A theoretically and empirically rich treatise on school push-out, Urban Youth and School Pushout illustrates urban public schooling as a dialectic of humiliating ironies and dangerous dignities.

How can we understand the educational disengagement of urban, working-class young people? What role do schools and education policies play in these young people’s difficult relationships with education? How might schools help to support and engage urban youth? This book critically engages with contemporary notions of 'at risk' youth. It explores the complexity of urban young people's relationships with education and schooling and discusses strategies for addressing these issues. Drawing on a two year study of urban 14-16 year olds, educational professionals and parents, the book focuses in depth on the views and experiences of ethnically diverse young Londoners who had been identified by their schools as 'at risk of dropping out of education' and as 'unlikely to progress into post-16 education'. It provides an informative and accessible overview of the key issues, debates and theoretical frameworks. It is important reading for school leaders, teachers and learning support assistants as well as trainee teachers and educational researchers.

How can we understand the educational disengagement of urban, working-class young people? What role do schools and education policies play in these young people’s difficult relationships with education? How might schools help to support and engage urban youth? This book critically engages with contemporary notions of 'at risk' youth. It explores the complexity of urban young people's relationships with education and schooling and discusses strategies for addressing these issues. Drawing on a two year study of urban 14-16 year olds, educational professionals and parents, the book focuses in depth on the views and experiences of ethnically diverse young Londoners who had been identified by their schools as 'at risk of dropping out of education' and as 'unlikely to progress into post-16 education'. It provides an informative and accessible overview of the key issues, debates and theoretical frameworks. It is important reading for school leaders, teachers and learning support assistants as well as trainee teachers and educational researchers.

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Because of its powerful socializing effects, the school has always been a site of cultural, political, and academic conflict. In an age where terms such as 'hard-to-teach,' and 'at-risk' beset our pedagogical discourses, where students have grown up in systems plagued by anti-immigrant, anti-welfare, 'zero-tolerance' rhetoric, how we frame and understand the dynamics of classrooms has serious ethical implications and powerful consequences. Using theatre and drama education as a special window into school life in four urban secondary schools in Toronto and New York City, The Theatre of Urban examines the ways in which these schools reflect the cultural and political shifts in big city North American schooling policies, politics, and practices of the early twenty-first century. pResisting facile comparisons of Canadian and American schooling systems, Kathleen Gallagher opts instead for a rigorous analysis of the context-specific features, both the differences and similarities, between urban cultures and urban schools in the two countries. Gallagher re-examines familiar 'urban issues' facing these schools, such as racism, classism, (hetero)sexism, and religious fundamentalism in light of the theatre performances of diverse young people and their reflections upon their own creative work together. By using theatre as a sociological lens, emThe Theatre of Urban

This timely book demonstrates why there needs to be a more thoughtful and collaborative effort on the part of K–12 schools, as well as institutions of higher education, to provide better college access to students from low-income communities. Building on a 10-year case study of a successful school-university partnership, the authors examine the supports, mentoring, and resources needed to transform the college opportunities and life chances for under-represented urban youth. Featuring first-hand accounts from student participants, the book documents how the model provided college access to some of the most selective and prestigious universities across the nation. Because this partnership situates college access within a social justice framework, it is one of the more unique programs in the country. “Few social problems are of more pressing importance than the challenge of increasing access to higher education. Howard, Tunstall, and Flennaugh carefully outline those problems and give us our marching orders. Historical. Empirical. Well-written. Thoughtful. Provocative. This book is useful for all of us concerned about access and equity in education.” —William G. Tierney, professor & co-director, Pullias Center for Higher Education, University of Southern California “This book represents a moral and ethical call to any of us who believe in an educational pipeline for liberty, humanity, possibility, and justice for all—everyday!” —H. Richard Milner IV, Helen Faison Professor of Urban Education, University of Pittsburgh Contributors: Irene Atkins, Bree Blades, Jon Carroll, Whitney Gouche, Tr’Vel Lyons, Justyn Patterson, Jerry Morrison, Michelle Smith, Ashley V. Williams

Winner of the 2013 American Educational Studies Association's Critics Choice Award! Recent efforts to reform urban high schools have been marked by the pursuit of ever-increasing accountability policies, most notably through the use of high-stakes standardized testing, mayoral control, and secondary school exit exams. Urban Youth and School Pushout excavates the unintended consequences of such policies on secondary school completion by focusing specifically on the use and over-use of the GED credential. Building on a tradition of critical theory and political economy of education, author Eve Tuck offers a provocative analysis of how accountability tacitly and explicitly pushes out under-performing students from the system. By drawing on participatory action research, as well as the work of indigenous scholars and theories, this theoretically and empirically rich book illustrates urban public schooling as a dialectic of humiliating ironies and dangerous dignities. Focusing on the experiences of youth who have been pushed out of their schools under the auspices of obtaining a GED, Tuck reveals new insights on how urban youth view accountability schooling, value the GED, and yearn for multiple, meaningful routes to graduation.