James H. Lytle, Instructor Principal, University City High School
Graduate School of Education 36th and Filbert Streets
Education Leadership Division Philadelphia, PA 19104
Room C-13
University of Pennsylvania (19104-6216)

Overview:
Through reflection on one's own schooling experiences; a fieldexperience in urban schools; an examination of issues, concepts andcharacteristics of urban public school systems and urban teaching;consideration of student reactions to schooling and their lives outsideof school; and consideration of the relationships between race, genderand schooling; this course will address the questions: "whether urbanstudents are provided appropriate and/or effective education?" and"what would equal opportunity require?"

Required Reading
A bulk pack containing most of the reading can be purchased atCampus Copy Center, 39th and Walnut Streets. All articles listed beloware expected to have been read prior to the class meeting for which theyare listed.

At least one of the two books listed below; both are on reserveat Rosengarten and available at the Bookstore.
Hacker, A. (1992). Two Nations: Black and white, separate, hostile,unequal. New York: Scribner.
?Wilson, W.J. (1996). When work disappears: The world of the newurban poor. New York: Knopf.
Recommended: Various texts listed at the end of the syllabus

Course Requirements
A. A field service and study project – at least six half days at a WestPhiladelphia school [20%]
B. Bi-weekly study group reports (see below) [40%]
C. A mid-term exam (March 18) [20%]
D. Class participation (which requires presence and reading of theweeks assignments) [+/-]
E. A final paper (10+ pages on a topic developed during the course)[20%]

All writen work should incorporate references to the readings.

Study group Reports [SGR]
?[study groups will be formed the second week of class]
?Due every two/three weeks (2/4, 2/18, 3/4, 4/8)
6-8 pages typed, double-spaced, names of group members and date oncover sheet
make one copy for each study group member and one for the professor;
you will receive written comments on each report, but the copy yousubmit will not be returned
Report entries should contain the following:
1. reactions to class meetings
2. critical response to the readings
3. discussion of how the readings relate to one's personal experiencesand expectations
4. questions
5. suggestions for future classes
[please number pages and use spellcheck before submitting your reports]

Field Study and Service ProjectProject — working in an elementary,middle, or high school classroom a half day per week for at least sixweeks. The project will be discussed and planned in class. Specificschool sites and student placements will be arranged with help from theinstructor.
_____________________________________________________________

Class Meeting Dates and Topics

January 14 – organizational meeting (at McNeil 309)

1. INTRODUCTION – STUDENTS AND SCHOOL DISCONTINUITY (Jan. 21)

Farrell, E. et al. (1988). Giving voice to high school students:Pressure and boredom, ya know what Im sayin? American EducationalResearch Journal. Winter. Vol. 25, No. 4. pp. 489-502.

The Institute for Education in Transformation at The Claremont GraduateSchool. (1992). Voices from the inside: A report on schooling frominside the classroom.

Jackson, P. (1968). Life in classrooms. Chicago: Holt, Rinehart andWinston.

Motivational Educational Entertainment. (1992). Reaching the Hip HopGeneration. Princeton, NJ: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Phelan, P., Davidson, A.L., & Cao, H.T. (1992). Speaking up: Students'Perspectives on school. Phi Delta Kappan. (May). pp. 695-704.


2. LIVING IN THE INNER CITY (Jan. 28)

Anderson, E. (1989). Moral leadership and transitions in the urbanblack community. Social class and democratic leadership: Essays in honorof E. Digby Baltzell (ed.) Harold Bershady, Philadelphia, University ofPennsylvania Press: 7.pp. 123-146.

Anderson, E. (1994). The code of the streets. Atlantic Monthly. (May).pp. 81-94.

Bourgois, P. (1992). In search of Horatio Alger: Culture and ideology inthe crack economy. Education/Urban Studies 202, Vol. 1, University ofPennsylvania, 11, pp. 1-20.

Furstenberg, Jr., F.F. (1993) How families manage risk and opportunityin dangerous neighborhoods. from Sociology and the public agenda. (ed.) W.J. Wilson. Newbury Park, CA.

3. DEMOGRAPHICS AND THE URBAN CONDITION (Feb. 4, 11) SGR #1 due 2/4

Eitzen, D.S. (1992). Problem students: the sociocultural roots. PhiDelta Kappan. (April). pp. 584-590.

Greenhouse, S. (1991). The coming crisis of the American work force. NewYork Times. (June 7):14.

Hacker, A. (1992). Two nations: Black and white, seperate, hostile,unequal. New York: Scribner's. [on reserve at Rosengarten]

Kaufman, J.E. & Rosenbaum, J.E. (1992). The education and employment oflow-income black youth in white suburbs. Educational Evaluation andPolicy Analysis. 14: 3 (Fall). pp. 229-240.

Omolade, B. (1994). The rising song of African American women. London: Rutledge.

Philadelphia Council for Children and Youth. (1995). The bottom lineis . . . children.

Reed, S. and Sautter, R.C. (1990). Children of poverty: The status of 12million young Americans. Kappan Special Report. (June).

West, C. (1993). Nihilism and black America. in Race Matters. Boston: Beacon Press.

DeParle, J. (1992). Conversations/William Julius Wilson, Responding tourban alarm bells at scholarship's glacial pace. New York Times (July19).

Wilson, W.J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, theunderclass, and public policy. Chicago: University of Chicago. [onreserve at Rosengarten]

Wilson, W.J. (1996). When work disappears: The world of the new urbanpoor. New York: Knopf.


4. RACE & SCHOOLING (Feb. 18, 25, Mar. 4) SGR #2 due Feb. 18; #3 dueMarch 4

Fordham S. and Ogbu, J. (1986). Black students school success: Copingwith the burden of acting white". The Urban Review, Vol. 18, No. 3.

Foster, M. (1990). The politics of race: Through African-Americanteachers eyes. Paper presented at the American Educational ResearchAssociation Annual Meeting.

Gregory, L. W. (1995). The "turnaround process: Factors influencingthe school success of urban youth. Journal of Adolescent Research, Vol. 10. No. 1. pp. 136-154.

Gregory, S.S. (1992). The hidden hurdle. Time. (March 16). pp. 44-45.

Haberman, M. (1997. Unemployment training: The ideology of nonworkinurban schools. Phi Delta Kappan. Vol. 78, No. 7. (March), pp.499-505.

Lewis, A.C. (1992). A tale not widely told. Phi Delta Kappan, (Nov.). pp. 196-197.

Lytle, J.H. (1992). Prospects for reforming urban schools. UrbanEducation, Vol. 27, No. 2. (July). pp. 109-131.

McDougall, C. (1997). Welcome to badlands high school: Mission ofFaith. Philadelphia Weekly. (Oct. 28).

Polite, V.C. (1992). All dressed up with no place to go: An ethnographyof African American male students in an urban high school. Paperpresented at the American Educational Research Association annualmeeting.

Sleeter, C.E. (1993). How white teachers construct race. from (ed.)McCarthy, E. & Crichlou, W.. Race identity and representation ineducation. New York: Routledge.

Steele, C.M. (1992). Race and the schooling of black Americans. AtlanticMonthly. (April). pp. 68-78.

[SPRING BREAK MARCH 7-15; no class March 12]

MID-TERM EXAM MARCH 18

5. CULTURALLY RELEVANT SCHOOLING/AFRO-CENTRIC PEDAGOGY (Mar. 25, April 1]

Asante, M.K. (1991). The Afrocentric idea in education. Journal of NegroEducation, Vol. 60, No. 2. Howard University. pp. 170-180.

Asante, M.K. (1992). Afrocentric curriculum. Educational Leadership.(January). pp. 28-31.

Ascher, C. (1992). School programs for African-American males . . .and females. Phi Delta Kappan. (June). pp. 777-781.

Gilbert, S.E. II and Gay, G. (1985). Improving the success in school ofpoor black children. Phi Delta Kappan. (October). pp. 133-137.

Hilliard, A. III. (1991). Do we have the will to educate all children?Educational Leadership. (September). pp. 31-36.

Iverem, E. (1986). Ritual links Americans to African heritage. New YorkTimes. (October 6).

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevantpedagogy. American Educational Research Journal. Vol. 32, No. 3,pp.465-491.

Ogbu, J.U. (1992). Understanding cultural diversity and learning. Educational Researcher. (Nov.) pp. 5-14, 24.

Olneck, M.R. (1993). Terms of inclusion: Has multiculturalismredefined equality in American education? American Journal ofEducation 101 (May, 1993). pp. 234-260.

Sleeter, C.E. (1992). Resisting racial awareness: How teachersunderstand the social order from their racial, gender, and social classlocations. Educational Foundations. (Spring), pp. 7-32.

Trotter, A. (1991). Rites of passage. The Executive Educator. (September). pp. 48-49.

Yarrow, A.L. (1991). Afrocentric Brooklyn school opens. New York Times.(October 6).


6. SCHOOL AND SCHOOL DISTRICT ORGANIZATION (April 8) SGR #4 due (as it contributes to and impedes effective schooling)

Corwin, R.G. & Borman, K.M. (1988). School as workplace: Structuralconstraints on administration. In N.J. Boyan (Ed.), Handbook of>research on educational administration. New York: Longman.

Hargreaves, D.H. (1997). A road to the learning society. SchoolLeadership & Management, Vol. 17, #1. pp. 9-21.

Kerr, S.T. (1996). Visions of sugarplums: The future of technology,education, and the schools. In S.T. Kerr (Ed.), Technology and TheFuture of Schooling, NSSE, 95:2.

McNeil, L. M. (1988). Contradictions of control, part 1: Administrators and teachers. Phi Delta Kappan. (January), pp. 333-339.

Oakes, J. (1992). Can tracking research inform practice? Technical,normative, and political considerations. Educational Researcher. (May).pp. 12-21.

Pennsylvania Department of Education. (1996). Charter schools: Frequently asked questions and answers.

7. EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND SCHOOLING (Apr. 15, 22)

Beane, J.A. (1991). Sorting out the self-esteem controversy. EducationalLeadership. (September). pp. 25-30.

Clune, W.H. (1993). The best path to systemic educational policy: Standard/centralized or differentiated/decentralized. EducationalEvaluation and Policy Analysis. Vol. 15, No. 3. (Fall). pp. 233-254.

Comer, J. (1984). Home-school relationships as they affect the academicsuccess of children. Education and Urban Society. Vol. 16, No. 3. (May).pp. 323-327.

David, J.L. (1991). Restructuring and technology: Partners in thecomputer age. Phi Delta Kappan. (September). pp. 37-40,78-82.

Haberman, M. (1991). The pedagogy of poverty versus good teaching. PhiDelta Kappan. (December). pp. 290-294.

Haberman, M. (1995). Selecting 'star' teachers for children and youthin urban poverty. Phi Delta Kappan. (June). pp. 777-781.

Howard, J. (1991). Getting smart: The social construction ofintelligence. The Efficacy Institute, Inc. (March 27).

Kirst, M. W. (1992). Financing school-linked services. Center forResearch in Education Finance. Los Angeles: University of SouthernCalifornia.

Kretovics, J., Farber, K. and Armaline, W. (1991). Reform from thebottom up: Empowering teachers to transform schools. Phi Delta Kappan. (December).pp. 295-299.

Slavin, R. (1989). Success for all. CREMS Report. Johns HopkinsUniversity. (February).

Sylvester, P. S. (1994). Elementary school curricula and urbantransformation. Harvard Educational Review. Vol. 64, No. 3 (Fall). pp. 309-331.

April 27-29 – Reading Days

FINAL EXAM/PAPER – DUE NO LATER THAN 6:00 PM, WEDNESDAY, MAY 6

Additional reading

School Related

James Comer and associates Rallying the Whole Village: The ComerProcess for Reforming Education. (New York: Teachers College Press, 1996)
Samuel Friedman Small Victories
Tracy Kidder Among School Children
Jonathan Kozol Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools(Crown, 1991)
Louis F. Miron The Social Construction of Urban Schooling. (Cresskill,NJ: Hampton, 1996)
Mike Rose Lives on the Boundary a deeply personal account of an"at-risk" teen who becomes a superlative teacher of adult "losers"
Emily Sacher Shut Up and Let the Lady Teach (Poseidon, 1991) Areporter's year teaching in a Brooklyn middle school

Poverty/Race/Social Class

Herbert Gans The War Against the Poor: The Underclass and AntipovertyPolicy (New York: Basic Books, 1995)
Andrew Hacker Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal (Scribner's: New York, 1992)
Michael B. Katz The Undeserving Poor: from the War on Poverty to theWar on Welfare (New York: Pantheon, 1989)
Lisbeth Schorr Within Our Reach: Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage (New York: Anchor, 1988) A comprehensive discussion of linked socialservices.
Cornel West Race Matters (Beacon: Boston, 1993)
William Julius Williams The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, theUnderclass, and Public Policy(Chicago: University of Chicago, 1987)
William Julius Wilson When Work Disappears: The World of the New UrbanPoor. (New York: Knopf, 1996)

Life in the Inner City

Phillippe Bourgois In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in the Barrio(Cambridge, 1995)
Geoffrey Canada Fist Stick Knife Gun (Beacon, 1995)
James Garbarino et al Children in Danger: Coping with the Consequencesof Community Violence.(Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 1992)
Carl Husemoller On the Edge: A History of Poor Black Children andTheir American Dreams(Basic Books: New York, 1993)
Alex Kotlowitz There Are No Children Here (Anchor/Doubleday: NewYork, 1991) The story of two boys growing up in the projects ofChicago.
Brent Staples Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White (Pantheon: New York, 1994)