Urban Education Analysis

It is a fact that there is not a clear, unequivocaldefinition of what it is meant by urban education. According to Milner (2012), there are many different situations where teachers, researchers, theoreticians, policymakers and practitioners use the term urban in order to characterize a school district. Some of them are limited to the characteristics of the school itself, while others take into consideration the larger social context where the schools and districts are located. In general, communities are characterized as suburban, urban or rural. Despite their similarities, they have many differences. Suburban schools tend to be relatively identical in terms of socioeconomic status (SES) and ethnic background.When comparing to urban schools,

These differences matter when it comes to the general performance of the students, since it is known that school size is important for the students’ learning opportunities and achievement, better qualified teachers are more able to handle a classroom effectively and finally students whose needs are met, usually students from higher socioeconomic status, are better to concentrate on learning and manage their behaviour (Milner, 2006). A school can therefore be defined as urban when its students are culturally and racially diverse, when it has a large number of poorer students—especially students of colour, high turnover of teachers, heavy institutional and systemic barriers, and insufficient resources (Milner,

Therefore, Milner (2012) provides in his article three conceptual frameworks in order to clearly define the concept of an urban school and distinguish the different kinds of urban schools that can exist. The first conception is that of an “urban intensive” environment, meaning the schools that are concentrated in big, metropolitan cities and are the most representative sample of schools in urban districts. The term “urban emergent” is the one that refers to the schools located in large cities but not as large as the major cities. These usually share some or the same characteristics as urban intensive schools in relation to resources, qualification of teachers, and academic development of students. Finally, the term “urban characteristic” is used for schools that are not located in big cities, but may begin to experience problems related to urban contexts, such as an increase in English language learners in the community. The schools of the last category may be located in what might be classified as rural or even suburban areas (Milner,