Serving Urban Students and Teachers Through Research, Teaching and Service

When it comes to urban education, the realities can be stark. Nearly half of all children who live in poverty attend urban schools. On average, urban students have lower achievement scores in reading, writing, mathematics and science than their counterparts in suburban schools.

In terms of teachers and administrators, the facts are equally sobering. Although many schools have highly qualified teachers, schools with high concentrations of poor or low-performing students often have disproportionate numbers of teachers with lesser qualifications. The inequitable distribution is especially dramatic in urban districts. The tenure of big-city school superintendents is, on average, only three years.

The challenges in meeting the educational needs of inner-city students are substantial and longstanding. It is those challenges that drive a critical aspect of the College of Education’s research and outreach activities. In this issue of New Educator, we focus on the College of Education and urban education. The research and development ranges from educational policy and special education to teacher preparation and mathematics and science achievement. All of it, however, is geared at producing improved educational opportunities for America’s students in metropolitan areas.


Philanthropist Eli Broad discusses the importance of urban teachers with the Broad Future Teachers Scholarship recipients during a meeting at Erickson Hall.

‘Improvement for all’

Throughout its history, the college has been home to researchers interested in the plight of urban schools and students. One contemporary line of research dates to the early 1990s, when University Distinguished Professor William Schmidt established the national center for the Third Inter national Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) at the college.
TIMSS research revealed that American students trailed their international counterparts in both mathematics and science. In fact, by the end of high school, American students could outperform only two nations—Cyprus and South Africa—and in physics, they finished at the bottom, outperformed by every other country in that portion of the study.

But TIMSS data also revealed a strong relationship between the wealth of a school district and students’ achievement in math and science. Students in urban settings performed far worse than students in suburban areas and were generally exposed to less demanding subject matter. In one case, researchers found that almost half of the students in Chicago were in arithmetic-oriented classes. In the affluent Chicago suburb of Naperville, only four percent were in arithmetic classes.

It was those kinds of findings that prompted Schmidt to collaborate with MSU colleague, Associate Dean Joan Ferrini-Mundy, on Promoting Rigorous Outcomes in Mathematics and Science Education (prom/se), a $35 million project funded by the National Science Foundation.

PROM/SE is designed to improve science and math teaching and student achievement in k–12 schools. The partnership includes MSU’s colleges of education and natural science, consortia of schools in Cleveland and Cincinnati in Ohio, and districts in Ingham, Calhoun, and St. Clair counties in Michigan.

The five-year project will affect some 400,000 students and more than 5,000 teachers, many of them in urban areas. Schmidt said that the project is committed to improving mathematics and science learning opportunities for all students, especially those from disadvantaged groups. Among the project’s goals is to eliminate the practice of tracking in grades k–8.

“The true argument about equity is that if opportunity really matters then all children should be given the same opportunities,” Schmidt said. “Virtually all other countries provide equal opportunities for all students up to eighth or ninth grade. We don’t do that, which creates differences among students. It has nothing to do with what they can or cannot learn. We enforce differences. We teach some children things that other kids don’t get taught, and thus some students know the material and others don’t.”

The project has already assessed students in mathematics and will also do so in science. That data will be used to develop professional development programs for teachers that address the needs of the students and align instructional materials with math and science content standards.
“Our central focus is improvement for all children, especially those who have traditionally been left behind,” he said. “This is our moral imperative.”

A New Era

Although much of the research and development has focused on students and teachers, another strand has involved teacher preparation. Many urban schools across the country continually face shortages of qualified teachers due to higher turnover rates.
In 2004, the Education Policy Center at MSU commissioned a report on teacher labor markets. Among the report’s findings was that there is a systemic sorting of less-qualified teachers to high-poverty schools, and the chaos created by the high turnover and additional costs to recruit and hire new teachers further disadvantages these schools.

“Teacher labor markets operate to the detriment of urban schools because working conditions are better and salaries are higher in suburban districts,” said David N. Plank, co-director of the center. “Experienced, highly qualified teachers have the option of going where they are better paid and where they enjoy their work more, so they leave urban school districts.

“The consequence is that urban districts are left to face the largest educational challenges and with the fewest resources to deal with them.”

Given those realities, the college has made a strong push to prepare teachers for urban schools. Two major initiatives have come online in the past few years that have energized efforts to recruit and train urban educators.

In 2002, the college became part of an all-university project funded by the Carnegie Corporation known as Teachers for a New Era (TNE). In fact, MSU was one of the first four universities across the country chosen to be part of the initiative.

Faculty members from across the university have been engaged in developing innovative ways to prepare teachers who are more knowledgeable and skilled in their subject areas, better able to teach their subject to diverse learners, and more proficient in using assessment information to guide their teaching.

In addition, a critical element of MSU’s initiative is the preparation of teachers for urban schools and educating more teachers from underrepresented groups. A working group of faculty members has been examining a range of strategies and best practices that can be implemented to recruit and prepare urban educators.

Bob Floden, professor and co-principal investigator on the project, said part of the focus is on gaining a better understanding about the dynamics of teaching in urban settings, and how pedagogy in different subject areas might be structured in ways that have greater meaning for students in urban schools.

The process also involves looking closely at the coursework in the college, as well as in the social sciences and arts and letters. “We’re not thinking of creating a separate program that prepares teachers to teach in urban settings,” Floden said, “but preparing all 500 people that we recommend for certification every year to be better prepared to work in those urban schools.”

In addition to Teachers for a New Era, the college in 2003 established The Broad Partnership, a collaborative project with the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) designed to recruit and train a new generation of urban school educators. (See Spring 2004 New Educator).

The project targets DPS students who want to pursue a career in teaching. Through funding by the Los Angeles–based Broad Foundation, the college recruits DPS graduates as Broad Scholars who then receive full financial support to attend MSU’s five-year teacher preparation program.

Financial support is structured as a loan forgiveness program in which the students agree to teach in the Detroit school system after completing the teacher preparation program. For every year they teach in Detroit, 25 percent of their loans are paid by the project.

The idea is to both provide the students with an incentive to teach in Detroit and to stay in the urban school system, said Assistant Dean Sonya Gunnings-Moton, who directs the innovative project.

“The purpose of structuring the program in this way is, first and foremost, to insure the presence of highly qualified urban educators for the district and to insure that there some sustained commitment by the students to teaching in Detroit,” Gunnings-Moton said.

In the spring, the college selected the first 12 Broad Scholars who began their studies at MSU in the fall. In coming years, the college will continue to recruit about a dozen DPS graduates yearly.

The partnership also goes beyond recruiting graduates. Another aspect of the project involves recruiting DPS students who have completed the 9th grade to take part in a three-week residential program at MSU, where they are exposed to college life and receive in-depth academic skills development, all with a focus on a career in education.

In the summer of 2004, the first group of nearly 100 DPS high school students attended MSU. Coursework included such topics as social justice, inquiry research, writing and study skill development, technology in education, ACT preparation, and leadership development.

Finally, the project also made it possible for 24 undergraduates in the teacher preparation program to work in the DPS Summer School Program. The students worked closely with a master teacher in a k–12 classroom, as well as took part in reflective seminars and learned about school system and community resources.

In only its first year, the partnership has demonstrated great potential to produce many outstanding teachers for urban schools, Gunnings-Moton said.

“The project is a very comprehensive implementation of a grow-your-own model,” she said. “Our hope is that other districts would be receptive to such partnering and collaboration, and there are foundations and organizations that see the benefits of programs like this one and believe it is a worthwhile investment.”

A vigorous commitment

In the end, initiatives such as The Broad Partnership, TNE, and prom/se are only part of the wide-ranging re search and development projects taking place at the college involving urban education.

In the past few years, research
projects have focused on schools from Chicago to Los Angeles. Faculty members also continually engage in professional development and outreach projects to urban districts across the nation, and the college’s Office of k–12 Out reach provides a link to a number of partnerships, collaborations and organizations serving urban schools and students. (See the ABCS Coaches story above.)

Although the challenges are substantial, the college’s commitment is strong, and given the vigorous commitment and the initiatives in place, it is clear that issues related to urban education will continue to play an important role in the college’s tripartite mission of research, teaching and service well into the future.