As part of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project to create culturally responsive curriculum that uses critical spatial thinking and geospatial technologies to address spatial justice in urban neighborhoods, students from a predominantly African American inner-city public high school in Toledo, Ohio participated in two summer workshops…

This dissertation seeks to better understand how an urban policy, creative placemaking, is adopted within a localized context. Creative placemaking is an ascendant urban policy borne out of a global pressure to adapt to industry changes within the 21st Century knowledge-based economy (Florida, 2002; Howkins, 2001; Jackson, 2012; Nicodemus, 2013).…

In 2015, the city of Springfield, Ohio, finished participating in a $2.5 million federal grant program that assisted low-income families in reducing the health risks from lead paint in their homes. But because of rule changes from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development that made it harder to use funds on certain properties (including…

In policymaking, social movements, and media, education pathways are presented as the primary solution for low-income Black communities. To examine this dominant belief, this study utilized a critical case study approach to investigate a historic Black suburban neighborhood, Twinsburg Heights, in Northeast Ohio. The study combined Black Studies,…

Housing choice vouchers provide low-income households with additional income to spend on rental housing in the private market. The assistance vouchers provide is substantial, offering the potential to dramatically expand the neighborhood--and associated public schools--that low-income households can reach. However, existing research on the program…

Many of today's youth feel disconnected from their local communities. At the same time, most of them are regularly connected to the Internet and other digital media to gather information and communicate with their peers. This study conducts a qualitative textual analysis of 14 scholastic and nonscholastic youth media websites to derive five…

The Cleveland Central Promise Neighborhood (CCPN) initiative brings together Central neighborhood residents, community stakeholders and partners to create the kind of community where every child can have career and college success. Helping children achieve a bright future filled with opportunity is the cornerstone of the Promise Initiative. The…

The Cleveland Central Promise Neighborhood (CCPN) initiative brings together Central neighborhood residents, community stakeholders and partners to create the kind of community where every child can have career and college success. Helping children achieve a bright future filled with opportunity is the cornerstone of the Promise Initiative. The…

Both neoliberals and liberals call for mitigating inequality of educational opportunity stemming from circumstances beyond an individual's control. In this article, we challenge the wisdom of making equality of opportunity hinge on emphasizing the distinction rather than the relationship between choices and circumstances. We utilize an empirical…

Commuter students make up an overwhelming majority of the college student population. At the same time, the amount of research on commuter students is minuscule compared to that of residential students. The characteristics of the commuter student subgroup that is referenced in this chapter can be described as living independent of guardians or…

Rural adolescents are at risk for early initiation and problematic substance use, but to date few studies have examined the rural context of substance use. To better understand substance offers in the rural context, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 118, 12- to 19-year-old adolescents (M = 13.68, SD = 1.37) from Appalachian, rural…

Since 1976, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has relocated low-income children of color from public housing communities to less racially and economically isolated neighborhoods in an effort to improve their developmental opportunities. This article provides the first comprehensive evaluation summary of seven relocation…

The idea that social relations can aggregate into social capital has intuitive appeal that scholars are finding useful as they seek to explain variations in community outcomes. This article suggests that it may be time for metropolitan university administrators to begin thinking beyond community relations or community engagement as they seek to…

This project focuses on the policies and practices of school boards (or mayors or others who govern public schools), and how their priorities can make a tangible difference in the academic success of kids living in poor communities. Instead of focusing on deficits of poverty, the researchers wanted to stress school board action as an effective…

One of the hallmarks of the American system of higher education is its diversity: there are more than 4,000 institutions of varying sizes, types, and purposes. Unlike centrally planned systems, the American higher education landscape is a tapestry of institutions--public and private, selective and open-access--each with a distinct mission and…