The Urban Review 

About: The Urban Review is an academic journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Teacher education & Academic achievement. It has an ISSN identifier of 0042-0972. Over the lifetime, 1304 publications have been published receiving 34956 citations. The journal is also known as: UR.

Black students' school success: Coping with the “burden of ‘acting white’”

Abstract: The authors review their previous explanation of black students' underachievement. They now suggest the importance of considering black people's expressive responses to their historical status and experience in America. “Fictive kinship” is proposed as a framework for understanding how a sense of collective identity enters into the process of schooling and affects academic achievement. The authors support their argument with ethnographic data from a high school in Washington, D.C., showing how the fear of being accused of “acting white” causes a social and psychological situation which diminishes black students' academic effort and thus leads to underachievement. Policy and programmatic implications are discussed.

The Color of Discipline: Sources of Racial and Gender Disproportionality in School Punishment

Abstract: The disproportionate discipline of African-American students has been extensively documented; yet the reasons for those disparities are less well understood. Drawing upon one year of middle-school disciplinary data for an urban school district, we explored three of the most commonly offered hypotheses for disproportionate discipline based on gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Racial and gender disparities in office referrals, suspensions, and expulsions were somewhat more robust than socioeconomic differences. Both racial and gender differences remained when controlling for socioeconomic status. Finally, although evidence emerged that boys engage more frequently in a broad range of disruptive behavior, there were no similar findings for race. Rather, there appeared to be a differential pattern of treatment, originating at the classroom level, wherein African-American students are referred to the office for infractions that are more subjective in interpretation. Implications for teacher training and structural reform are explored.

Toward a Tribal Critical Race Theory in Education

Abstract: Recently, I attended a celebration for the graduating cohort of the University of Utah’s American Indian Teacher Training Program (AITTP). 1 The AITTP is a program that prepares American Indians to become teachers with the stipulation that they teach in Indian-serving schools upon their graduation. The program is rooted in the idea that American Indians can engage in the process of educating themselves, and can do so through both Indigenous wisdom and knowledges often found in dominant society. The eight graduates had worked for two years in an institution that often devalued their presence. They were joined by 180 family members and supporters for the celebration. During the course of the evening, each graduate had an opportunity to speak to the assembled group. Every graduate thanked the many family members who contributed to their academic successes, and each told a story about why they wanted to be a teacher and what it meant for their communities. One of the graduates said, ‘‘I struggled in school for a long time, not knowing whether or not I was able to do this work. Now I know I am.’’ She continued by stating, ‘‘Now, I

Collective Identity and the Burden of "Acting White" in Black History, Community, and Education.

Abstract: After more than 15 years of comparative study of minority education, I concluded that I would have to study two additional factors, namely collective identity and cultural frame of reference to more fully explain the variability in minority school performance. In 1986, I published an article with Signithia Fordham on how “oppositional collective identity and cultural frame of reference” or oppositional culture contributed to Black students' school performance. Many critics have misinterpreted the joint article and even constructed a different thesis of oppositional culture than the one we proposed in the joint article. The thesis is that Black students do not aspire to or strive to get good grades because it is perceived as “acting White.” Furthermore, they have translated my cultural–ecological theory into an oppositional culture theory. I am writing this paper to correct the misinterpretations of the joint article in order to advance scholarship on the subject. I begin by explaining the meaning of collective identity and distinguishing it from other concepts of identity. Specifically, I summarize the evolution of oppositional collective identity and cultural frame of reference or oppositional culture among Black Americans and discuss the Black experience with the “burden of ‘acting White’” in the contemporary United States. Finally, I suggest some continuity between Black historical and community experiences with the “burden of ‘acting White,’” as experienced by Black students.

Diversifying the Teaching Force: An Examination of Major Arguments

Abstract: Over the past two decades, the short supply of teachers of color in elementary and secondary public schools has drawn the attention of policymakers and educators alike. To address the widening cultural chasm between teachers and their students, a variety of initiatives that aim to recruit people of color into teaching have been launched. Little attention has been paid, however, to articulating a research-based rationale for increasing the diversity in the ranks of teachers. This gap in the professional literature renders ongoing teacher diversity efforts vulnerable given the emphasis placed these days on research-based evidence in making decisions regarding the proper use of limited public resources, including funding for education. The purpose of this article is to address the noted gap in the literature. From an extensive review of the literature, we identified three major arguments for diversifying the teaching force and assessed the extent to which they are validated by empirical research. The results are reported, and implications of the findings for research and practice are discussed.