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Full-Text Articles in Education

Aligning Voices, Urban Teachers And Leaders, Jess L. Gregory, Damon Lewis, Lori A. Noto, Ethan Margolis Oct 2011

Aligning Voices, Urban Teachers And Leaders, Jess L. Gregory, Damon Lewis, Lori A. Noto, Ethan Margolis

NERA Conference Proceedings 2011

Through a probabilistic functionalism model, this research sought to identify concordance and dissonance in the voices of urban educators. The educators surveyed were optimistic that changes at the building level can positively impact educational outcomes for students; along with the optimism was a sense of purpose and commitment. The synergy of teacher and leader voices in the data suggest that alignment is possible; while the lens model highlights the importance of empowering educators to improve efficacy, to compel choices that will heighten student success and drive change in societal expectations.


For The Good Of The Multicultural Society In One Urban Third Grade, Margaret Lally Queenan Oct 2011

For The Good Of The Multicultural Society In One Urban Third Grade, Margaret Lally Queenan

NERA Conference Proceedings 2011

This study used ethnographic participant observation methods to analyze weekly teaching in five third grade urban classrooms. The theoretical background included the National Reading Panel and the RAND Reading Study Group’s advocacy of comprehension strategies and concern that strategies are taught for their own sake rather than for learning content. Data included student artifacts (notes on science trade books and interviews) and researcher artifacts (lesson plans, teaching charts, and field notes. Analysis included constant comparison of data and coding until saturation. Results showed that students learned content and strategies but upset teachers with noise during discussion, alleviated through structured procedures.


Debating For Success: Academic Achievement, Self-Efficacy, Civic Empowerment And The Milwaukee Debate League, Thomas Noonan Oct 2011

Debating For Success: Academic Achievement, Self-Efficacy, Civic Empowerment And The Milwaukee Debate League, Thomas Noonan

Dissertations (1934 -)

Over the course of the past three decades Urban Debate Leagues have been established on the premise that they improve schooling for underserved students. Founded in predominantly urban areas, these leagues have been positioned as a recent educational reform effort intended to empower students and foster educational and personal growth. This dissertation focuses specifically on the ways in which students involved in a Milwaukee Urban Debate League participating school have been affected by the experience with respect to academic achievement, self-efficacy, and civic empowerment. Through focusing on student voice, this research project examines the ways in which students manifest change …


Personalismo, Small Schools, And Latino Students' Academic Success, Isabel Mesa Collins Jun 2011

Personalismo, Small Schools, And Latino Students' Academic Success, Isabel Mesa Collins

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

A growing body of research indicates that Latino students continue to struggle academically presenting educators and school leaders with serious concerns about a cultural achievement gap. Guided by the work of Lee & Loeb, (2000); Lee & Freidkin, (2007) and Stevens, (2008) who have examined small personalized learning communities, this paper examines the concept of personalismo as a conduit for establishing a platform that may help narrow the achievement gap within the Latino population in the public school system. Through a series of T-Tests, conducted in two small public schools with varying levels of personalismo, within a Chicago Public School …


The Social Context Of Urban School Reform: Collective Efficacy And Student Achievement, Carla E. Ellis Jun 2011

The Social Context Of Urban School Reform: Collective Efficacy And Student Achievement, Carla E. Ellis

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this correlational study was to determine if between-school variance in school-level student achievement is related to collective teacher efficacy in 10 urban elementary schools in Chicago. It also examined the effects of teacher leaders’ implementation of a School-University partnership and the leadership characteristics of principals on school collective efficacy. Collective teacher efficacy was measured using Goddard’s (1998) 6-point 21-item Likert Collective Teacher Efficacy scale. There were 280 teachers and 53 teacher leaders who completed the scale. The Collective Teacher Efficacy scale results were analyzed and examined in relationship to school-level Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) test …


The Effect Of Teachers' Cultural Proficiency Training On Sixth Grade Students' Reading Achievement, Diane Wells-Rivers Apr 2011

The Effect Of Teachers' Cultural Proficiency Training On Sixth Grade Students' Reading Achievement, Diane Wells-Rivers

Student Work

This study evaluated the overall reading achievement of African American (n = 42) and White (n = 21) sixth grade students in an urban Midwestern school, after their teachers‘ engaged in culturally proficiency training provided by The Minnesota Humanities Center. Data for students in the study was collected for comprehension levels or acuity (CTB/McGraw-Hill, 2010), text gradient levels (Fountas & Pinnell, 2008), and oral fluency levels (Berglund & Johns, 2006; Fountas & Pinnell, 2008) during year two of their teachers‘ participation in the training.


Landscapes Of City And Self: Place And Identity In Urban Young Adult Literature, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas Jan 2011

Landscapes Of City And Self: Place And Identity In Urban Young Adult Literature, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Urban landscapes feature iconic symbols from the past and contemporary times. These noticings and remembrances from literature and life contribute to the formation of readers’ identities, as well as their sense of being anchored in worlds both real and fictional. As taken for granted as the geographic, cultural, and economic distinctions of cities are, there are broader implications for readers, teachers, and critics of adolescent literature. In this article, the author proposes that the virtual nature of many of today’s communication modes has inspired a return to that which is tangible, local, and immediate. The urban geographies imagined and described …


Early Career Physical Educators' Perspectives On Learning To Teach In Urban Schools, Sara Barnard Flory Jan 2011

Early Career Physical Educators' Perspectives On Learning To Teach In Urban Schools, Sara Barnard Flory

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine early career physical educators' perspectives on learning to teach in urban schools. Using occupational socialization theory (Lawson, 1983a, 1983b; Lortie, 1975) and cultural relevance theory (Flory & McCaughtry, 2011), I studied three early-career physical education teachers who taught in urban schools but did not grow up in urban communities. Data collection occurred for approximately six weeks with each teacher via lesson observation and in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using constant comparison. The findings of this study outlined the particular elements from each teachers' experience during their pre-professional socialization, professional socialization, and induction …


The Hurricane Katrina Volunteer Experience;Inclusion Into The Life Narratives Of Young Adults, Jessie Guidry Baginski Jan 2011

The Hurricane Katrina Volunteer Experience;Inclusion Into The Life Narratives Of Young Adults, Jessie Guidry Baginski

ETD Archive

Hurricane Katrina left in her wake one of America's oldest and greatest cities in shambles. In 2011, five years after the storm, New Orleans remains in a state of recovery. Statistics reveal many disaster-related facts attributable to the storm. Life stories, however, can open the windows to the soul, inviting us to better understand the human element of this tragedy. Employing a narrative case study methodology, this study delved into the life stories of three young adults who attended to residents only three weeks after they returned to their homes. Through a series of three interviews with each participant, it …


Beginning With El Barrio: Learning From Exemplary Teachers Of Latino Students, Jason G. Irizarry, John Raible Jan 2011

Beginning With El Barrio: Learning From Exemplary Teachers Of Latino Students, Jason G. Irizarry, John Raible

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This study draws from data collected through phenomenological interviews with a group of urban teachers identified as “exemplary” by Latino students, parents, and community members. The authors critically examine the participants’ biographies and document factors they cited as most germane and influential to informing their practice with Latino students. The article concludes with a discussion of barrio-based epistemologies and ontologies, or ways of being and knowing that are informed by extended immersion in and connection to Latino cultural and linguistic communities, particularly as they are developed explicitly and leveraged to improve educational experiences and outcomes for Latino youth.