High-poverty Urban Schools Research Articles

Experiences That Predict Early Career Teacher Commitment to and Retention in High-Poverty Urban Schools

Correlation analysis was used to analyze what experiences before and during teacher preparation for 72 graduates of an urban teacher education program were associated with urban commitment, first job location, and retention in urban schools for 3 or more years. Binary logistic regression was then used to analyze whether urban K-12 schooling, volunteer service, and student teaching in a high-poverty urban school predicted urban commitment, employment, and retention for at least 3 years in an urban school. The regressions revealed that all three factors predicted strong urban commitment and that urban commitment strongly predicted first job location and retention.

The structure-agency dialectic in contested science spaces: “Do earthworms eat apples?”

Focusing on a group of African American third graders who attend a high-poverty urban school, I explore the structure-agency dialectic within contested spaces situated in a dialogically oriented science classroom. Contested spaces entail the moments in which the students challenge each other's and their teacher's science ideas and, in the process, construct agentic science selves. Drawing on sociocultural frameworks, I demonstrate the complexities of agency within contested spaces and the ways in which contested spaces shape and are shaped by agentic moves. Using an interpretive qualitative analysis, I found that contested spaces bubble up are maintained by dialogue, and simmer down over time. In this study, children exercised both individual and collective agency in negotiating science ideas with their teacher to shape the science classroom space in favor of their own meaning making. Using dialogicality as a resource and building on their own cultural resources, the children acted as a community of learners to challenge their teacher's science ideas and, in doing so, transformed the dialogic space within the classroom. This study highlights the tensions teachers face in choosing authentic meaning making within the limits of the school day and their own science knowledge. In addition, it demonstrates the importance of providing equitable learning spaces for African American children that offer them opportunities to agentically use their own ways of being as resources for learning and becoming in science. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 52: 461–473, 2015

Antecedents of Teachers’ Educational Beliefs about Mathematics and Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching among In-Service Teachers in High Poverty Urban Schools

This paper examines the antecedents of three types of educational beliefs about mathematics among 151 teachers predominantly working in high poverty schools. Studies across various countries have found that teachers in high poverty schools are less likely to enact instructional approaches that align with mathematics reform standards set by national and international organizations. Researchers contend that for instruction to change, educational beliefs about mathematics and teaching must change. Regression analyses indicated that mathematics-teaching experience was associated with teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching mathematics at the onset of professional development and the number of mathematics college courses teachers had taken moderated their change in self-efficacy beliefs through professional development. Findings also indicated that epistemic beliefs about mathematics, which became more availing through professional development, were the strongest predictor of their mathematical knowledge for teaching. Results may inform professional development programs in promoting adaptive educational beliefs among teachers in high poverty schools.

Information and Digital Literacy in a High-Poverty Urban School: An I-LEARN Project

Two teachers and 49 students aged 5 to 8 completed an inquiry-based project formulated around Neuman's I-LEARN model, a learning model that builds on and expands traditional information-seeking models specifically to address the processes and outcomes of learning with information. The study's results indicated that the model is a useful tool for helping young urban children understand and complete research projects.

Motivations for Learning

The purpose of this multi-case study was to discover the causes of low self-efficacy for math for a group of historically low-performing 7th grade students at a high-poverty urban middle school. Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory, specifically the concept of self-efficacy. Qualitative methods were used to collect data, including structured one-on-one interviews and classroom observations. In addition, a student survey provided data on student self-efficacy and offered further insight into individual student perceptions. The cross-case analysis surfaced evidence for each of the four sources of self-efficacy. The findings of this study can provide educators with insights into the causes of low self-efficacy for students at the middle grade level and allow researchers to theorize about a broader set of cases related to learning math.

A Study on the Relationsh​ip between Theater Arts and Student Literacy and Mathematic​s Achievemen​t

Past studies have shown the existence of positive relationships between the arts and academic achievement when the arts are integrated into language arts, as well as mathematics and science. This study employed a multi-stage cluster randomized design in which the effects of infusing process drama into a traditional language arts curriculum are investigated. The study sample consists of sixth and seventh grade students enrolled in a high poverty urban school district. Study findings indicate that students in arts integrated classrooms tend to outperform their counterparts in both math and language arts. The authors conjecture that the arts reinforce theories that view student learning as a process of transmediation between different modes of making meaning.

Ready to Lead, but How? Teachers’ Experiences in High-Poverty Urban Schools

Background/ContextMany strategies to improve failing urban schools rest on efforts to improve leadership within the school. Effective school-based leadership depends not only on the activities of the principal, but also on teachers’ efforts to address school-wide challenges. Research has shown that the principal is pivotal in such ventures, but we know little about how teachers conceive of their role in leadership, how they respond to opportunities provided or denied by their principal, or how they initiate leadership on their own.PurposeWe studied how teachers in six high-poverty urban schools participate in leadership beyond their classroom. We asked: What role do teachers in high-poverty urban schools play in their school's improvement? How do principals conceive of teachers’ potential for leadership and how do they act on it? How do teachers respond to the opportunities and constrains they encounter as they seek to exercise leadership in their schools?Research DesignWe interviewed 95 teachers and administrators in six high-poverty schools of one large urban district (two elementary schools, one K–8 school, one middle school, and two high schools). The schools, which served large proportions of low-income and minority students, had varying records of student performance.Data Collection and AnalysisIn each school, we interviewed the principal, other administrators, and a broad sample of teachers. We reviewed documents and observed day-to-day practices. After writing a structured, thematic summary for each respondent and school, we coded all transcripts and analyzed themes and practices within and across schools.FindingsTeachers were willing and ready to address their school's challenges. They conditionally granted their principal discretion in setting the agenda, based on the perceived authority and expertise of the principal and teachers’ opportunities for engagement as partners. When the principal took an instrumental approach to their contributions, teachers resented it, withdrew to their classrooms, and considered leaving the school. When the principal took an inclusive approach, demonstrating genuine interest in their views and contributions, teachers invested in school-wide reforms.Conclusions/RecommendationAlthough a principal may develop a strategic plan for improvement, that plan cannot simply be “rolled out.” Doing so without teachers’ contributions and endorsement likely means that the plan is incomplete and will be rejected outright or adopted perfunctorily. District administrators should select and develop principals who take an inclusive approach to teacher leadership. Policy makers and researchers should go beyond assessing the success of specific reforms and study the process of change within schools as reforms are developed and implemented.

A New Model for Student Support in High-Poverty Urban Elementary Schools

Efforts to support children in schools require addressing not only academic issues, but also out-of-school factors that can affect students’ ability to succeed. This study examined academic achievement of students participating in City Connects, a student support intervention operating in high-poverty elementary schools. The sample included 7,948 kindergarten to fifth-grade students in a large urban district during 1999–2009. School- and student-level treatment effects on report card grades and standardized test scores in elementary through middle school were estimated. Propensity score methods accounted for pre-intervention group differences. City Connects students demonstrated higher report card scores than comparisons and scored higher on middle school English language arts and mathematics tests. This study provides evidence for the value of addressing out-of-school factors that impact student learning.

High-Poverty Urban High School Students’ Plans for Higher Education

This qualitative study investigates high-poverty urban high school students’ views of and plans regarding higher education, using Bourdieu’s theory of reproduction in education as theoretical framework. Interview data from 76 students from six high-poverty urban schools in a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States were analyzed using grounded theory. Findings suggest that students (a) viewed higher education as rewarding in many ways, (b) perceived attending college to involve multiple risks, and (c) devised risk-minimizing strategies to facilitate their intended pursuit of higher education.

Promiscuous Analysis in Qualitative Research

This article troubles the seductive nature of coding based on its potential to fulfill the desires for systematicity, procedure, and clarity. I attempt to explicitly narrate what it is I think I do when I “analyze” data in my empirical work. Building on the notion of promiscuous feminist research, I delineate more explicitly how promiscuity became the hallmark of my inquiry while conducting research at a high-achieving, high-poverty urban school. I also discuss how materiality is entwined with theoretical thinking and explore how a promiscuous deployment of Foucaultian discourse analysis and Critical Race Theory (CRT) helped me to see how race works in schools in a more complicated way than if I had used one or the other framework loyally or prescriptively.

Supporting Young Adolescents’ Middle-to-High-School Transition by Creating a Ninth Grade Community of Care: Implications for Middle Grades Educators

Authors discuss the importance of middle-to-high school transitions and highlight the importance of collaboration between middle and high school teachers as essential for healthy adolescent development beyond the middle grades.Difficulties associated with the middle-to-high-school transitionThe middle-to-high-school transition and the first year of high school are critical periods in students' lives. According to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), passage of students from the middle grades to high school is the most difficult transition point in education (2002, p. 24). Although there are many different types of grade configurations, most students make the transition into high school between eighth and ninth grade. Regardless of grade configuration, many incoming high school students are deciding whether to stay or leave school during the first weeks of the school year (Hertzog & Morgan, 1999). Ninth grade failure rates are as high as 40% in many lower-performing, high-poverty urban schools throughout the United States (Balfanz & Letgers, 2004). Nationwide, 30% of all freshmen do not graduate high school with a diploma (EPE Research Center, 2006), and 6% of all dropouts leave school by the beginning of their 10th grade year (Mizelle, 1999). One possible reason this period of schooling is so difficult is a potential developmental mismatch between students' needs and their new, often larger, and traditionally organized high school environment (Eccles, 2004; Eccles & Midgley, 1989; Eccles et al., 1993; National Association of Secondary School Principals, 2006). It is vitally important that high schools implement structures and programs that ease the transition and allow school personnel to get to know incoming students; meet their developmental needs, including their social and academic needs (Eccles et al., 1993); and encourage them to become valued, integrated members of a caring community at school (Battistich, Solomon, Watson, & Schaps, 1997; Schussler & Collins, 2006). A community of care can be defined as a school culture in which students and teachers care about and support each other, individuals' needs are satisfied within a group setting, and members feel a sense of belonging and identification with the group (Ellerbrock & Kiefer, 2010).National Middle School Association's This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents (2010) highlights 16 characteristics of successful schools for young adolescents, including educators that understand the uniqueness of young adolescents, schools that organize into structures that help to promote meaningful relationships, and school environments that are established to promote emotional well-being. In recent years, high schools around the nation have recognized the importance of supporting their younger adolescent students' needs during the middle-to-high-school transition. High schools have begun implementing developmentally responsive school structures and programs (e.g., small learning communities) for ninthgrade students to help foster a personalized environment that meets the unique needs of adolescents, promotes a sense of community and care, and bolsters academic success. Middle grades educators can help students with this transition by gaining insight into how high schools are identifying the needs of young adolescents and by considering ways they can help meet those needs in collaboration with their high school colleagues (Hertzog & Morgan, 1999).Middle grades educators can teach foundational skills and ensure a sense of continuity to help young adolescents successfully navigate the middle-to-highschool transition. The purpose of this article is to share with middle level educators how one high school attempted to meet the needs of young adolescents by offering a transition program as part of a ninth grade small learning community. This article also highlights ways middle grades educators can help support students during this important period of transition. …

The Case of Rivera Elementary School

This case involves a struggle for control among differently situated leaders—district- and building-level administrators, teachers, parents and community members, and university partners—seeking to influence the reform agenda of a high-poverty urban elementary school serving Latina/Latino students. The various stakeholders encounter a variety of means–ends dilemmas as they respond to pressures to improve school performance, enhance students achievement, promote democratic participation, and pursue professional goals. The discussion and teaching notes draw on theories of micropolitics, distributed leadership and organizational behavior to help students surface and consider dilemmas facing the actors.

Reclaiming Students’ Voices

In this study, a researcher investigated how teachers can negotiate their practice to engage high-needs students whose life experiences are not reflected in the curriculum, without compromising administrative demands for standardized curriculum and pacing. A fourth-grade teacher in a high-achieving, high-poverty urban primary school in Detroit adhered to paced curriculum, but supplemented it with a Book Club Plus curriculum that included peer-led discourse, collaborative efforts, and deeper construction of meaning with relatable texts. A teacher-and-researcher collaboration supplemented texts about the Great Migration by including students’ cultural and historical heritage. An examination of varying peer-led discussion group modes and reading logs revealed students reclaiming their voices as they mediated personal and cultural linkages with the literature. Recommendations are made for supporting teachers’ autonomy in engaging learners, and for teaching fewer selections, thereby promoting deeper reflection and student engagement, while fulfilling curriculum requirements.

Addressing the inclusion imperative: an urban school district’s responses

Over the past forty years, schools across the United States have become more inclusive for students with disabilities. However, in many high-poverty urban school districts, a disproportionate number of minority children with disabilities are segregated from their non-disabled peers. This article presents findings from a qualitative case study of one urban school district implementing special education-related inclusion reform over the course of four years. The district had a history of segregating students and numerous compliance issues with special education mandates; however, the arrival of a new superintendent brought new hopes for change. The authors argue that existing research regarding inclusion has typically ignored the policy implementation processes employed by school districts in establishing more inclusive schools and improved special education programs. This article provides a case description of a district’s special education inclusion policy implementation process, the challenges district administrators were confronted with, and the positive and negative outcomes of the district’s policies. The findings inform next-generation policy initiatives and future lines of inquiry.

Planning Science Instruction for Critical Thinking: Two Urban Elementary Teachers’ Responses to a State Science Assessment

Science education reform standards have shifted focus from exploration and experimentation to evidence-based explanation and argumentation to prepare students with knowledge for a changing workforce and critical thinking skills to evaluate issues requiring increasing scientific literacy. However, in urban schools serving poor, diverse populations, where the priority is on students’ assessment results in reading and math, students may not receive reform-based science. The rationale for this qualitative study was to examine how two elementary teachers from high-poverty urban schools planned for reform-based science in response to a quality state science assessment in conjunction with their training and resources. Their state assessment included an inquiry task requiring students to construct responses to questions based on their investigation data. From evaluating evidence using Zembal-Saul’s continuum for teaching science as argument, the findings indicated that both teachers adopted an investigation-based and evidence-based approach to science teaching to prepare students for the inquiry task. However, one teacher provided argument-based science teaching from her explicit training in that approach. The results suggested that the teachers’ training and resources informed their interpretation of the focus areas on the science assessment inquiry task and influenced the extent to which they offered students an equitable opportunity to develop higher-order thinking from reform-based science.

The Effects of Privileging Moral or Performance Character Development in Urban Adolescents

This study compared the effects of emphasizing moral character development or performance character development at three high-performing, high-poverty urban middle schools. Performance character consists of the qualities that allow individuals to regulate their thoughts and actions in ways that support achievement in a particular endeavor. Moral character consists of the qualities relevant to striving for ethical behavior in one’s relationships with other individuals and communities. Using a quasi-experimental research design, the authors found that early adolescents attending a school emphasizing moral character development through ethical philosophy programming demonstrated significantly higher levels of integrity over the course of the 2010 to 2011 academic year than their peers at two matched comparison schools ( N = 544). However, the early adolescents attending the comparison schools—which emphasized performance character development through advisory programming—demonstrated significantly higher levels of perseverance and community connectedness over the course of the academic year. These divergent outcomes across the three schools offer useful implications to educators, researchers, and policy-makers about the different effects of privileging a particular dimension of character education.

Cultivating the Academic Integrity of Urban Adolescents with Ethical Philosophy Programming

This mixed-methods study considered the effects of ethical philosophy programming at a high-performing, high-poverty urban high school upon the academic integrity of participating adolescents (n = 279). Analyses of pre–post survey data revealed that participating adolescents reported significantly higher levels of academic integrity than their peers at a matched comparison school. Field notes from observations of ethical philosophy lessons and qualitative interviews with participating students revealed that this programming offered students frequent opportunities to practice moral reasoning and introduced philosophical perspectives that influenced students’ conception of and commitment to academic integrity.

A Study of the Effectiveness of a Small-Group Intervention on the Vocabulary and Narrative Development of At-Risk Kindergarten Children

This study investigated the effect of a small-group storybook-based intervention on kindergarten students’ vocabulary and narrative development, which is important to later reading achievement. Twenty-eight kindergarten children from a high-poverty urban school, all significantly behind their peers on standardized measures of language development (semantic and syntactic) and narrative (understanding and production), were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. The intervention students engaged in three 30-minute storybook-based lessons per week for 12 weeks, focused on vocabulary and narrative development. The intervention students made greater gains on both standardized and nonstandardized measures of vocabulary and narrative achievement than did control-group children.

Primary Students’ Book Club Participation

This study is an examination of first grade students’ participation in Book Club at a high achieving, high poverty urban primary school in Detroit. In spite of the school’s high performing record, teachers are constrained by having to adhere closely to the pacing guide and the exclusive use of curriculum literature to preserve the school’s high achieving status. Irrelevant curriculum materials surrounding the themes “Keep Trying” and “Being Afraid” led to a teacher and researcher collaboration to use relatable supplemental texts. An examination of peer-led discussion groups demonstrated deep comprehension and students’ ability to mediate personal connections and multiple perspectives.

“Everybody Grieves, but Still Nobody Sees”: Toward a Praxis of Recognition for Latina/o Students in U.S. Schools

Background/ContextThe academic success and failure of low-income youth, and Black and Latina/o youth in particular, has received significant attention in the educational literature, particularly in relation to school dropout. Over the last decade, several studies have demonstrated that student–teacher relationships, committed teachers, and notions of caring are critical to the success of Latina/o youth. However, high-poverty urban schools are graduating fewer than half of their students, in comparison with about 70% at the national level. There remains a scant body of research, policy, and conceptual frameworks to help address the crisis, popularly deemed the “dropout crisis,” particularly among Latinas/os, the youngest, fastest growing, and lowest educated group in the United States.Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of StudyIn what ways can and should researchers, practitioners, and policy makers recognize the existence of Latina/o youth? The purpose of the article, contextualized in the theoretical and empirical literature, is to problematize the concept of recognition, particularly for Latina/o youth, and introduce a conceptual framework to understand, examine, and help rectify the crisis facing this population.Research DesignIn this conceptual paper, I argue that key stakeholders must recognize the existence of the Latina/o youth by acknowledging their human existence through legitimizing the unequal conditions and struggles they face in school. Educators much engage youth in curricular and pedagogical experiences that seek to raise students’ consciousness through critical thinking and dialogue. This article is focused on the human and interpersonal actions and processes that are necessary to facilitate agency and change among students. Theoretical origins informing recognition are discussed, followed by a contextualized analysis of recognition within the present-day conditions of U.S. schools, particularly for Latina/o youth. I then propose five pedagogies of recognition: relational recognition, curricular recognition, pedagogical recognition, contextualizing recognition, and transformative recognition. Each form of recognition is situated in the relevant literature.Conclusions/RecommendationsThis article argues that the proposed pedagogies of recognition need to be enacted to foster the intellectual, academic, and political development of youth, particularly Latina/o youth. Recognition can help educators and scholars understand how the social, political, and economic conditions impact Latina/o youth and helps educators reframe the conceptual bases of their work by challenging them to interrogate the (in)effectiveness of institutional and classroom-level practices. The ultimate goal is to help educators and researchers reconstruct and redefine the purpose of education for Latina/o youth in U.S. schools.