into places increasingly stratified by income, wealth, opportunity, and education. Census data from the 2005 American Community Survey reveal new patterns of income inequality, residential mobility, and spatial segregation that make the suburbs less of…

Urban life comes with diverse social, environmental, health care, and education problems. However, for many of the people seeking better economic, social, and education opportunities, the big city still holds a special allure. Jazz singer Frank Sinatra sings in "New York, New York" that he wants to "wake up in a city that never…

Case study from the Providence, Rhode Island School District demonstrates how an outside planning group acted as the instrument for organizational change, while the superintendent provided the impetus for change. Reveals how internal and external factors influence decision making. (APM)

This article provides an overview of educational reform efforts that have been targeted toward assisting homeless students. The authors first review some of the difficulties and barriers that confront homeless children in terms of school access and academic success. The authors then examine four different types of educational reforms for homeless…

If teachers represent a child's most important asset, they also can be a child's greatest liability, especially in states where a shortage of well-qualified teachers impedes the academic progress of African American students in learning contexts. The author asserts that a transformation in practices must occur in teacher education programs if…

Introduces a collection of articles that cover a broad view of arts education as socially transformative within urban, suburban, and rural settings. The articles highlight various approaches to socially responsible arts education and demonstrate that a quiet revolution in arts education is brewing, with students creating art for real audiences and…

Discusses Project YES, a model of urban programming that provides youth with a support structure wherein their voices about pressing social issues can be heard by a wider audience. Youths participate in project-based workshops in which they develop critical-thinking, problem-solving, leadership, and consensus-building skills. (GR)

Urban teachers' unions, as mature institutions, face three dilemmas: ensuring a steady supply of quality teachers while limiting supply to raise demand and salaries; seeking to become a more powerful national voice for teachers; and striving to preserve large, monopolistic public education while being aware of the need to reform, restructure, and…