Education, Urban

Education has always been the vehicle by which individuals have been able to maintain or improve their positions in society. Along these same lines, one's position in society has also frequently determined the type and quality of education provided to an individual. According to Scott (1997), “Educational institutions reflect the values of society by the way in which they are organized and operated, and by the ways in which the various ethnic, religious, racial (and economic) groups are treated” (p. 122). In this regard, one has to look no further than the current state of urban education to see how society has affected elementary and secondary schools.

When one thinks of urban areas, or as some people have referred to them, “inner cities,” the first images usually evoked are of blight, poverty, unemployment, drugs, and crime (Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1994). The reputation of urban schools is often equally negative, with frequent reports of students who attend them consistently showing the lowest academic achievement and the poorest social skills in the country (Esposito, 1999).

The problems of chronically poor school districts are complex. The broader issues of poverty in urban communities negatively affect both students and schools; the direction of their influence (from community to school, school to student, student to school) is multidirectional (Esposito, 1999). The history of many cities and their schools reveals that many generations of urban students, particularly African Americans, have suffered inadequate education. As such, many contemporary urban schools must now contend with the intergenerationally transmitted effects of poor education. Families, for example, may be less able to support their children and may be less involved with their children's education because of their own negative experiences in school.