How might we—those of us who work, live, and learn in urban education and communities as well as those who care about it—shift our gaze away from focusing on deficits to recognizing and building upon assets? Many people’s conceptions, paradigms, and worldviews are saturated with what is “wrong” in urban communities rather than on the many strengths that exist there. Through the School of Education Center for Urban Education, we want to encourage educators to reflect on the way they see, what the...
Today more than ever, we have to think differently about how we educate our children in urban K-12 schools. Urban education is under scrutiny as districts struggle to improve the learning and achievement of at-risk youth. Despite the fact that we have focused on improving the education and services for urban adolescents, the students continue to face social and emotional issues often associated with poverty. We need to focus on innovations with the promise of changing how we educate a vulne...
A successful teacher is one who can create a classroom community, motivate students to engage in that community, and build students’ confidence in their capacity for learning. To achieve these goals, a teacher must develop and nurture positive relationships with students, family members, and colleagues. Relationships are particularly crucial to success in urban schools, where many students—and often generations of family members before them—have been consistently labeled as “failures” a...