Research Questions 

1. What factors are urban education systems using to create equity within their system? 

2. What factors lead to increased graduation rates and entry into post-secondary education? 

3. What factors have little impact on graduation rates and entry into post-secondary education? 

This section of the write-up will focus on the results of the survey.  The results from quantitative and qualitative questions will now be converged to answer the research questions.  Finally, I will reflect on each research question and determine if the data collected in the survey answers the question and what the answer might be.

From my own experience in urban education, I can say that restorative practice discipline has become increasingly more popular in my district.  In my own school we use restorative practices as much as possible.  This concept started in the prison system with the concept of Restorative Justice or a reconciliation or mediation strategy between the victim and the perpetrator.  Although I would try at all costs to distance urban education practices from those of criminal justice or prison systems, I do see the benefit of the practices in schools.  Prior to restorative practices there was the concept of Zero Tolerance which was a purely punitive practice.  Many students were immediately punished with consequences like in-school suspension or out of school suspension, where the student is kept from the classroom environment.  This type of discipline will usually cause the student to fall behind.  Whereas the restorative practice concept asks students and staff to reflect on the behaviors of the student.  Students are often asked to have conversations with another student or a teacher that they may have had a conflict with.  We give the student the opportunity to correct the behavior before giving a consequence like in school suspension or out of school suspension.  For example, in my school students are assigned lunch detention if a teacher writes a referral about their behavior in class.  If a student has multiple referrals they have multiple weeks of lunch detention.  The time during lunch is a great time for students to relax and prepare themselves for the remainder of the day.  When this time is continuously taken away, they do not have the opportunity to reset.  Therefore, in our school we have an Intervention program where students create SMART goals to help them reflect and modify their behaviors.  The teachers decide if the student has accomplished their SMART goal and can leave lunch detention.  This policy is still punitive but also helps students to grow and eventually no longer receive referrals in class.  In addition, this policy keeps more students in the classroom learning.  

Online school for credit recovery (Rickels et al, 2024) is the next strategy I would like to highlight from the survey results.  This type of support could greatly help students who might struggle to complete all their course work each year due to circumstances beyond their control.  We have so many students that struggle to keep their attendance over 90%.  After over twenty years in urban education, I have seen this trend over and over.  When I became a school counselor and started to work on increasing attendance, I started to understand why so many of our students have issues with attendance.  One of the main reasons I have seen that students do not come to school is because of transportation issues.  For example, a student will have their bus not show up, which is something that happens quite frequently especially since the bus driver shortages after the pandemic.  Many parents in urban areas do not have their own vehicles, so school transportation is vital to their students coming to school.  People might argue that parents could hire a cab or take public transportation, but many parents do not feel safe putting their children in these situations.  I have an eight-year-old son, and I would not feel comfortable putting him on a Metro bus or in a cab with a stranger.  Transportation is just one reason that students miss school but having an easy way for them to catch up on the material they missed, such as taking online credit recovery classes would be a wonderful way to help urban students to graduate. 

The next strategy, attendance intervention in 9th grade researched by MacIver and Messel (2012) goes along with the previous strategy.  Although I discussed transportation with the previous strategy there are still many other reasons that our urban students often struggle to maintain good attendance.  Many of these reasons relate to the fact that many urban students come from low SES families, and it may require each family member to contribute so that the family can survive.  Working in urban education means that we push for children to come to school, but we also find compassion and help find ways to support our families that may be struggling.  With this strategy it can be tricky to say that the intervention should only happen in 9th grade.  In my experience the intervention needs to continue each year.  There needs to also be staff in place that can check in on students that have missed many days of school and follow up with the support and resources the family might need.  If attendance at school is a barrier, urban educators need to develop ways to make school the place where students find the resources to overcome the barrier. 

The next strategy that urban educators see in their buildings that support graduation is mentorship programs.  This strategy can be found in the research of Green, 2013 and Song et al, 2021.  When I think about the profession of teacher or school counselor or principal, we are all mentors.  We teach a subject, but we also teach good character.  Through our interactions with students, we build a rapport that at times will feel like family bonds.  I know I have had students that I took more time with to support and encourage.  In the research done by Green (2013) and Song (2021) they comment on the fact that many students did not feel like they were even wanted at school, that they felt their teachers did not care about them, and that no one cared if they even graduated.  I know there are urban educators out there who are like this because I have seen them.  Urban education is a field that requires a person to love children, to be open to other cultures, and to be resilient.  However, there are many people who go into this field without those qualities.  Especially now with the huge teacher shortage we have so many people in classrooms that lack so many of those skills.  It can be frustrating to see people who should not be working in urban classrooms but are and there is not much we can do to stop it.  I think that a mentorship program with a teacher in the building is a wonderful strategy, but the fact is we may need to pull in mentors from the community who are passionate about working with urban students to make this strategy work for our students. Last year I had the opportunity to host a group of twenty students from Howard University for the day at my school.  The students were there to support the building in any way they could.  I asked if they would be willing to go to each of the classrooms and give a brief presentation about what life is like at Howard and then to allow the students to ask them questions.  The Howard students started off nervous about what they were going to say, but eventually all of them were able to relax and just have rich conversations with the students.  I thought to myself, if even one of my students gets inspired from this meeting, then it was worth it.  I wish more community members would take part in our urban schools.  Urban areas are so rich with people who have all kinds of experience they could share with students.   

From the responses to the short answer questions there were four strategies that were the most discussed: working with the school counselor, mentoring, credit recovery options, and more wrap-around services (see Table 19).  At first it seems that these strategies may not be aligned with the strategies from the research but if we examine the responses we can see how they suggest some of the same strategies from the research.   

The first and most prevalent was interactions with the school counselor which was at the top of strategies to support students on their path toward graduation.  One response said, “The school provides social and emotional support through counseling and peer mentoring.  Addressing these needs helps students stay focused and motivated toward graduation.”  Another response was, “Teachers work with the school counselor to help with making sure students stay on track for graduation.”  These were among the fourteen references to working with the school counselor on graduation.  I am a school counselor and so I can closely identify with these responses.  I feel that historically it has been seen as the responsibility of the school counselor to help students graduate and move into post-secondary programs.  We can see in the research that the trend is now for a more wholistic approach.  However, I would also argue that having more school counselors in the building to support students would also be very beneficial.  Often the school counselors at the high school level will have over three hundred students on their caseload.  It would not be possible for one school counselor to support all three hundred students to graduate.  School counselors need the support of the entire staff and maybe additional school counselors to make the dream happen.   

Another strategy from this section of the survey that was not discussed much in the research is wrap around services.  Some quotes from the survey on this strategy were, “We work closely with families to determine the best way to support the student as they move toward graduation,” “We help with attendance and speaking with families to make sure their needs are met,” and “I help students by providing wrap around services so that students can focus on getting to graduation.”  These quotes demonstrate the concept that urban educators understand the situations their students come from and know that there is more involved in supporting students besides teaching the content.  In my school there is a Fresh Thyme food market for parents to shop for free.  Each week parents can get boxes and boxes of fresh food and packaged food to support their family.  This could easily make a difference in the survival of a family.  There are food banks all over the city, but having an additional resource easily accessible through the school is a wonderful way to support our families.  The only issue with this strategy is that there needs to be staff available to manage the market and often times programs like these are abandoned when there is no staff available to run it.  Urban schools need to have additional staff to help support students as they work on graduating.   

The strategy that had the highest percentage was visiting local businesses also seen in the research of Jordan in 2012.  In Jordan’s research there is a discussion about the communities that surround many of the urban schools.  In the community that surrounds my school there are bars and fast-food restaurants, a Family Dollar, a tire shop, and a bank.  I will start off by saying that careers in any of these businesses is wonderful if that is your chosen profession, but if all you are exposed to on a daily basis are fast food restaurants, bars, and a Family Dollar, then your outlook on a future career could become limited.  When I was young my parents would take me to work with them.  My dad worked for Vocational Rehab with the State of Missouri.  I could see his office and the work he did.  I could also see how he interacted with the people he worked with.  I also went to college with my dad.  He took me to some of his classes when he did not have a babysitter.  I would sit at a desk and read or draw, but I also soaked in my surroundings.  Our urban students may not have these same opportunities.  Many come from families where they would be the first generation to go to college, they have parents that might be working a 2nd or 3rd shift so they cannot go to work and observe, and they see all around them in their communities other businesses that only offer minimum wage careers. Therefore, it has become important for the schools to provide opportunities for our students to gain exposure to different pathways.  Each exposure a student has increases the likelihood they will pick a career that inspires them rather than something that is convenient.   

 The next highest percentage was for graduation and post-secondary packaged programs.  72% of the respondents said they have used these programs in their school.  This is not surprising since so many of these programs have been sold all over the country.  Urban education is big business in some ways.  When there are so many deficiencies and someone presents a program to you that has research behind it that states they can increase the percentage of students that graduate and go onto post-secondary education, it is difficult to pass by.  One of the programs researched by Herlihy and Quint in 2006 was called Talent Development.  This program started around 2004 and is still around today.  They are found in 12 states.  They have been around for over twenty years and are only in twelve states and there is still a huge gap between rates of urban students entering post-secondary programs, so my conclusion is that they are not very effective in what they promise.  I only say this because at the middle school level I saw so many packaged programs come through my classroom.  Some had wonderful ideas that I thought would really benefit my students, but then the next year the program would be gone, and no more resources were available to continue.  Building a system for supporting students on their path toward post-secondary programs needs to be solid and consistent and unfortunately many of these programs are not mainly due to the inhibitive cost.   

The next strategy with the highest percentage was industry certifications with 69% of respondents saying they use this strategy in their building.  In the research done by Glennie et al in 2021, we see that schools that offer industry certifications are more likely to have students that gain post-secondary degrees or certifications.  In my school district I know of at least one school that offers industry certification for Emergency Medical Services.  When a student shows interest in medicine, I tell them about this program that will help them get the education they need to get that career.  The city used to have a charter school called Construction Careers but has since closed.  As a school counselor I get information from the state about different career fields that are in high demand, and one of the pathways that is in really high demand are skilled laborer jobs like construction, HVAC, and electrical.  When I speak with students during the ICAP I tell them about these career fields and the pathway to get into them.  I can see that there are a number of students that want this type of career.  I had a student that had just completed their career assessment, and it said that he should become a mechanic.  At first, he was upset that this was the career path that he had gotten.  I asked him why he was upset, and he said that he wanted to be a football player, not a mechanic.  We talked about this, and I explained that he would need to go to college and get onto the college football team to play professionally.  His attitude started to change because he told me he did not want to go to college.  I said, “Well is there anything about being a mechanic that you like?”, and he said that he really likes to work on his uncle’s motorcycle with him.  We started talking about that and I could see that his attitude changed once we looked up the training he would need, about one year, and the salary, about 60,000.  He was very happy that this could be his career someday.  We must recognize that not all students want to go to college and that is good, because there are so many jobs out there that do not require a four-year college degree, and we need students to enter those careers.   

The next strategy with the highest percentage was industry certifications with 69% of respondents saying they use this strategy in their building.  In the research done by Glennie et al in 2021, we see that schools that offer industry certifications are more likely to have students that gain post-secondary degrees or certifications.  In my school district I know of at least one school that offers industry certification for Emergency Medical Services.  When a student shows interest in medicine, I tell them about this program that will help them get the education they need to get that career.  The city used to have a charter school called Construction Careers but has since closed.  As a school counselor I get information from the state about different career fields that are in high demand, and one of the pathways that is in really high demand are skilled laborer jobs like construction, HVAC, and electrical.  When I speak with students during the ICAP I tell them about these career fields and the pathway to get into them.  I can see that there are a number of students that want this type of career.  I had a student that had just completed their career assessment, and it said that he should become a mechanic.  At first, he was upset that this was the career path that he had gotten.  I asked him why he was upset, and he said that he wanted to be a football player, not a mechanic.  We talked about this, and I explained that he would need to go to college and get onto the college football team to play professionally.  His attitude started to change because he told me he did not want to go to college.  I said, “Well is there anything about being a mechanic that you like?”, and he said that he really likes to work on his uncle’s motorcycle with him.  We started talking about that and I could see that his attitude changed once we looked up the training he would need, about one year, and the salary, about 60,000.  He was very happy that this could be his career someday.  We must recognize that not all students want to go to college and that is good, because there are so many jobs out there that do not require a four-year college degree, and we need students to enter those careers.   

From the short answer responses, we see that participants identified three strategies that they use most often to support students move on to post-secondary programs.  As we can see in Table 20, these strategies were: interactions with the school counselor (14 responses), use of Schoolinks/career assessments (11), and college visits (4).   

The first strategy of interactions with the school counselor is very similar to the results from the graduation strategies.  I believe this coincidence comes from the fact that school counselors are traditionally seen as the individual responsible for helping students keep track of their credits for graduation and the person that assists with completing college applications and financial aid packets.  However, as previously discussed this strategy is not completely attainable with the large caseloads many urban school counselors have.  I am not a school counselor at the high school level, but I have a caseload of 370 students.  This number is typical for many school counselors even at the high school level.  During professional developments I meet with my colleagues at the high school level, and they discuss some of these realities with me.  Most school counselors have a group that they work with and help support.  In one of our biggest high schools the students are divided by last name, so a counselor will have all students with the last name A-J for example.  In a high school that usually has over 1,000 students that means they could have over 300 students to support.  With that many students it would not be possible to give consistent one-on-one support.  I would argue that around 100 students would be ideal for helping students at the high school level.  I would suggest that to make this a more viable strategy urban high schools need to decrease the number of students on school counselors’ caseloads in order to best meet the needs of their students.  Some of the responses were, “Counselors and college advisors provide information about different careers and internships that align with students’ interests and abilities,” Students meet with school counselors to determine the best post-secondary option for each student,” “I personally discuss college options with students to encourage them to make plans for post-secondary,” and “Our counseling department does a great job working with students to secure their path after they graduate from us.”  We can see that the school counselors play a vital role in supporting urban students.  We just also need to make sure that the school counselors are also given a task that is possible to complete.   

The next strategy from this section was the use of Schoolinks/career assessments with 11 responses (see Table 20).  Some of the responses were, “We use Schoolinks,” “We use an online career program to help students align their interests with post-secondary options,” and “We use Schoolinks, a website that students can use to explore post-secondary options.”  I am familiar with Schoolinks.  It is a college and career database that students can access and identify possible career options and colleges that would support that option.  Schoolinks is used all over the country, but my district just started using it this year.  In the past we used a program called Missouri Connections.  I believe the district switched to Schoolinks because it is a program used across the country.  My first experience with it was good.  I see that students can easily understand how the website functions and can identify colleges and other programs that match their interests.  In our training we also learned that the program can still be accessed by students after they graduate so they can continue to use it to create resumes when they are ready to apply for their careers.  This could make applying for jobs much easier for urban students.   

In the past I would see this strategy as a barrier for urban students, but now that we have one-to-one devices in our schools it may be more feasible.  Prior to the pandemic I had about eight computers in my room that were all in various states of disrepair.  I would not encourage students to use a lot of different websites because I could not support it with the technology, I had available to me.  During the pandemic the federal government gave funding to all schools so that we could purchase iPads and laptops for each student.  In addition, staff were given both an iPad and a laptop.  I would say now our students could easily utilize this program and continue to utilize it as they move on to post-secondary programs. 

The final strategy in this discussion is college visits with 4 occurrences in the responses. Some of the participants stated, “We help by setting up college visits and talking with parents about the process of getting into college or trade school,” and “We have the Trio program that helps students with tutoring and college visits.” This strategy is like the research done by Jordan in 2012.  Students need exposure to college campuses in order to see themselves in this environment.  I would also argue that repeated exposure to college and trade school campuses would increase the likelihood of a student applying.  As discussed, many urban students come from low SES families that may not have attended college or a trade school.  Therefore, families may struggle to support their children as they decide on their post-secondary pathway.  This is not to say that families who have low SES are unable to support their children, but rather that they are not sure how to support this aspect of their child’s education.  It then becomes the role of the school to provide this support.   

My son has one mom who has six degrees, almost seven, and another mom who did not finish college.  I want him to know that he can pick any path he would like for his post-secondary as long as the path leads to a career that will make him happy.  I want the same for my students and all urban students.  In the next section I will discuss the strategies that urban educators believe are effective in supporting urban students on their path toward graduation and entrance into post-secondary education. 

In this section we examined how shared experiences among urban educators could skew the results of the survey, but I believe that skewness is what makes the voices of urban educators so powerful.  We are skewed because we see what is needed for our students to succeed but get frustrated when our voices are not heard.  It is clear from the survey that urban educators know what works best for their students and it becomes the responsibility of all of us in the field of Education to help support the strategies that increase the overall equity of urban education.  I believe that the mixed methods approach to my research helped to ensure that I got the most valid data and one of the biggest components to this approach is a well-rounded understanding of the research that has come before in this field of inquiry.