The university-city relations are changing along with the engagement of universities in public service beyond teaching and research and the dependence of cities on networks rather than enclosure to promote urban competitiveness. Taking China as an example, this article discusses the challenges and tensions of university-city interaction in the…

This study examines the experiences of three aspiring Latina school leaders in a principal preparation program with a social justice emphasis. Employing theoretical perspectives grounded in a community-based educational leadership framework and transformational resistance theory, this study documents how coursework informed the perspectives of…

This paper contributes to our understanding of the micro-policy experience of an implemented curriculum from the perspective of students, in addition to teachers, as the key coupling agents in the schools of a Chinese global city. Although the phenomenon of decoupling in educational policy is widely recognized, much less attention has been paid to…

For decades, reform has been a persistent issue in urban schools. Research suggests that urban school reforms that are connected to equitable community development efforts are more sustainable, and that principals play a pivot role in leading such efforts. Yet, limited research has explored how urban school principals connect school reform with…

What roles do parent and family engagement and community outreach play in educator efforts to improve low-performing urban schools? To address this question, we considered findings from our 3-year case study of Brookdale Elementary (a pseudonym), which was undergoing a state-mandated, district-directed turnaround reform effort from 2011 to 2014.…

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…

Given the importance of postsecondary institutions partnering with community agencies and groups to meet a variety of essential goals such as access and success of students, this study investigated one such partnership with the aim of attempting to understand the experience of community-led partnerships and the role of culture in partnerships…

Reports the findings of a study in Erie County, New York, which assessed the present attitudes of a random sample of adult residents there toward possible metropolitan cooperation in education. (JM)

Examines the function of public education in contemporary cities and argues that public education needs to be seen and function as a basic industry: an industry that creates forward and backward linkages, multiples investments, and attracts people and capital. It suggests urban schools should be seen as being builders of modern cities, not…

Provides an overview of the common themes, both positive and negative, raised throughout the Conference on Next Steps in Inner-City Education. Highlights the particular ideas advanced by conferees as "next steps," many of which are existing notions that have not been thoroughly enacted. (GR)

Deals with the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school decentralization controversy, with the safety-valve institution in question being the local school board created to govern the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school district, using Lewis Coser's theory of the safety-valve institution as an analytical tool. (Author/JM)

Traces the historic separation of city public schools from city politics. This rift has created lasting institutional barriers between schools and the changing currents of urban politics. The development of the Los Angeles Unified School District as an exemplar of Progressive reform is reviewed revealing an insular school system only recently…

Discusses dropping out from a historical and theoretical perspective. Suggests that although the sociocultural context in which schools operate has changed drastically, the solutions sought to educational problems attempt to re-create the good schools of the 1950s. Notes specific areas where school change has not kept pace with social change,…

Reviews the historical background of special education as a major factor in the placement of many children with disabilities, and examines data that reveal a disproportionately large number of students in these programs are children of color. Suggestions are offered to help lead to a more equitable placement of all children in appropriate…

Examines how the concepts of service and community might be made to serve the interests of those who are the heart of urban schools: students, their families, and neighborhood residents. The article introduces a model of community schools that is oriented to the inner-directed development of inner-city neighborhoods. (GR)