Urban Education - week 5

Reflections

How do the ideas and issues presented in chapter 9 link with ideas and themes from the Fotofest experience?

Both texts, chapter 9 and India curriculum in Fototest, develop innovative ideas to deal with students and their diversity. Both texts highlights the importance of the “history” and the “story”, that is, what people have to tell or communicate to others, what they see and what is familiar to them. Connections what their own experiences are another link, even if they can not speak English fluently they have a tool to express themselves. Moreover, the language development is an important key as well since they talk about developing language, in the chapter 9 we read about immigrants who struggle with English, pictures and visual resources can help them learn more vocabulary and grammar structures. Besides, as I said in the reflection activity for Fotofest experience, pictures give students and teachers new opportunities for communication. This is another link with chapter 9 since many teachers supported the idea of a democratic classroom focused on the previous knowledge and experiences of the students.

Many times, when educators think about the communicative learning of immigrants, they -teachers- have some urgency for technical aspects, which are important, and they -immigrant students- are going to need them a lot, however those educators can forget about some questions: do they have something to say? or are they interested in recognizing what is said to them? Basically, this attitude and motivation to say something or participate is the engine of its integration and learning, too. Both texts -chapter 9 and curriculum- deal with the motivational aspect too.

What are your thoughts regarding  integrating multiple literacies in education (knowledge, skills, and dispositions Included)?

As we read in the chapter, many teachers and educators have a strong idea of literacy as a simple action of coding and decoding: reading and writing. Most of them they miss “meaning” and the purpose of writing. As a dual-language teacher I am in favor with the integration of multiple literacies in education. In my classrooms I give them more time to talk, I invite them to share their experiences, and even to their families through the use of social media, since every one has a different way of seeing and interpreting things. If they share their perspectives everyone will add more value to their learning, and as extension to their lives as well. Including the fact that I promote multilingualism and multiculturalism, maybe it´s part of my origins, I´m from Europe and there we value “diversity”, for us knowing different languages is a plus.

As an educator who cares of the diversity in my classroom I use different tools and resources to teach my students since I understand how important the motivation in the learning process is. If I don´t implement a good method of teaching that covers all my students I won´t be successful neither my students. Of course, I ensure myself that every student understood what they are learning through conversation and dialogs with them, besides of the adaptations to cover their needs.

I like the references to Carroll whose theory of learning-acquisition are linked to Krashen´s theory of learning a second language. Krashen states the need of the comprehensible input to learn a language. A comprehensible input is the language you are exposed to, that is adapted to your level but one step further in difficulty. This challenge will help you develop skills for understanding the language by leaning on the context, situation and your world knowledge, for example. That´s the link with the cognitive model by Carroll whose understanding and assimilation of the input relies on the long-term memory that depends on your motivation, repetition, and other skills.

HISD Multilingual department offer us, teachers and educator, lots of professional development trainings to implement sheltered instruction, accommodations, uses of cognates, content-language integration skills, among many others that help us improve our teaching daily.

For example, in my blog you can find many posts about multilingualism and methods to teach-learn foreign or second languages in your classroom like this one about CLIL method: http://maestrousero.blogspot.com/2017/04/clil-and-goals-multilingual-education.html

What are sims and diffs between urban, rural and suburban education?

The main difference we can find is geography since urban schools are located in cities, suburban schools are located in the outskirts or far neighborhoods of cities or belong to small cities and rural schools that are not placed in cities.

Another difference is the diversity of the students, in urban schools, mainly, the population of students are diverse since in the other types of schools the population is more homogenous.

In relation to the former difference, diversity, urban schools face issues and challenges different from the suburban and rural schools. Urban school educators and staff are or should be prepared to deal with multicultural/multilingual situations, provided with several tools-skills-knowledge to deal with situations.

As a consequence, the rate of family engagement in urban schools, especially those with a majority of immigrant students, is low, compared to the suburban and rural schools.

Another difference: vocational education, despite of the myth of rural schools because of the lack of career opportunities, this type of education is much more likely to be found in urban and suburban schools.

Another difference or similarity, depending on the glass through you can see this issue, students in urban schools live in the city, inside the district area as well as the suburban school students, on the contrary, many rural students do not live near a school. In cities, because of the traffic situation students can struggle to get school on time or sometimes they spend a lot of time on their way.

As similarities we can mention that they share a “common core” standards or curriculum. There are not big differences in the school structure and the roles of the school staff: principal, counselor, nurse, teachers, students, janitors,… Another similarity is the methods, usually teachers teach, although in urban schools teachers should act more like a facilitator or guide, but many current professional practices don´t correspond to their ideal roles.

Another similarity the student-teacher ratio, urban school classrooms are considered to be overcrowded, compared to suburban and rural school classrooms that are shorter in size and number, however the NCES numbers show that they are so similar, the only difference is the size of schools. Rural schools are smaller.

Some similarities are the number of violent crimes in both urban and suburban settings that are so similar, as well as the tax support that are high for rural and urban schools.

What are your thoughts about the arguments in chapter 18?

 I can understand the myths of rural schools and education as a possible “solution” for what´s happening. I think that, as well as we read in other previous chapters, the need of stability persists on the ideal setting of rural schools as the right answer for the issues in urban education. On the other hand, what is happening in urban education is a parallelism to our current world: global connections, and as a loyal reflection of our western societies urban education is going through the same processes and challenges.

  

Concepts used to describe education in 21st century US are multidimentional, complex, intercultural... thoughts?

As I answered in the former question, I agree. Our urban schools reflects what our societies are living and experiencing in a global connected world. Urban schools have students from many different places and countries with their own diversity. This diversity is a challenge not only to urban schools but to our societies and its with education where we start providing answers to issues like speaking different languages, using different tools, adapting new technologies and innovation among many others, and at the same time the administrators are learning as well and trying to provide formation to educators and teachers to how to deal with all these new challenges, their improving the workforce with the tools they have. Many times the situation changes so rapidly that teachers, administrators and policy-makers are not ready to face them and they need more time to embrace everyone and their diversity. Even the beliefs and ideas that the whole society has about them, they need to understand that diversity is something that adds value to their societies, beneficial instead of thinking of the disadvantages as we can hear in our districts about bilingual education programs, that struggle to have native students because their parents still think about the loss of knowledge or language, but not about the future better opportunities for their children´s lives.

The policy of Assimilation, the predominant in the US during the last decades, does not provide space in any academic program or classroom practices of L1, its proposal is the rapid and mandatory learning of the local language in all spaces. Fortunately, US policies changed, and they are investing in other programs in favor of multiculturalism. Another example of change, Europe, which had also shared the idea of ​​Assimilation, changed its attitude in some of its areas. Multiculturalism, which is a way of acquiring the L2 but keeping the L1 (on request and in the first years) in the academic formation, and respecting its use and within the school environment, is seen as an alternative of a fair integration, less dramatic and appropriate for content learning. For example, Sweden considers within its curriculum the teaching of Swedish and the language of origin (this is given on demand, that is, number of students) or that example of Australia or the United Kingdom that have accommodated other languages ​​in education, are examples of the possibility of working an inclusive policy.

The community, the school, the teacher, the teaching method, ethnicity, good results in what is done, etcetera act on our way of thinking (about oneself and others) and react towards the willingness to learn. In a kind of reciprocal relationship, our internal part is transformed according to manifestations from outside, and the outside also perceives my response and feeds it back. For example, if we are not involved - we are taken into account - because we do not know the language, my affective filter goes up, we start to lack motivation and think about the causes of the "discrimination" (Theory of attribution), and these students simply give up their process of learning. On the contrary, if the environment values them, sees them as someone who can contribute, and who cares about the others, then the affective filter is turned off and their attitude changes completely.

Reference:

Castles, Stephen, and Mark J. Miller (2003): The Age of Migration: International Population Movements, in the Modern World, Third edition. New York: Guilford Press.

Urban education reflections - week 4

Last week, the meeting was really interesting because they showed us different ways of dealing with urban education issues. Both of them shared something: activism. I think that this part is very important to make an impact in our societies, professionals with a great heart full of compassion for others, giving them a voice, the most unprotected people in our society: poor, immigrant and refugees. In relation to this point I want to share with you this article:

Pakistani Nobel Laureate Malala visited Mexico, she was invited by the Mexican university to talk about review the importance of education and culture in the development of the society. Malala also referred to the educational issue, stating that "without education we can not move forward" and showing outrage at the treatment of some nations in this basic human right. "I do not understand why some world leaders do not understand yet how important it is to invest in education," said the Pakistani activist. "When you educate a child you give him resources, you help him grow", she concluded.

In recent decades, interpretations of disparities in education have changed from a one-dimensional approach to a multidimensional and interactive one. It is widely observed that the social and cultural differences of the students condition their educational progress and the results they obtain. The OECD report (1995) on students at risk points out seven predictors of low-academically-performance schools that are closely related to social disadvantage: poverty, belonging to an ethnic minority, immigrant families or without adequate housing, ignorance of the majority language, type of school, geographical place in which they live and lack of social support. However, the report states that there is no strict correspondence between social and educational disparities. There are other factors, such as the family, the education system and the school itself that can increase or decrease these inequalities.

Then, according to the Education that was set by the industrial era the educational model created responded to the needs of society. In the industrial era, schools were designed as economic engines to supply professionals to an industrial society, based on production and mass consumption. The educational system assumed the typical values ​​of industrial organization: hierarchy, planning, control and standardization. In essence, students were trained to do what they were told to do. They spent several years memorizing the greatest possible body of knowledge to exploit it later, throughout their professional stage.

There were many attempts to change the ‘industrial’ concept of education but there are many other factors in education that prevent the change. The stability in the school structure, that is the roles of students and teachers, and families of course; others factors of stability are the contents of the curriculum (in 100 years they have not changed) they added some new tools like technology but there are no great changes because they are reinforced by the textbooks and the standardized tests. According to Eisner in his article “Who decides what schools teach?” he analyzed all those factors and they reflected the conservatism and the need of stability that most part of society expects of education.

UNESCO published The fight against exclusion in education that is a guidance for teachers to deal with inclusion and attending diversity in classrooms. There are some important factors that help us understand the inclusive education:

• -          Attention to diversity. Each student is “diverse” and has specific and individual characteristics and needs that are to be attended from an educational perspective. Diversity is understood as the opportunity to learn, as a mutual benefit to all the members of the educational community.
• -          Flexibility: diversity leads us to personalized or individualized learning which focuses on the individual characteristics of the students (their weaknesses and strengths). Their learning must be open and flexible to give them opportunities for learning.
• -          Support: providing the resources and tools that each student needs to learn. The support has to come from the classroom with the students and teachers as well as from the school community with the help of other professionals.
• -          Teachers: their role is like a guide or facilitator of knowledge, opportunities, supporter, bridge between student-family-school, who enhances values like tolerance, respect,…
• -          Participation and collaboration: a pro-active participation of all the members of the community is necessary to be successful in education. It is very important to create a sense of belonging and commitment.

There are more points that help to understand diversity in education, inclusion and its reflection, but I’ve summed up the ones in relation to students’ learning and the roles of teachers since in our task we are asked to answer as “an urban teacher”. I believe in an education that help all the students to be successful as well as the understanding of their families. Nowadays with the use of technology like the digital devices and social media is easier to connect with everyone and call them for participation. As an urban teacher I did it and the results were awesome, indeed the school where I was working before is still working with social media to engage families.

   

    To get a good participation I faced lots of “obstacles”. There are some obstacles coming from the school staff, other teachers and bureaucracy of the district: some of the teachers couldn’t understand how social media could use for engaging families and improving the participation in the school, the administrators were more focused on numbers and they didn’t want to know anything but results, many times the school staff didn’t provide the information so it was difficult to provide exact and precise information.

     

     Other obstacles came from the families, many of them thought about social media like something bad because they were convinced by the news on TV about the risks of social media and its exposure. For some parents, as well as for school staff and administrators, to deliver information through digital devices were not enough, they needed a hard copy of the same information. Most of parents were not familiar with educational apps. To find some solutions I invited them to an open house session where I trained them how to use “Facebook” app for educational purposes and showed them all the possibilities of improvement in communication: easy and fast communication, photos and videos,…

Urban schools: main problem analysis

The existence of urban schools with lack of resources - whether of a human or material nature - in which the quality of the students' performances (according to the standard test system) is degraded is not a new problem at all. What is new is, on the one hand, an awareness of the extent of the phenomenon and, on the other hand, the growing willingness of education professionals to be slowed down. This will is even more intense because the situation of the members of the disadvantaged urban schools is, in some cases, worrisome, and because the intervention of the public authorities often develops under the pressure of urgency.

Stopping the degradation of these schools can not be done without a strong and prolonged action by the public authorities aimed at improving the learning conditions in these schools, favoring the integration and inclusion of all their students, meeting their needs and guaranteeing education. quality. The local public administrations are the first calls to face this challenge.

The means of intervention available from public administrations are multiple. With a different weight, the improvement of infrastructures and facilities, the creation of activities for the school community and of quality educational development, the promotion of the active participation of parents in the school life and the improvement of public services offered in these areas are among the measures adopted by various countries in this area.

On the other hand, we must not forget that prevention is always easier than cure. The effective measures applied in urban schools can be applied to other schools, in order to avoid the creation of "contagions" that entail the degradation of the living conditions and the segregation of the members of those school communities.

It is more about creating in these urban school communities an active and dynamic system for the active parent engagement with a huge variety of activities, so as to favor the integration of all the members of these communities and to accompany them in their efforts of social reintegration. The "reforms" and experiences are structured around the following axes:

- Make the parent activities closest to the the school community members, and therefore more accessible from all points of view;

- Respond better to the specific needs of the students of these urban schools;

- Improve efficiency in order to avoid wasting resources and the lack of control of the school budget.

In short, the reforms undertaken in the field of public urban schools offered in other areas should also be articulated around three axes: more proximity, better adaptation to needs and more efficiency.

The social factor

At the "internal" level, the poor school life conditions of the affected schools implied a reduction in quality, which obviously attracted families with low educational resources and expectations. This negative selection worsened the teaching conditions and the scope was closed in this way.

At the "external" level, relations between members of urban school communities and the rest of the population have become increasingly tense: Different conditions and unequal opportunities have often led to isolation, marginalization and of blaming students and members of urban schools with difficulties. The reaction of these has been the rejection of the values ​​of the majority and the provocation, which, in turn, has reinforced the marginalization.

In addition, in some schools there are ethnic influences that increase the isolation and self-isolation of the inhabitants and, therefore, create an additional barrier between them and the rest of the population.

The economic factor

A large part of urban schools belong to neighborhoods or working districts of large cities. The general economic reconversion is not the only factor that has generated the economic decline of these areas. Indeed, economic development needs particular conditions that are often not found in these educational centers (infrastructures and services). Another important factor affects the general climate of insecurity.

The economic decline, which implies a further reduction in income, has condemned small merchants and has further degraded the economic level of disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The inhabitants of these neighborhoods complain precisely about the inequality of opportunities in the labor market: often ineffective educational and training systems offer them little job prospects in a situation in which the unemployment rate is high. To this are added the prejudices

existing against the inhabitants of these neighborhoods, and even discrimination when hiring them because of ethnic origin, which further reduce their chances of finding a job.

Faced with these problems in the labor market, some members of urban schools are tempted to reject this system en bloc and to look for other schools in more "favored" areas and, eventually, the transfer to other schools with better reputation.

This reinforces the stigmatization of those who are victims and the distrust of potential teachers and educators, which only increases the barriers to hiring personnel for the school.

its students, which constitutes a not insignificant threat on the development of learning, and especially the one that develops in this type of centers.

The political-educational factor

Students in urban schools are underperforming, so they are not considered "good" in the district's school categories and therefore receive less aid.

Some, such as recent migrant students or those who have not completed the necessary procedures, do not obtain even the minimum, which contributes to lowering the general average of the school. In fact, these schools are clearly

margin of the political process. There is a risk of a complete rejection of the political system byIt even happens that some administrators and teachers fall into the trap of the collective blaming of these students (especially for lack of support and understanding of the educational activity) and try to interpret them as feelings of rejection. Widely mediated, such an attitude can only reinforce the feeling of marginalization and the distrust of the students of these educational centers.

Possible measures:

- Better delimit the covered areas 

- Formation in sociological and psychological studies

- Verify the possibility of having a flexible definition at the national/state/local level of these areas

- Reform services in order to take responsibility for people, and not for problems

- Specialize the Administration according to the needs of students and school community members.

- Improve the accessibility of services.

- Reform services from a global, integrated perspective

- Improve the exchange of information.

- Search for synergies

- Guarantee coordination and cooperation, both horizontally and vertically, between public administrations.

- Associate and maintain relationships with educational entities in the environment as well as parent associations, for example.

- Respond to specific needs

- Apply reception programs for students with needs, encourage non-profit private initiatives in this field and participate in them.

- Improve the framework of the urban school community

- Improve education and professional development systems

- Strengthen and stimulate communication with all members of the community as well as the use of information technologies

- Apply effective participatory systems

The development of a specific and comprehensive policy for disadvantaged urban schools should be one of the priorities of public authorities, in the context of urban policies of the 21st century. This policy for these centers should be presided over by a strategic vision, encompassing, connecting

and coordinate all sectoral actions on these areas (education, services to students and families, parent engagement programs,...) and at the same time requires coordinated action by all public and private powers to achieve the greatest possible synergy, coherence of the actions and a saving of scarce resources. Only in this way will it be possible to remove its inhabitants from the "vicious" social, economic and political that grips them and that reciprocally feed each other.


References:

• http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/diversity/urban-school-challenges
• http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/diversity/cultural-adaptations-when-implementing-rti-in-urban-settings
• http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/diversity/promising-examples-of-rti-practices-for-urban-schools

Reflections - week 3 - Urban Education

The assignments are:

1. choose 2 - 3 unique features listed on pages 4 - 8 of ch 1. Reflect on your ideas and issues with these features. What are your personal experiences and implications for urban education in the 21st century. 

2. See pp. 32 - 34, etc. How do the concepts of cultural competence, critical literacy, and critical consciousness connect with ideas and issues in urban education? What are possible practical contexts regarding these ideas? 

3. See the last paragragh on ch 2 - pp 38 and 39. How does this statement link to your thoughts regarding urban education? 

1. The features that I chose are the following: 

- Urban areas and urban schools have a higher rate of ethnic, racial, and religious diversity. 

“The frustration of such teachers and staff members is exacerbated by the perception that few care about the well-being and the success of these students”. 

- Urban schools serve higher immigrant populations

“Along with these voluntary immigrants, urban schools serve students whose ancestors were involuntary immigrants who share a history of discrimination and injustice. Each of these groups experiences problems unique to its background, and urban educators need to understand and know how to address these concerns". 

- Urban schools are characterized by linguistic diversity.

“Because of their large immigrant populations, urban schools have more students speaking different languages." 

I chose these three unique features because they are related to diversity: cultural, socioeconomical, linguistic and others. I found an article “Immigrant Children” by Child Trends.org that is related to this idea of diversity that shows the number of first- and second-generation immigrant children in the United States. This number grew more than the double in less than 20 years. 

“The population of first- and second-generation immigrant children in the United States grew by 51 percent between 1995 and 2014, to 18.7 million, or one-quarter of all U.S. children.” 

Urban school students are unique, it means that every student has a special background (I want to clarify the use of "special", this adjective in this sentence has the meaning of something that is not usual or common, and it does not imply something negative). As for me, diversity is something positive, something that adds more value to what we have since this value lies on the little pieces that form that specific part of our urban society: their language, their culture, their interaction with others. Putting all these ingredients together they are creating a new “culture” with different things. 

On page 9 we can read the last paragraph about the “context of hope”, giving a new “label” to those students “at risk”: “of resilience”. There is a positive approach that tries to formulate programs that focus on their strengths instead of their deficits. Besides, urban teachers can work to connect students to unique urban resources such as museums and other sociocultural spaces in the city that can be part of the learning resources to improve the lives of poor urban students. 

One of our classmates once shared an article about the formation of teachers dealing with diversity. Are they really prepared to face diversity in schools? According to the most recent studies, white teachers are predominant in our classrooms… 

What kind of teachers are necessary for an inclusive society in the 21st century urban school? 

What are the essential skills or knowledge of an urban school teacher in inclusive education? 

What values ​​and areas of competence should be developed within their professional development? 

Although inclusion can be promoted by public authorities through legal prescription, it is the teachers' attitudes, perceptions and practices that respond to the needs of their students, the essential dimensions to determine the success of inclusion in their classes in urban schools. 

But if we ask an urban teacher about all the work that they have to do is the same: long hours working on papers, lack of resources, lack of support by the educational institutions, lack of participation in the school community, among other answers. Despite all that, in general, urban educators have a positive thinking about school inclusion. 

Consequently, a thorough analysis of the educational practices themselves is necessary. Knowing that some factors are effectively outside the scope of the urban school teacher such as poor materials or lack of them, large classes..., however many others are found in the organization of urban school classrooms: decontextualized curriculum, poorly prepared lessons, use of a very scientific language, prejudices… 

Changing the perspective, if we work on the gap between the reality and the “ideal” expectations, that is, with the characteristics of the reality that the school intends to prepare the students and the one that actually expects. For Ainscow, it is about recognizing existing practices and knowledge as starting points for a process that considers differences as opportunities for the overall improvement of education, which will benefit the whole school community. 

By analyzing those practices, a good urban school can identify and share good practices, identify the barriers to the participation and learning of some students, and reflect on all this and search for solutions. 

Therefore, it is necessary to recognize the teachers´ mindset about the school and inclusion of diversity, identify the different forms of relationship established by teachers with multi-diverse children, and review teachers' attitudes towards those children. The ideas and beliefs that the teacher has in relation to those “multi-diverse” students will be reflected in the attitude that evidences their classroom management and teaching work. In this way, the role of teachers in the urban school setting is seen as essential in this process. The personalized attention, the permanent support, the motivation that is offered to the child and the challenging activities are indispensable to foster a positive self-esteem and the achievement of learning by those students. 

After that we can identify three basic elements that good teachers have, in urban schools: 

- Behaviors and values. 

- Knowledge and understanding. 

- Skills and abilities 

This approach is based by Ryan´s idea of “multidimensional traits” (2009), but especially in Shulman (2007), which describes professional learning as a learning of: 

The head (knowledge), The hands (skills or practices), and the heart (behaviors and beliefs). 

http://meridianschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/infographic-HeadHandHeart.gif

According to these criteria, the professional development of urban school teachers should include: 

- Continuous formation and innovations in pedagogy: Variety of methods and resources, new ways and formulas of evaluation. The curriculum is not ended or limited to the classroom setting, but extended to the whole community and neighborhood. Flexibility in programming. 

- Education in values: Ethical principle of research and work in the classroom that improve inclusion processes and procedures 

- Technology as a support of family-school relationships: improvement of the communication with students´ families. Democratic school: take into account the interests and opinions of students and their families. 

- Proactive attitude: Be involved in school management, problem-solution skills. 

- Facilitator: Promote autonomous student work. Teamwork: Cooperation and disciplinary integration 

- Learning opportunities seeker: Create situations in which students can not escape without learning and develop cooperative work environments. Significant learning: Use knowledge as motivation, not as a goal 

If they can receive this kind of formation, the urban schools can: 

- Improve teacher education systems, 

- Ensure the quality of teacher educators 

- Improve the skills of teacher educators 

- Promote professional values ​​and behaviors 

- Improve the quality and quantity of continuous professional development 

By doing so, we will be able to find a different profile of urban school teachers such as: 

- Social change agent: It assumes and defends the need for educational and social change. 

- Critical professional. 

- Solidarity and cooperative: Expert in energizing groups and teamwork. 

-Initiative and voluntariness. 

- Good communicator (Confidence, reliability, respect, tolerance). 

- Academically well-formed and updated. 

- Dedication. 

Future Urban school teachers must understand the complexity of teaching and learning in urban schools and the multiple factors that affect them. They must recognize that they should not be passive consumers of a defined curricular content. In a way, these ideas seem very simple, but they imply a powerful and complex message for all the people involved in the educational endeavor of urban schools. Teaching can not be reduced to a list of demonstrable skills or knowledge that can be acquired through “standardized” tests. 

References: 

Ainscow, M. (2013) From exclusion to inclusion: ways of responding in schools to students with special educational needs. CfBT Education Trust. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED546818.pdf

Crosnoe, R. (2013) Preparing the Children of Immigrants for Early Academic Success. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/preparing-children-immigrants-early-academic-success

Ainscow, M. & West, M. (eds) (2006) Improving urban schools: leadership and collaboration. Buckingham: Open University Press

Soojin, S.O., North, C. (2011) Immigration, Youth, and Education. Harvard Educational Review. Retrieved from http://hepg.org/her-home/issues/harvard-educational-review-volume-81-number-3/herarticle/editors%E2%80%99-introduction_826

Schaffer, Connie, "Urban immersion: Working to dispel the myths of urban schools and preparing teachers to work with diverse and economically disadvantaged students" (2012). Teacher Education Faculty Publications. 69. https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/tedfacpub/69

Ahram, R., Stembridge, A., Fergus, E., Noguera, P. (2016) Framing Urban School Challenges: The Problem when Implementing Response to Intervention. RtI Action Network. Retrieved from http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/diversity/urban-school-challenges