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Agentic engagement refers to students' proactive and constructive contribution to the flow of instruction. The literature on student agentic engagement is missing the voices and perspectives of teachers. Given that the field knows little about what agentic engagement means to teachers, the goal of this study was to describe agentic engagement from the perspectives of urban high school science teachers. We conducted focus groups with 16 teachers to examine how, why, when, and who questions regarding students' use of agentic engagement in science classes. Results revealed the following themes: (a) Teachers initially struggled with the agentic engagement concept, but also acknowledged that a variety of strategies could be used, though rarely enacted. (b) Teachers emphasized the importance of students' approach for enacting agentic engagement in constructive ways that would increase teacher receptibility. (c) Teachers identified three categories of benefits, including benefits for students, benefits for teachers, and benefits for the class community. (d) Teachers highlighted considerations for effective agentic engagement in their classrooms, including their desire to maintain control. Teachers' deficit-based assumptions of student difficulties in science was identified as a potential barrier to supporting student agentic engagement. Implications for future research and implementation of agentic engagement interventions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on 30 one-on-one in-depth interviews and 24 focus group interviews with 120 Black Caribbean pupils in one of the largest state secondary schools in South London, this article examines how Black students make sense of their concentration in lower-ranked classes as facilitated through academic tracking. While previous research documents the academic, social and psychological implications of tracking, setting and other "ability" grouping practices for various racial, ethnic and class groups, comparatively little attention has been devoted to how the persistent misrecognition of Black pupils in Britain often results in academic profiling in schools. Academic profiling is here defined as the persistent mischaracterization of Black and other racially minoritized students based on their past achievements and dominant cultural stereotypes. The results of this study suggest that Black Caribbean participants experience academic profiling as a signature feature of their educational experiences, whether in bottom, middle or top sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using resistance to digital technologies in religious nationalist public high schools in Israel as a frame for discussing minimal computing, this paper explores how socio-religious ideologies foster minimal technological practices. Based on interviews with administrators, homeroom teachers, and religious and secular content teachers from three schools near an urban center, the study explores how multiple mandates to provide religious, nationalist, and modern education shape teachers' educational approaches to digital technologies. The paper argues that an approach that segregates technologies to secular domains disentangles digital devices from religious subjectivity; one that allocates time for 'profane' digital technologies creates discontinuity between digital practices and religious educational aims; and one that integrates technologies into religious practice fosters a symbiotic digital–analog religiosity. By highlighting the role of religious ideology in shaping limited technological approaches, the paper explores how constraints on teachers' practices stem not only from resource-driven limitations but from minimal technological will. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractStudies have found that imaginations of a perceived ‘homeland’ plays a prominent role in much heritage language (HL) education. Taking Sámi HL education as a point of departure, I investigated the following research question: What opportunities and limitations can be associated with a land-based pedagogy in Indigenous HL education in an urban setting, removed from the ancestral homeland? This research question was investigated through an ethnographic study of Sámi HL education in public schools in a city in Norway. With an increasing ­number of Sámi students outside traditional Sámi communities, Sámi HL teachers need to reconsider what ‘area belonging’ should mean in Sámi HL education. The findings suggest that land-based pedagogies hold the potential to provide Indigenous HL students with an HL education deeply rooted in Indigenous epistemologies and pedagogies. Nevertheless, this approach often failed to actively engage students who had grown up in an urban environment, removed from their ancestral homeland. I suggest that there is a need to develop a Sámi pedagogy for urban Sámi students outside the traditional Sámi communities, which capitalise on students’ complex relations and diverse imaginations of their ‘homeland’. Implications for other heritage language education settings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the role of metacognitive judgements in science learning can significantly contribute to the qualification of both teaching and learning processes. We present some of the existing relationships between two important theoretical categories in education: metacognitive judgements and cellular theory learning. The research was conducted with sixth graders from a public school in the city of Pereira, Colombia through a mixed research design. The results show that as the didactic unit was developed, students qualified their explanatory models about the cell and cellular theory. Their arguments were stronger and more coherent, while their metacognitive judgements displayed different levels of confidence, which improved over the course of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses 2018 PISA data to explore factors impacting 15-year-old U.S. students' reading performance. It finds teacher experience positively correlates with scores, while attributes like age negatively impact them. Home ICT access boosts achievement, but overabundance of devices proves counterproductive. Ethnicity, parental education, and language crucially determine reading performance, underscoring socio-cultural factors. School context significantly influences outcomes with urban and rural schools facing varied challenges. The study concludes reading proficiency depends on complex factors, emphasizing need for balanced digital resources and interventions to address disparities. Limitations include reliance on single-cycle quantitative data, suggesting more longitudinal research is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The education literature suggests that there are rural–urban differences in educational achievement. Lower educational achievement in rural schools may impact entry into highly competitive medical programmes and disadvantage rural students. Within this study, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and University Entrance (UE) attainment rates are compared across Aotearoa New Zealand secondary schools for 2012–2021. High schools were classified as urban or rural according to the two rural admission schemes used in the medical programmes at the University of Otago and the University of Auckland. Descriptive statistics were calculated and regression models created to adjust for a range of variables. The data demonstrates that rural high schools have lower NCEA and UE attainment. Lower Māori student NCEA and UE attainment, greater socioeconomic disadvantage and differing characteristics account for the majority of differences between rural and urban schools. The lower UE attainment rate for rural schools will likely mean that rural students will have greater difficulty in entering medical programmes and that this inequity is worse for rural Māori students. Medical programme admission pathways need to undergo a fundamental shift–from workforce pathways to workforce and equity pathways in order to address rural workforce issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education overturned the "separate but equal" principle promulgated in 1896 in Plessy v. Ferguson. Yet, almost 70 years after Brown, schools continue to be segregated, and the structure of the public education system has fostered inequities across the nation. Although there have been legal challenges to the conditions and disparities within schools, many urban districts are still impacted by Plessy-like logic and policies that reflect white supremacy, essentially legitimizing social inequity. Stories of racial segregation, as well as unequal instruction and funding, continue to define many urban school districts. This paper will offer findings from in-depth interviews with urban school leaders. Their perspectives, examined through a critical race theory lens, highlight continued disparities and obstructions in access to literacy, education, and opportunity affecting Black students—demonstrating a separate and unequal public school system in the urban context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that schools struggle with conducting high quality functional behavior assessments (FBA) and implementing effective behavior intervention plans (BIP). Access to training is a documented challenge to effective implementation. One training with preliminary empirical support is Basic FBA. This pilot study extended the research on Basic FBA to determine whether the intervention could be implemented effectively by district staff. Fourteen staff working in an urban school district completed within-district training consisting of four modules on FBA/BIP with aligned between-session assignments; half were randomly assigned to receive coaching support. Participants increased their knowledge and skill in FBA/BIP and rated the training as socially acceptable. Differences in outcomes for coached and control groups were minimal, with some higher social validity ratings and more FBA/BIPS developed by those receiving coaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of parents as primary educators about sexuality has been emphasised in the literature. However, parents’ perceptions regarding the provision of sex and sexuality education to children aged between 6 and 12 years have been relatively ignored, especially in Latin American contexts and particularly in Ecuador. Nevertheless, providing contextually relevant sex and sexuality education has been recognised as fostering healthy sexuality in children at different developmental stages. Accordingly, this study aimed to understand parents’ perceptions of the importance of the sex and sexuality education provided to children in Cuenca, Ecuador aged 6–12 years using a qualitative approach. Five focus groups were held with 39 participants whose children attend five different public educational schools in the city. The findings indicate that although parents recognised the importance of sex and sexuality education, they had limited knowledge of sex and sexuality, both in general and in children, and had an inadequate grasp of sexuality education, which made approaching the topic difficult. Moreover, parents’ personal beliefs hindered the provision of sex and sexuality education to their children. These findings provide a baseline for the development of more comprehensive forms of sexuality education and training for parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual Language Bilingual Education (DLBE) programs have expanded rapidly in a large Northeastern urban school district in the United States in recent years, but multilingual families, particularly those from immigrant backgrounds, receive limited information about program offerings from school websites. In this qualitative study, utilizing critical discourse analysis, 21 websites of district schools with DLBE programs were reviewed. Findings suggest there was limited information overall about DLBE offerings such as the program model, principles, and values on school websites, even in programs recognized as 'district model programs'. More professionally done websites with vibrant photos, videos, and detailed information about bilingual education, in multiple languages, were most often found in gentrified communities, but the information was not tailored to the needs of low-income and immigrant communities and did not actively promote multilingualism. Most of the websites that did provide information about DLBE focused on cognitive, academic, and sociocultural goals rather than economic benefits and family and heritage connections which have been found to be attractive to immigrant parents. Using an equity lens, implications and recommendations for schools and policymakers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the potential role of school garden learning experiences in remediating Environmental Generational Amnesia (EGA). EGA is a generational type of environmental forgetting brought about by prolonged disconnection from “natural” landscapes, with symptoms manifesting as poor motor skills, deficient food origin knowledge, a lack of environmental moral affiliation and undeveloped connections to place. Drawing on interviews with teachers, parents, counsellors, groundskeepers, and administrators at a Far North Queensland primary school, this paper explores how school garden learning experiences foster interaction patterns that combat EGA’s symptoms. We find that urban school gardens offer new possibilities for reassembling students into more-than-human local ecologies in ways that can remediate the manifestation of EGA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charter schools can serve as “laboratories of innovation,” generating evidence about effective educational practices via their random admissions lotteries. This paper synthesizes findings from charter school lottery-based studies and identifies future research priorities. Evidence shows charter schools can boost academic achievement and long-term outcomes, especially for lower-performing, nonwhite, low-income students and those with disabilities. However, these findings are limited to oversubscribed schools in urban areas. Future research should expand geographic coverage, update K-12 academic outcomes, and explore non-test-score outcomes, college, and earnings. Addressing these areas would strengthen evidence and inform education policymaking in the charter sector and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an expectation that schools generate certainty in migrant children’s lives in the processes of resettlement in host communities. However, there is also a critical body of literature highlighting a tension between an inflexible system of mass compulsory schooling that predominates in most affluent “destination” countries and the complex multi-dimensional nature of migrant children’s lives. In this paper, we examine the relationship between migrant children settling in an English city and their schooling, drawing on empirical data from two schools and a youth organization. Our empirical themes focus on the management of migrant children’s pace of learning and integration. Drawing on data from two English city schools we highlight factors that both “speed up” and “slow down” processes of resettlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overrepresentation of students of color with and without dis/abilities in exclusionary practices (e.g., suspension, expulsion) is a historically accumulating educational debt that stems from the intersection of racism, ableism, and other forms of oppression. As a historical, sociopolitical, and geospatial situated issue, addressing racial disproportionality in exclusionary practices requires developing localized solutions in response to local racial politics and the school community's needs and goals. In an effort to develop localized solutions to racial disproportionality in exclusionary practices, the Learning Lab was implemented at an urban Middle School in the 2021–2022 academic year. The Learning Lab is a community-driven systemic design process in which local stakeholders engage in systemic analysis of the existing system and collaboratively design a new schoolwide support system. This study investigated how school stakeholders designed a culturally sustaining and inclusive support system to address the overrepresentation of students of color with and without dis/abilities in exclusionary practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the impact of the Chicago Alliance for Equity in Computer Science (CAFÉCS) Research Practice Partnership (RPP) on the Chicago Public School (CPS) Office of Computer Science (OCS). Using a qualitative analysis drawing on data from leadership team meetings, published articles and presentations, and evaluation reports from 11 years of the partnership, we utilized a framework developed by the CAFÉCS leadership team to document the impact on district (1) Programs, (2) Research, (3) Organizational Structures, and (4) Policies leading to (5) Equitable Results for students, condensed as PROSPER. In particular, we explore the role of the RPP in supporting a 500% increase in graduating students who completed at least one high school computer science (CS) course between 2016 and 2020 in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). This study adds to the existing literature on assessing the impact of RPPs through the development of the PROSPER Framework, which may be a useful tool to help RPPs examine impacts on partner districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectiveMethodResultsConclusionsThis mixed-methods study examined teachers’ perceptions of student anxiety in urban elementary schools serving predominantly low-income and ethnically/racially minoritized youth.Most participating teachers were female (87.7%) and from minoritized backgrounds themselves (89.2%), teaching in schools serving predominantly Black/African American (40%) or Hispanic (60%) students, and in which > 70% of students are eligible for free meals. Teachers were asked in surveys (N = 82) and interviews (n = 12) about the nature of student anxiety, and cultural/contextual considerations that influence anxiety.Overall, teachers reported prevalence and signs of student anxiety that were consistent with the literature, but they reported higher levels of impairment than in previous community samples. Regressions revealed that greater levels of student exposure to community violence and higher proportions of Black students were associated with higher teacher-perceived prevalence and concern about student anxiety, respectively. Moreover, greater emotional exhaustion in teachers was associated with higher reports of anxiety-related impairment in students. Thematic coding of interviews emphasized how teachers perceived 1) most student anxieties to be proportional responses to realistic threats and stress in students’ lives (e.g. resource insecurity), 2) systems-level problems (e.g. pressure to perform on standardized tests) contribute to student anxiety, and 3) school-based anxiety sources often interact with traumas and stressors students experience outside of school (e.g. immigration experiences).Relative to the predominant literature that has focused on biological, cognitive, and other intraindividual factors as sources of anxiety, the present work underscores the importance of considering how broader economic and systems-level influences exacerbate anxiety in marginalized youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study highlights effective components of restorative practice programming from the perspective of teachers involved in piloting a restorative practices initiative. Data were collected through 10 qualitative interviews at the study site - an under-resourced, urban school. Findings capture teacher perceptions of how two elements of the program design that are very often missing from restorative practice implementation made distinct contributions to an overall positive impact: (1) a full-time restorative practices coordinator; one that focuses exclusively on restorative practice implementation and does not also hold another role at the school; and (2) a student leadership program that trains and empowers students in restorative practices and relational climate building. Drawing on Relational-Cultural Theory, the discussion emphasizes that strengthening relational bonds has potential to enhance school climates for marginalized youth, which is critical to improving outcomes in under-resourced schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoor education fosters student well-being, development and learning. However, many schools restrict outdoor experience to their own playground, and to times considered recess. This case study, which examined student and teacher perceptions about the outdoor experience on traditional playgrounds, was conducted in an urban school in the Basque Country with an asphalt playground whose only resources were related to sports. We conducted five focal studies with 40 students, and administered a questionnaire to 78 teachers in Primary and Secondary Education. The results obtained made clear the dissatisfaction of both students and teachers with the use of the playground and with the opportunities it offered. However, they also identified areas for improvement and suggested future lines of work. It is essential to promote a dynamic of reflection on outdoor spaces that includes student participation as well as training teachers and raising their awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the biodiversity of flora in urban schools in the Philippines. The study found that both schools had a high diversity of plant species, including herbs, trees, climbers, and creepers. The presence of diverse plant species in school grounds can contribute to urban biodiversity conservation and have positive impacts on air quality, water management, and ecosystem services. Additionally, school gardens can yield crops that benefit nearby families and student feeding programs. The article emphasizes the importance of engineering biodiversity in urban schools for sustainability and environmental conservation. [Extracted from the article]

This article traces the state takeover and neoliberal reconstruction of a mid-size urban school district in the California Bay Area. Aligning with research on social networks in school reform, it identifies three organizational nodes of power operating within the takeover and post-takeover landscape: venture-philanthropic capital, the Teach for America organization, and a local intermediary organization that acted as a hub for the capital and labor flowing from these organizations. Their story demonstrates the concrete ways in which an increasingly globalized funding and policy network converged at the district level in order to implement a unified policy agenda. The network's role in school politics, real estate, and gentrification provides a template for the transnational work of school reformers and their role in creating the neoliberal 'global city.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The movie Try Harder! features a group of students at Lowell High School in San Francisco, California, as they navigate their elite public institution and apply to top-tier universities. A critical analysis of this film allows us to understand new trends and emerging discourses in urban cities, showing the way racialized groups are pit against each other to legitimize white supremacy. I employ the lenses of critical studies of race to examine the following questions: (1) how does the model minority myth shape urban contexts? and (2) how are racial, political, and academic discourses constructing notions of merit via the film Try Harder? Few studies examine the model minority myth in relation to urban contexts, despite its rising influence in political debates and education policy. This paper aims to fill this void by addressing the changing landscape of urban education and academic discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School climate is theoretically important for the academic achievement of students in urban schools because safety and support at school may compensate for negative structural forces experienced elsewhere. There is strong evidence for an association between school climate and student achievement, but little suggests the association's directionality. This study uses a unique longitudinal, student-level data set from a large urban district that combines standardized test scores, student survey data, and cross-lagged panel modeling to build evidence for this directionality. In general, findings suggest that in the elementary and middle grades, perceptions of school climate are better predictors of later academic achievement than the reverse. However, the directionality reverses in high school, with achievement predicting later school-climate perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restorative practices (RP) implementation requires substantial adult buy-in, time, leadership support, and resources. Limited studies have examined the implementation of RP from the perspectives of different groups of school professionals (e.g. teachers, paraprofessionals, and non-classroom staff) and their perceptions of RP implementation climate (i.e. support, efficacy, use). Fewer studies have investigated such differences in perceptions of RP support, efficacy, and utilization among school professionals at varying school levels (e.g. elementary, middle, and high school). We applied an exploratory, descriptive study design to better understand RP implementation among varying school roles and levels using a district-wide RP survey among school adults (N = 392) in a midsize urban school district in the Northeast. Perceptions of RP implementation differed by professional role, where paraprofessionals have similar levels of RP use and support compared to classroom teachers but indicate the lowest level of RP efficacy. Additionally, non-classroom staff reported the highest levels of RP support compared to paraprofessionals and teachers. Across school levels and implementation domains (support, efficacy, and use), elementary school staff reported the highest or most positive perceptions of RP implementation compared to middle and high school staff. Implications for implementing RP amongst various school roles, contexts, and levels are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines trends of internal migration in China across two decades, with a focus on changes in socio-demographic predictors of origin-destination patterns. We use four microdata samples of the China decennial census and minicensus. After introducing a description of overall internal migration trends and providing a discussion of the utility of the urban hierarchy framework, we proceed with a two-step statistical approach. We look first descriptively at interprovincial bilateral migration flows. We then turn to a multivariate analysis of outmigration and destination selection as a function of age, sex, educational attainment and hukou status. Our results reveal the differential attractiveness of origins (for retention) and destinations by demographic characteristics and position within the urban hierarchy, and also indicate shifts in the strength of predictors over time. Greater educational attainment and urban hukou strongly favour the selection of a destination within the top levels of the urban hierarchy. Over time, selectivity by gender weakens. Although urban hukou and schooling become slightly less powerful predictors of interprovincial migration, attractiveness of top-tier destinations increases once individual demographic characteristics are controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explored the semiotic choices children in grades 1–6 made that nurtured embodied, dramatizing performances in science classes at urban public schools, serving predominantly students of color in a large US city. We studied how such choices in school and home settings (when instruction was remote during the COVID-19 pandemic) were implicated in the children's knowledge and identity construction and related to available resources and positionings. Multimodality and social semiotics, social practice theory, and positioning theory were the three theoretical anchors that guided the study, along with sociocultural and sociopolitical framings of science education. The study took place in the context of the multi-year collaboration STAGE (Science Theatre for Advancing Generative Engagement) among teachers and university educators designing and studying pedagogies of embodiment as part of students' engagement in school science. The ethnographic design of the larger research allowed us to engage over a school year with each class. The focus of this study is on classes of three teachers, who collaborated with a teaching artist, using data from video-recordings, fieldnotes, and conversations with students and teachers. The findings point to the generative nature of embodiments in terms of both the knowledge and identities that the children were constructing and the factors that shaped that generativity. These include (a) the resources available, (b) the children's own particular interests and sources of excitement, and (c) the simultaneous use of multiple semiotic tools that offer different affordances for meaning making. The findings affirm that multimodal embodied performances children design and create in school spaces (classrooms and settings for larger school gatherings, like auditoria) and at home provide opportunities to desettle expected axiological, ontological, and epistemological norms that often dominate science teaching. The power of dramatizing and of performing arts is facilitating the development of connections, solidarity, and feelings among peoples and materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this theory-to-practice paper on community engagement within education is to focus on developing a new collaborative model within a university-school partnership to address book deserts. Drawing on the historical work of previous scholars regarding equity, policy, and community engagement, this article adds to the existing research regarding long-term initiatives to eliminate book deserts. The focus of this work includes details of an ongoing community engagement initiative with a community development literacy partnership model to build school and classroom libraries in underserved communities of color. Implications for scholars, activists, and community advocates who focus on social action surrounding community development are discussed and delineated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systemic institutional racism in schools engenders different and difficult educational experiences for students of Color. Relatedly, there is an enduring divide between home and school that often influences school curricula, teachers' pedagogies, and students' educational progress. Considering this preclusion to learning, this case study gleans insight from a K-5 urban elementary school that partnered families and educators in an antiracist curriculum collaboration. Utilizing tenets of critical race theory and community cultural wealth, three salient themes emerged: (1) centering family voices and experiences, (2) calling for more antiracist practices and curricula, and (3) moving beyond the racist/not racist binary. We conclude with recommendations for schools engaging in antiracist work with family members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-tiered systems of behavioral support offer teachers tools to implement positive, antecedent- or consequence-based interventions for all students (i.e. Tier 1), and for those who need additional support (i.e. Tier 2), such as students with ADHD. Because these interventions may be challenging to use, targeted, theory-driven implementation strategies may assist teachers in implementing them with fidelity. This exploratory study examined teachers' intended and self-reported use of specific Tier 1 and Tier 2 behavioral classroom interventions. Sixty-five K-8 teachers from five urban public schools completed an online survey about their intentions to use and self-reported use of four Tier 1 and Tier 2 behavioral classroom interventions. Teachers' intentions varied by intervention, with the weakest intentions for using a daily behavior report (Tier 2) and weaker intentions for using high rates of specific praise than for other Tier 1 interventions. Teacher's self-reported use was significantly lower than intended use for Tier 1 interventions, but not Tier 2 interventions. Results were generally similar to whether the referent group was students with ADHD symptoms or the entire class. These results suggest specific factors to target to support teachers' use of behavioral classroom interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher retention in urban schools is a significant issue, with both new and experienced teachers leaving due to job dissatisfaction. Concerns include low salary, lack of resources, school management of student behavior, non-teaching obligations, and a lack of supportive feedback. There are debates about the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs for urban schools, with a lack of support reported by new teachers. Teacher candidates and new teachers often feel unprepared to meet the needs of diverse student populations. It is important to examine the knowledge and training needed for success in urban schools, and to provide support and mentoring for new teachers. Teacher retention and training are crucial for the effectiveness of schools. [Extracted from the article]

This study aimed to facilitate grade 8 students' conceptual understanding of 'sustainable development (SD)' via Common Knowledge Construction Model (CKCM)-oriented instruction. Through a pre-experimental research approach, the study was conducted with 31 grade 8 students drawn from a secondary school in the city of Trabzon, Turkey. A word association test (WAT), a conceptual understanding test (CUT) and student worksheets were used to unveil their conceptual understanding of SD (i.e. sustainability, recycling, saving, technology, environment, and the technology-environment-sustainability cycle). In analysing data, grade 8 students' responses to the WAT and CUT were imported into SPSS 22.0TM to run a paired samples t-test. Further, their responses to each worksheet were exposed to content analysis via three criteria: Positive Relational Development, Negative Relational Development and No Change. The current study revealed that the CKCM-oriented instruction was effective in enhancing grade 8 students' conceptual understanding of SD and challenging their alternative conceptions. In light of the results, the current study recommends that teachers and science educators develop similar teaching designs for other science topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies and statistical reports presented by anti-drug agencies in the Philippines suggest that illicit drug use in the Philippines had been increasing substantially. This study aims to analyse the locations of drug-related incidents in Manila City in October 2017 through the analysis of spatial point patterns. The point pattern for drug-related crimes was then tested for spatial dependence with specific establishments in Manila City such as schools, churches, and police stations. Notable results presented in this paper are: (i) the imposition of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to handle all drug-related crimes had significantly decreased the number of reported drug crimes, (ii) drug-related crimes were clustered on residential areas, (iii) drug-related crimes were inclined to happen far from colleges and universities, and (iv) drug-related crimes happened more frequently near public high schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study investigated the experiences of teachers who participated in a collaborative inquiry project. This was designed to gain insights into the learning dispositions (skill, inclination and sensitivity) participants reported when undertaking this form of professional learning. The specific inquiry initiative utilised Design-based Research (DBR). Data for this mixed-method study were generated from 109 teachers in an urban school district in California. The findings indicate that some important differences exist between the way individual teachers think and act when undertaking collaborative teacher inquiry. This enabled the development of a typology of four teacher dispositions and an understanding of how we might cultivate these to enhance the impact of inquiry-based professional learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the recent evolution of school leadership in Chile between 2009 and 2019, a decade of significant intensification in the country's school leadership policies, comparing principals' characteristics, working conditions and leadership practices, as reported by school principals and teachers. Data comes from a survey applied in both years to principals and teachers in nationally representative samples of urban primary schools. While reports of some characteristics and working conditions of principals have changed, no significant variation occurred in teachers' perceptions of principals' leadership practices. The article discusses policy´s capacity to motivate principals' practice change at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Marcia Gentry died last year, our field lost a fierce champion for inclusion and equity. In this article, I reflect on her work and the ways in which her early research helped to develop her interests in identifying and supporting the talent development of culturally diverse students. This early research on Enrichment Clusters was facilitated in two urban schools with diverse populations and the insights gained from this work contributed to her beliefs on talent development, more open and equitable identification, and enrichment opportunities for all students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ways in which urban schooling intersects with gentrification in US cities is an understudied yet growing reality. Within this wider reality, even less is known about how youth resist gentrifying agendas that seek to displace them from learning in rebranded cities. Drawing from an ethnographic study on urban place-based education at a high school situated amid efforts to rebrand the downtown of a southwestern city, the author proposes the right to the school as an extension to the right to the city. The right to the school is a framework to trace and understand how youth geographies intersect with (a) localized struggles over urban public schooling in the context of gentrification and (b) the formation of youth agency amid those struggles. To illustrate the right to the school, general findings and student vignettes are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following case study explores the durability of conflict between urban growth machine policies, public-school finance, and educational equity in Columbus, OH. The City of Columbus is one of the fastest growing cities in the Midwest, but it's largest urban public school district (Columbus City Schools) has grown smaller, more segregated, and poorer. Historical development policies enabled the city's growth but undermined the school district. Contemporary conflict has emerged related to the impact of tax abatement programs on public school funding. Our Franklin county analysis suggests previous statewide estimates of public schools revenues lost to abatements were underestimated. Analysis of the relationship between abatements and school finances for all public-school districts in Franklin County finds a weak relationship with per pupil spending, but a strong relationship with district demographics and classroom expenditures. Our case analysis suggests planners should focus greater attention on the intersection of economic development policy and public schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence—including issues of bullying—in urban schools across the United States is a persistent phenomenon, and continues to be of utmost concern for school administrators, community leaders, students, and their families. Using propensity score matching, we examined the relationship between school type—a magnet career academy and a traditional, comprehensive school—and students' experiences with bullying—observing and being a victim. We found that academy students—compared to comprehensive school students—both experienced and observed significantly lower levels of bullying. We believe it is likely that students at the magnet career academy benefited from a combination of factors, including their abilities to choose to participate in the academy, having peers with similar career interests, and the small size of the academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the intersections of race, gender, and trauma in students' school experiences. We collected focus group data from 36 trauma-exposed Black girls and 10 trauma-exposed Black boys from two urban high schools. Data was analyzed using an intersectional framework and resulted in the following themes: (1) Don't Touch the Students; (2) You Gettin' Suspended; (3) You Supposed to Be the Bigger Person; and (4) If We Have a Uniform, They Should Have a Uniform. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the turn of the century, China has shown its determination to change its examination-oriented tradition. It started assessment reforms and raised a series of expectations regarding teacher assessment literacy. At the same time, China experienced rapid internal migration, with urban public schools accepting huge numbers of migrant students in recent years. This study explored urban public-school teachers' assessment literacy in China's Zhengzhou city. The teaching of nine teachers from nine urban public schools were observed and follow-up interviews conducted between 2018 and 2019. The study provides insights into the contextual challenges that face teachers with regard to assessment in urban public schools in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fostering pro-environmental behavior to achieve a sustainable society is one goal of Education for Sustainable Development worldwide. Connectedness with nature positively correlates with pro-environmental behavior and therefore needs to be studied in detail. In this mixed-method study, applying the "Inclusion of Nature in Self" (INS)-scale, we investigated 1) how closely preadolescents from urban middle schools (n = 651, 6th grade) are connected with nature, 2) whether the type of school (general or academic track) or 3) the time spent outdoors influences students' connectedness with nature. We also explored 4) students' reasons for their specific INS level and 5) how reasons and levels interconnect. Data show that students' reported nature connectedness differs significantly with school type and that the reasons for feeling connected to nature are diverse. Positive attitudes and emotions toward nature plus time spent outdoors seem to predict high connectedness with nature, indicating the importance of direct nature experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the recognition to improve the schooling experiences of Latino youth, they continue to be targets of control. While much of the research on Latino youth takes place in urban schools, this qualitative, interview-based study examines the experiences of three Latino youth who attend a suburban high school in the Midwest. Latino youth in suburbia are not only subject to disciplinary measures that fuel their disconnection with school but must also wrestle with being told that they are not taking advantage of their school's resources. This different sort of policing around resources problematically holds Latino youth accountable for their supposed "shortcomings." This project considers what Latino youth's experiences can teach schools about how to enact asset-driven responses that empower rather than marginalize them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though there have been multiple studies on engagement among Latinx families, less is known about Latinx parental engagement at the secondary level or about engagement at predominantly Latinx schools. The purpose of this case study was to use Yosso's concept of community cultural wealth to demonstrate how administrators can engage Latinx parents in an urban high school by being responsive to families' needs and the ways in which parents want to engage with the school. Our findings have implications for research on parent engagement and for school-based practitioners seeking to engage their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Non-Government Organisation (NGO) in Kazakhstan introduced a pilot project to support schools through school-based resource centres for inclusive education as requested by the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES). This initiative came about as a way to support the State Program for the Development of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2016-2019 (MoES) that set the goal of having 70% of mainstream schools inclusive by the end of 2018. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how school-based resource centres are assisting in the development of creating conditions for inclusive education in mainstream schools of Nur-Sultan City. Data was collected using 22 one-to-one interviews with resource centre staff, teachers, parents of SEN students, school specialists and principals thus giving voice to all stakeholders. The main findings of the study were the positive impacts of resource centres in contributing to the continued development of inclusive education in Kazakhstan. Other findings revealed areas for further improvement in order to sustain and grow this initiative. These findings have implications for further detailing policy outlining a focused and practical plan for the continued development and reform of inclusive education beyond the capital city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1990, over 40% of schools have closed in the St. Louis Public Schools District (SLPSD) because of steep enrollment decline. Tracing educational trends over 30 years, I examine when, where, and why K-12 public schools closed in St. Louis in order to highlight the social conditions and policy decisions that contract contemporary urban education. I ask: What key social factors influence K-12 school closure patterns in St. Louis, Missouri? This mixed methods study summarizes analyses of data from the U.S. Department of Education, the St. Louis Public Schools District, and local news coverage to describe trends, determinants, and consequences of K-12 public school closures in St. Louis, Missouri (1990–2020). Findings demonstrated that closures in the city district were concentrated in majority-Black neighborhoods, with limited evidence of benefits to youth and communities. Findings also indicated that attempts to create educational change through the desegregation transfers program, charter school expansion, and administrative restructuring all triggered waves of closures. Drawing from community relations perspectives, I interpret mass closures as racialized policy practices that strain Black community relations and contract city districts. I argue that recurrent closures undermine youth and community development and disengage Black communities in ways that threaten district viability. Conclusions weigh whether the closure practices in the district have caused irreparable damage to Black community relations or if new policy objectives can foster long-term growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School based asthma programs have demonstrated that preventive asthma therapy administered in school reduces asthma morbidity. The burden of co-morbid allergic disease on asthma outcomes in a large school based asthma cohort has been unexplored. Evaluate the prevalence of allergic rhinitis (AR) in historically minoritized school children with persistent asthma, and determine if AR is an independent risk factor for asthma morbidity. We evaluated the prevalence of AR in children enrolled in 3 NIH funded school based asthma programs in Rochester, NY. We used linear regression and multivariate analyses to compare asthma outcomes for children whose caregivers did and did not report AR. We used data from 1,029 children with asthma (mean age 7.4, 60.4% Black, 29.5% Hispanic, 72.8% insured with Medicaid). 63% of children reported AR. Children with AR had significantly fewer symptom free days over 2 weeks compared to children without AR (7.2 vs. 8.3, p < 0.001). Children with AR also had more daytime symptoms, (4.7 vs. 3.7, p < 0.001), more rescue medication use (4.5 vs. 3.4, p < 0.01), and more activity limitation due to asthma (3.6 vs. 2.5, p < 0.001). Only 44% of children with AR reported allergy medication use. Among a large school-based cohort of minoritized children with asthma, we found that the majority of children have comorbid allergic rhinitis, which was associated with increased asthma morbidity. Inadequate recognition and treatment for allergic rhinitis likely represents substantial preventable morbidity for this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates computer programming ('coding') activities of Primary School Children; we ask if there is evidence of gender differences in their coding activities. The research took place in an English urban school with around 180 children on role, mostly from a middle-class social background. The study involved a class of 17 boys and 15 girls aged 10–11 years. Teaching was delivered by the class teacher using our 'WeeBee engine', where children code animated stories using the professional text-based language Java. We first review relevant literature about gender differences to develop criteria for our analysis. We assess the children's code, their process of coding and the quality of their final animated stories. Our findings strongly suggest there are no gender differences in coding ability and in the quality of stories created. We suggest that practitioners should not assume that gender differences exist in this context, and they should not adapt their teaching to gender. The WeeBee engine is established as being gender neutral and we recommend its use by practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to transform urban schools often overlook the role of students in shaping educational spaces. And so, I ask: How do students, as the primary users of school space, make and shape their school? I draw from spatial inquiry that emphasizes the social production of space to provide a glimpse into the spatial perspectives and practices of Azul, a young Latina from a working-class community and Associated Student Body president of her school. Relying on ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews, I examine instances where Azul and her peers transform school spaces from their intended uses to student-friendly, democratic spaces. My findings indicate that ascribing and shaping enjoyment and belonging are crucial components to their production of school space. A lived curriculum of school space is shaped as young people negotiate and construct school space to be more inclusive of their educational wants and needs. By focusing on the spatial perspectives and practices of Azul and her peers, I offer insights into the socio-political commitments of students and student leaders, in particular, in their everyday lives as significant social beings and actors over school space. These reveal that students' articulations about place that frame schools as spaces of possibility and hope are important for creating equitable schools where students may serve as partners in building a collective vision for schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Door locks are a ubiquitous form of security to control access to a building with the goal of reducing crime there. However, research on door locks is often limited by methodological issues and primarily focuses on residential or commercial locations. This paper assesses the impact of card reader door locks on school buildings on an urban university campus. Using a difference-in-differences approach, this paper estimates the effect of card reader locks on crime in buildings. The results indicate that the locks do not significantly affect crime within buildings on a university campus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current moment in schooling and socio-political contexts has prompted many educators to pause and reflect on what it might take to create a "new normal" for educating young people, particularly in underserved, urban communities. This article centers an interview with Dr. Arnetha F. Ball given her expertise in the field of teacher education, specifically with students in urban schools. We draw connections from the dialogue to existing literature related to urban education, Black students, and community engaged teaching and learning with an emphasis on centering Dr. Ball's contributions to this literature. Based on our insights, this article proposes action-based recommendations for a community-centered approach to teacher preparation for urban schools that synthesize our hopes for more liberatory and transformative practices therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]