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Urban Teaching: The Essentialsreviewed by Arthur Costigan & Margaret S. Crocco — April 27, 2006 Title: Urban Teaching: The Essentials Author(s): Lois Weiner Publisher: Teachers College Press, New York ISBN: 0807746436, Pages: 103, Year: 2006 Search for book at Amazon.com Lets go back in time to 1964 to Hells Kitchen in New York City, the same area featured in West Side Story. There, a run down, overcrowded building, the original DeWitt Clinton High School, contained teachers struggling under an uncaring administration to educate large numbers of alienated students. When one teacher moved away from force feeding the high culture of academe towards understanding and caring for her students, some small victories were achieved. The story related here, is, of course, that of Bel Kaufmans Up the Down Staircase.
Have things changed since 1964? The answer is, as expected: yes and no. DeWitt Clinton High is now a restored college campus and Hells Kitchen, a gentrified neighborhood. Yet urban schools are even more likely today than in 1964 to serve students who are poor, immigrant, and of color, whose families frequently areoften for good reasonwary of schooling. The dropout rate in New... (preview truncated at 150 words.)To view the full-text for this article you must be signed-in with the appropropriate membership. Please review your options below:
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- Arthur Costigan
Queens College, CUNY E-mail Author ARTHUR T. COSTIGAN is a 13 year veteran of New York City’s public schools, ten of which were spent in two “high priority” schools. He is now co-director of English Education programs at Queens College, CUNY.
- Margaret Crocco
Teachers College, Columbia University MARGARET S. CROCCO is coordinator of the Social Studies Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Together they are co-authors of Learning to Teach in an Age of Accountability, 2004, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Their recent commentary on teaching in New York City can be found in Margaret Smith Crocco and Arthur T. Costigan (2006), “High Stakes Teaching: What’s at Stake for Teachers (and Students) in the Age of Accountability,” The New Educator, 2(1), 1–13.
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