There is continued concern over the inequitable distribution of highly experienced and effective teachers among historically marginalized student populations. Using longitudinal data from Tennessee, this study assesses whether students of racially/ethnically minoritized and economically disadvantaged backgrounds have unequal exposure to teachers…

Bang on the System pairs critical race theory (CRT) with the litany of radical democratic analysis guiding the social practices of various revolutionary movements, proposing a new pedagogical framework that deploys a mutually informed critical race praxis as the basis to engage historically dispossessed youth in their own learning. This lens is…

Accountability-era reforms have promulgated a discourse of crisis and a looming threat for public schools. While these threats negatively affect all, this paper focuses on how schools' responses to these threats shape novice Teach for America Corp Members' (CM) socialization. By analyzing nearly 6,000 daily reflections from 38 CMs about their…

Despite Latinx students having the second highest rates of dropouts compared with other racial/ethnic groups, few studies qualitatively examine how Latinx youth view the academic and family contexts of leaving school. In this study, 16 Mexican descent youth from low-income backgrounds discussed why they felt pushed out of high school in focus…

This case study investigated how three New York City schools responded to gentrification's effects as student demographics shifted. I used the conceptual framework of "urban school leaders as cultural workers" to examine the tensions, successes, and challenges inherent in the school gentrification and integration process. I found that…

We present a conceptual exploration of armed love as a component of liberatory pedagogy. We ground our work in community cultural wealth theory (CCW) that centers social capital often found in non-dominant communities under pressure. We argue that recognizing and working against exploitation using the community's social, cultural, and historical…

Bourdieu's critical analysis of capital (BCAC) is a useful tool for unmasking how schools legitimate class structure and identifying the institutional, societal, and cultural forces that structure class reproduction and oppression. In this paper, we examine the ways educational researchers have constrained the critical application of Bourdieu's…

Little research has focused on the extent to which community school principals approach family engagement efforts, specifically from an equity-centered perspective. This study examined how community school principals' leadership practices exhibited tenets of Community Equity Literacy. Results from interviews with 13 administrators and 19…

We use novel information about fixture-specific water lead levels (WLLs) in Portland, Oregon schools to explore inequalities in students' potential for exposure to lead in drinking water at school. We find that Black and Hispanic students were in classrooms with higher WLLs than white students primarily because they attended different schools. The…

The state takeover of schools in predominantly Black communities has not disrupted the racial subjugation of Black girls. Using proportional analyses and Detroit, Memphis, and New Orleans as research sites, we find that the takeover of school districts does not produce statistically weaker associations with the use of harsh disciplinary practices…

Latinos represent 20% of the more than 1 million gang-associated youth in the United States. This study explores how gang associated Latino males use their funds of gang knowledge to navigate their urban schools and communities. The findings highlight how Latino males build relationships and exchange information with each other, endure and…

To increase the supply of teachers into underserved schools, teacher educators and policymakers commonly use two approaches: (a) recruit individuals who already report strong preferences to work in underserved schools or (b) design pre-service preparation to increase preferences. Using survey and administrative data on more than 1,000 teachers in…

This essay reflects on the promise and challenges of community-engaged, critical participatory action research (CPAR) hinged to social policy in times of racialized state violence and massive community resistance. With cautious optimism, we argue for the potential of CPAR to facilitate more just social policy, by enhancing research validity,…

The current goals of the standards-based reform environment can be limiting to teachers' freedom and creativity. This occurs at a time when immigrant diversity transforms U.S. cities and innovative pedagogical responses are increasingly necessary. The confluence of these two processes is underexplored. Ethnography in New York City and Los Angeles…

Although the literature on teacher working conditions often cites student- and school-level factors as contributors to teacher turnover in high-poverty urban schools, the larger context of social and economic inequality within which these factors are situated is often overlooked. This mixed-methods study draws upon a survey of nearly 800…