Despite the implementation of reform policies and accountability measures on the federal, state, and local levels, the problem of struggling schools and students has lingered in the United States public education system. New York State has recently revised how struggling schools are identified and how they are held accountable for improving…

The purpose of this qualitative interpretive inquiry was to describe the experiences of early career, elementary teachers working in high-need schools in New York City (NYC). This study examined teachers' experiences in the workplace and how their experiences contributed to their feelings of self-efficacy and intent to remain in their high-need…

We report on a novel mental health classroom consultation program that is guided by psychodynamic principles rather than a scripted curriculum or manualized program. Based on each teacher's needs and existing skills, consultants may divide their time among meeting with teachers, directly intervening with students, referring parents for services,…

This study sought to examine the kinds of mindsets that the participating teachers demonstrated in their teaching and the impact of teachers' mindsets on their ways of teaching mathematics and science. Seven teachers who were teaching science or mathematics in high-needs schools in the urban context of the Bronx, New York were the participants of…

A Title I elementary school in New York City faced a challenge in supporting students in Grade 3 to Grade 5 who did not meet state proficiency standards in mathematics. The student body of approximately 300 was 80% Black and Brown students, with 40% of students identified as English language learners or students with disabilities. The assistant…

A single case study design was used to explore college and career readiness (CCR) experiences, perspectives, and standards in one Title I elementary school in Brooklyn, New York. Given that much of the research and practice literature related to CCR focuses on middle and high school, the goal of the study was to better understand how elementary…

This article presents a critique of a teacher quality agenda promoted by a network of elitiste organizations in the United States. Network leaders posit that gaps in teacher quality cause achievement gaps. Their solution is to incentivize the graduates of the nation's most selective colleges to teach in hard-to-staff schools. Summarizing prior…

School partnerships are important sources of school social capital. Schools may have unequal access to social capital due to the pattern of relationships in the school-partner network. Using data on school resource needs, sociometric measures, and a set of multilevel logit models, the results of a study of 211 New York City public high schools and…

Teachers from 1,050 schools in New York City completed a survey, administered annually by the school district, based on the Framework for Great Schools model. Publicly available results were analyzed. Multiple regression analyses revealed a significant effect of representation of students with special education needs, school attendance rates, and…

Education policy makers often encourage public schools to form partnerships with community organizations, businesses, and higher education institutions. In theory, such partnerships can help struggling schools gain resources that they are unable to acquire through local, state, and federal funding mechanisms. However, as Ebony Bridwell-Mitchell…

Every school district in New York spends more per student than the national average. Yet, there are variations among districts -- largely depending on communities' relative wealth to help fund their school district. State aid attempts to equalize local wealth capacity among districts, which is evident by the fact that more than 72 percent of the…

Increased emphasis on K-12 engineering education, including the advent and incorporation of the NGSS in many curricula, has spurred the need for increased engineering learning opportunities for younger students. This is particularly true for students from underrepresented minority populations or economically disadvantaged schools, who…

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore the extent to which mentorship of new special education teachers working in high need, urban schools incorporated instruction of a teachers' own social and emotional learning competencies and how these teachings impacted new special education teachers' job satisfaction and…

Research has shown that Title I's "comparability" provision causes gaps in noncategorical per pupil teacher funding. Using a unique dataset that merges 2009-2010 New York City (NYC) Department of Education value-added scores, school finance data, and school demographic data, this study not only confirms that NYC Title I elementary…

While the principal of a New York elementary school (P.S. 48) took on chronic absenteeism from 2011 to 2013, a research team at the Center for New York City Affairs followed her efforts. The school drove down chronic absenteeism almost 10 percentage points. School staff routinely touched base with students, outside "success mentors"…