ABSTRACT
Perhaps, the most important lesson to be learned from our studies of high-performing urban schools is that success is attainable. Typical urban schools, with significant challenges, can achieve substantial improvements in teaching that yield remarkable gains in learning. This lesson is important, yet also fairly obvious. An equally important, but somewhat less obvious, lesson relates to the difficulties associated with generating school-wide improvements in teaching. This lesson remains elusive in part because, in these outstanding schools, teachers make their work appear easy. As one watches teachers at Jim Thorpe Fundamental Academy in Santa Ana, California, involve students in gallery walks of their California Missions projects, one does not see the hundreds of hours of professional development and planning that supported teachers’ efforts to improve student engagement. As an observer sees teachers at Trinidad Garza Early College High School in Dallas, Texas, prepare students to succeed in college-level courses, the months and years teachers spent coming to know their students, master their content, and establish a college-going culture within their school may not be readily apparent. As a visitor watches teachers at Lauderbach Elementary in Chula Vista, California, engage students in focused conversations, one might mistakenly think that teachers always taught with such an intense focus on specific objectives.
