Traditional school enrollment practices, especially in urban areas, were guided by neighborhood boundaries and students had to attend their zoned school. However, there has been an increase of "school choice" policies across the United States, in which parents are allowed to openly enroll their children in schools regardless of boundary…

Engagement in and transitions between academic institutions may be enhanced for African American urban youth if we consider the role of religiosity, spirituality, and places of worship. This article presents the manner by which African American university students, who attended public high schools, conveyed the influence of their religious and…

Education professionals and policy makers have been working to "close the achievement gap" for some time. Differences in school performance for children from diverse and different family backgrounds have been at the core of past and present social, political, and education reform initiatives and practices. Previous research suggests that…

This article reports on the contradictory role of parent involvement coordinators charged with increasing participation of low-income immigrant parents. This urban ethnographic study investigates the success of one program that engages Latino, Asian, and African American parents in the governance of their Southern California urban elementary…