
Listening to Urban Kids
School Reform and the Teachers They Want
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Independent researchers interview urban middle school students to get their impressions of the teachers that help them to succeed in schools.
Description
According to the many student voices in this book, urban middle school students want teachers who "stay on them" to complete their work, maintain orderly classrooms, give them the extra help they need to succeed, explain their work clearly, draw on a variety of teaching strategies, and make their work relevant and meaningful. This book, rich in detail, brings these inner-city students' perspectives to life and issues a compelling call for urban school reform that actually touches students' daily lives.
Bruce L. Wilson and H. Dickson Corbett are both independent educational researchers and coauthors of Testing, Reform, and Rebellion. Wilson is coauthor of Mandating Academic Excellence: High School Responses to State Curriculum Reform, with Gretchen B. Rossman and Successful Secondary Schools: Visions of Excellence in American Public Education, with Thomas B. Corcoran; and Corbett is coauthor of School Context and School Change: Implications for Effective Planning, with Judith A. Dawson and William A Firestone and Change and Effectiveness in Schools: A Cultural Perspective, with Gretchen B. Rossman and William A. Firestone, also published by SUNY Press.
Reviews
"This book provides a cogent argument for including urban students in the dialogue on urban school reform. The students, because of their insider status, offer clear, specific views concerning those conditions that foster and hinder their learning. The students' suggestions warrant serious attention by those who are genuinely concerned about improving the quality of education in urban schools. " — Grace Cureton Stanford, The Pennsylvania State University
"This book persuasively makes the case for—and uses effectively—student perspective as a key component of school reform. The implications for change of teachers' practice and for school reform in general are unmistakable and compelling. " — Gil Schmerler, Bank Street College of Education