Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching and Research American Educational Research Association Special Interest Group Urban Learning, Teaching, & Research (ULTR) Volume 9, 2013 Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research (JULTR) EDITOR Virginia Navarro University of Missouri-St. Louis ASSOCIATE EDITOR Kristien Zenkov George Mason University 2013 EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD Barbara Bales, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Noah E. Borrero, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California Bradley M. Conrad, Capitol University, Columbus, Ohio Elizabeth Hope Dorman, Regis College, Denver, Colorado Alyssa Hadley Dunn, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia Ruben Garza, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas Nicholas Hartlep, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois Althier Lazar, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tim Mahoney Millersville University, Millersville, Pennsylvania Kelly McNeal, William Patterson University, Wayne, New Jersey Jessica Zacher Pandya, California State University, Long Beach, California Kevin Roxas, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming Monika W. Shealey, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri Omiunota Nelly Ukpokodu, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri Jenice Leilani View George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia Tanner LeBaron Wallace, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Mary E. Yakimowski, University of Connecticut, Naeg School of Education, Storrs, Connecticut Thank You! Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research Volume 9, 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS Guidelines for Submission of Manuscripts 3 The Discourse of Challenge 4 Virginia Navarro University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 1.Personal Consequences of Compliance and Resistance to Mandated Reforms for Teachers in Low-Performing Schools 6 Christopher J. F. Burke & Martha Adler University of Michigan- Dearborn, MI 2.Leadership Coaching: Building The Capacity of Urban 19 Principals in Underperforming Schools Susan Warren & Virginia E. Kelsen Azusa Pacific University, CA; Rancho Cucamonga High School, CA 3.Caught in the Middle: Urban Principals’ Attempts to Achieve 33 School Autonomy and Devolve Decision-Making Anysia Mayer & Kimberly LeChasseur University of Connecticut, CT 4.Beyond Standardized Test Scores: An Examination of 43 Leadership and Climate as Leading Indicators of Future Success in The Transformation of Turnaround Schools Judy May & Gene Sanders Bowling Green State University, OH; Sandusky City Schools, OH 5.Increasing Urban Students’ Achievement and Engagement 56 with School: Toward the Expeditionary Learning Model Chinwe Ikpeze St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY 1 6.Educators Challenging Poverty and Latino Low Achievement: 66 Extending and Enriching the School Day 66 Margaret Sauceda Curwen & Anaida Colón-Muñiz Chapman University, Orange,6 6CA 7.Being Challenged in an Urban Classroom: A Case Study Documenting the 79 Engagement of a Young Male Who Wanted to ‘Look Smart’ Lina Sanchez-Leal, Roberta Y. Schorr, & Lisa B. Warner Rutgers University, Newark,NJ; William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ 8.Mathematical and Racial Identity Co-Construction in Multiple 90 Sociopolitical Contexts: A Case Study of a Latina Undergraduate Student from an Urban Community Sarah Oppland-Cordell Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL 9.Moving Toward Positive Mathematics Beliefs and Developing Socio- 101 mathematical Authority: Urban Preservice Teachers in Mathematics Methods Courses Rupam Saran & Joan Gujarati Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn, NY; Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY 10.Class Placement and Academic and Behavioral Variables as 113 Predictors of Graduation for Students with Disabilities Liana Gonzalez & Elizabeth Cramer Florida International University, Miami, FL 11.Making Connections: Preparing College Tutors to Support the 125 Literacy of Urban Children Stacey C. Kim & Susan Warren Azusa Pacific University, CA 12.Through The Lens of the Students: Using Narrative Inquiry to 138 Evaluate an Innovative Urban High School Gina Weisblat & Jeffrey McClellan Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown, OH; Cleveland Metropolitan School District 2 Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research Volume 9, 2013 Published by the American Education Research Association (AERA) Special Interest Group (SIG): Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research (ULTR) and printed by California State University, Los Angeles. The Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching & Research (JULTR) provides opportunities for ULTR members to publish scholarly articles in a peer reviewed, ERIC indexed journal. Recently JULTR was recommended for inclusion in Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities. We strongly encourage our members to take this professional opportunity and share your knowledge about issues in urban education with more than 400 US and international members. Please carefully review the submission guidelines and selection criteria before you submit your article. All manuscripts are blind- reviewed by 2-3 members of the JULTR Editorial Review Board. The Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research accepts quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method research that addresses issues of urban learning, teaching and research; manuscripts should be 1500-4000 words not including references and submitted in correct APA style to be considered. Please send submissions electronically to the 2014 JULTR Editor, Dr. Kristien Zenkov, [email protected]. SUBMISSION DEADLINE FOR 2014 ISSUE IS MARCH 15, 2014. Note: Every author and co-author must document current AERA and ULTR SIG membership at submission time. A signed publication authorization statement that verifies that the manuscript is not under consideration at another journal is also required as part of the submission process. 3 THE DISCOURSE OF CHALLENGE: INTRODUCTION TO 2013 ISSUE OF JULTR Virginia Navarro, JULTR Editor 20131 University of Missouri-St. Louis As the titles in this issue suggest, the work within and around urban schooling continues to stretch our imaginations and creativity to find pathways to success within systems that can, on the one hand, empower and advocate for urban students and, on the other hand, can contribute to injustice and oppression for the many students who populate urban schools. At first we blamed the kids and their families for failure to be ‘proficient’ on state tests; now we seem to be focusing on the schools and teachers as the problem. The wider cultural values and practices that we broadly observe and participate in, including an increasing skepticism and distrust of science, a cultural thread of anti-intellectualism as being elitist and anti-democratic, and media choices that can reify our beliefs with no authentic dialogue across differences, are not discussed as correlates of disengagement and academic stagnation. In St. Louis, a group of suburban schools with high numbers of Black and poor students have recently lost accreditation with the state of Missouri; this echoes the earlier path of the larger St. Louis Public School system which had an elected Board displaced by an appointed 3-member Board by the governor a few years ago. The leadership of these newly ‘underperforming’ districts deliberated and chose a target district to receive students who wished to transfer. The response of the parents and students in the sending and receiving districts was a lesson in history and a bit of déjà vu since St. Louis had the largest federally mandated court-ordered busing program in the country in the 70s when systematic discrimination by the state of Missouri towards educating Blacks was clearly documented. Responses to this latest migration was mixed: For example, at town meetings, there were mothers who got up to argue for putting in metal detectors in the receiving high schools (a clear ‘othering’ perception of ‘those’ kids); there were also parent groups who attended meetings in the unaccredited districts to assure parents, whose children were choosing the long bus rides, that these new students would be welcome, acknowledging that this was an opportunity for growth and learning for all players. Those who stayed in the unaccredited districts were met with welcoming celebrations from staff and community members. Clearly research needs to guide us to continue efforts to make a difference for students in urban schools. Strategies for Making a Difference 1 Virginia Navarro, Associate Professor in Secondary & K-12 Education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, teaches research design courses and writes on issues of diversity and identity, particularly on gender and inter-cultural experiences. Dr. Navarro can be reached at UMSL, 1 University Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63121, [email protected] . 4 The first four articles in JULTR speak to the complex and often conflicting issues around schools labeled as “turnaround”, “underperforming” or “low- performing” schools. Although such negative discourse surrounds us, we seldom reflect on the way this language locates the problem in the school as the unit of analysis. Such labels resist a more situated sociocultural analysis of the layered reality within these districts. Burke and Adler (2013) begin this issue by documenting, “how the era of increased accountability and standardization has led to a narrowing of the curriculum and the marginalization of teachers” as they narrate two 5th grade teachers’ efforts to negotiate the challenges of urban schools in creative and reasonable ways. To revitalize urban schools’ performance