The Myth of Urban Education

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2007), in 2003, central city locations had the greatest percentage of minorities enrolled in public schools (65 percent).  By 2004, the percentage of minorities enrolled in District of Columbia city schools was 85%.  When educators and "experts" consider urban schools, what are the generalities that are espoused?

I was speaking with an urban principal today and she remarked that we automatically assume that teachers don't want to work in urban schools.  Why is that?  My perspective is that urban schools are where the greatest growth can be found and where the most exciting teaching and learning can take place.  The other side of the coin is that these schools are very large with various and diverse subgroups of students.  Urban schools serve far greater percentages of special education students, minorities, students whose native tongue is not English, and there are more students living in poverty. 

These are also the excuses we hear and read about as to why urban schools often score lower on state testing instruments than do students in suburban and rural schools.  I say "pshaw."  How, then, do we explain 90-90-90 schools where 90% of the students are minority and live in poverty and still score in the 90th percentile on state exams?  What is the response when we can turn around students from Detroit who scored in the 20s to above 75% in less than three years?  How can an urban school in Toledo increase their performance index 11.9 points in one year, yet Arne Duncan thinks it's great that the nation improved its performance index by 2 points? 

My experience is that it's not so much about poverty or minority status--low scores are more a function of two things: first, teacher expectations for these students and the affect of those expectations on student achievement, and, the lack of on-site, job-embedded professional development and instructional support for teachers.

We don't need to reinvent the wheel every year.  Let's just understand the foundation of the challenges and work towards resolving them.  It's not rocket science...just a combination of logic and love.