Additional information
by Kathryn M. Borman (Author)
Summarizes findings of a long-term study of math and science education reforms in Chicago, El Paso, Memphis, and Miami.
Based on a three-year study of the National Science Foundation's Urban Systemic Initiative, Meaningful Urban Education Reform is an overview of recent attempts to change teaching in mathematics and science in urban environments. The book evaluates the impact of educational reform on urban schools, determines how schools with the highest levels of poverty in the United States can make successful changes, and investigates how communities and policy makers contribute to student achievement.
Contributors provide compelling portraits of classrooms, teachers, and students in elementary, middle, and high schools through case studies and examples from intensive research in four locations: Chicago, El Paso, Memphis, and Miami. They interviewed, observed, and gathered information from district administrators, school principals, teachers, students and their parents, and community members. The book provides valuable insight into how systemic reform works, offers suggestions regarding assessment of successful learning environments, and addresses the need for intensive, long-term professional development for the purpose of engaging teachers with their colleagues in communities of practice supported by a strong school culture.
Author Biography
Kathryn M. Borman is Professor of Anthropology and Associate Director of the David C. Anchin Center at the University of South Florida. She has collaborated on and coedited numerous books, including Ethnic Diversity in Communities and Schools: Recognizing and Building on Strengths (with M. Yvette Baber and Associates); Adolescent Years: Social Influences and Educational Challenges (coedited with Barbara Schneider); and Changing American Education: Recapturing the Past or Inventing the Future? (coedited with Nancy P. Greenman), also published by SUNY Press.
