Teachers at the Center: Place and Education Displacement in Southwest Atlanta

In Southwest Atlanta, urban education reform and gentrification have intersected to create the perfect collision of housing and educational displacement of Black students, Black families, and Black teachers. While Black communities are dealing with the impacts of gentrification, Black schools are simultaneously witnessing shifts that uproot students and their teachers. As a teacher participatory action research (PAR) collective, we share our personal experiences of housing displacement and how it has impacted our students, our communities, and our ability to maintain our positions as community-centered teachers. In this article, we acclimate readers to Atlanta, Georgia, and the Southwest Atlanta region in which we serve. We also illustrate how we have confronted the displacement of our students and ourselves. Finally, we highlight the significance of community-centered teachers operating within a Critical Studyin’ for Human Freedom praxis in the struggle against systemic inequities that persistently plague our students and communities.

Urban STEM Education

Students in underserved urban communities often lack access to educational opportunities in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). Evidence reveals a lack of STEM access in urban environments, displaying a clear pattern impacting predominantly impoverished neighborhoods the hardest. The issue of STEM education in urban schools reflects an increased interest in expanding and diversifying the future workforce to compete in a STEM-centered future. STEM has been positioned as a critical part of urban education reform efforts and a potential vehicle to broadening participation in STEM. In various US cities, schools labeled as failing are being repurposed as selective STEM-intensive academies to build a STEM education infrastructure. In this chapter, the authors discuss the barriers associated with urban STEM education and how this underserved population is a vital vehicle to increase diversity in STEM.

Book Review

Ability, equity, and culture: Sustaining inclusive urban education reform, edited by Kozleski and Thorius (2014), is a remarkable compilation of work, written by a diverse ensemble of educators, researchers, practitioners, and advocates. A thought-provoking book that looks critically at urban education reform, the authors challenge readers to have a broader understanding of what the term inclusivity entails. The editors present the work of 17 authors who were all part of the National Institute for Urban School Improvement (NIUSI). These authors shed light on various aspects of systemic urban reform in policy, pedagogy, and practice. Issues discussed ranged from the micro to the macro change initiatives to classroom environments and district culture, as well as successful models of student-centered programs around the country. Using data from 12 years of research conducted under the sponsorship of NIUSI, the contributors paint a hopeful, if daunting, a portrait of what equitable, inclusive, and culturally responsive education should and could look like. Ultimately, the contributors of this book believe that sustainable, scalable, successful systemic educational reform is attainable, provided that all stakeholders are committed to cultural responsivity and inclusivity for all students. In order to achieve this goal, the authors posit that reform needs to combat discrimination based on socially constructed notions of difference, such as gender, race, ethnicity, ability, class, and sexual orientation.

Building Sustainable Civic Capacity in Urban Education Reform: Actors, Perceptions, and Recommendations for Inclusive Public Policy

The research and literature focusing on education change, policy development, and community engagement have indicated clearly that forming a broad coalition within urban education reform through greater civic engagement can create sustainable education change, help to develop inclusive education policy, and lead to greater accountability, transparency, equity, and efficacy in delivering 21st-century education to all students. However, the actors, barriers, and opportunities related to developing inclusive educational policy and greater civic capacity in urban education reform have been under-examined in the literature around public policy and civic engagement. Drawing from quantitative and qualitative data collected in a concurrent triangulation mixed-methods study, this article examines the perceptions and relationships of various actors in urban education reform in Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and offers a deeper understanding of the barriers to and opportunities for fostering greater civic capacity and engagement in urban education reform, and developing inclusive educational policy. The study findings suggest strongly that sustained civic capacity and engagement in urban education change efforts allow for systematic improvements in educational development and innovation. Moreover, the results indicated that structural openness to new actors, stakeholders, and the reconceptualization of education as a worthy good can lead to enhanced educational quality, equity, and inclusion, particularly in urban areas. The authors also present further discussion about and policy recommendations for increased civic engagement in urban school reform efforts.

Eligiendo Escuelas: English Learners and Access to School Choice

School choice has emerged as the linchpin of President Trump’s urban education reform plan, but it remains unclear how school choice policies will shape the educational experiences of the most underserved student groups, particularly English learners (ELs). Using quantitative data from one large urban school district, we examine EL participation in a system of school choice. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which never, current, and former ELs enroll in a nonzoned school. We find significant differences in the likelihood that students across these groups engage in school choice, raising important questions about whether school choice reforms are accessible to current ELs.