HW 41 - Initial Internet Research on Schooling

Golba, Amy. "How Does Education in Urban Schools Compare To Suburban Schools?." Indiana University Of South Bend 1.1 (2006): n. pag. Web. 24 Feb 2010.

Basically what this article is saying is that children who attend urban schools are under privileged and we need more money because we don't have enough and because of that we are not graduating and not making enough money to support ourselves. Amy Golba had this very interesting chart that compared drugs, theft, violence, attendance and bad class behavior in urban and suburban schools. What made this chart so interesting is that in every case the urban schools were worse (had higher numbers) then the suburban schools.

This is a good source for my topic because i am looking into how successful students are in graduating high school and then their future achievements based on whether they go to a urban or suburban school. This was interesting because it brought some very negative light onto urban schools and i like to see how it compares to suburban schools now. (http://www.iusb.edu/~journal/static/volumes/1998/Paper5.html)

• Mone, Lawrence. "Little behavioural difference between urban and suburban teenagers." City Mayors Society 1.1 (2004): n. pag. Web. 24 Feb 2010. .

Basically what this paper said is the exact opposite of the last article. It said that Urban and suburban schools are just as bad as each other. They both promote, smoking, drinking and recreational sex. All of which can hinder future success. Or at least distract you from the task at hand.

This connects back to my topic because it shows that peer pressure plays a part in both urban and suburban schools and because of that neither one can really have the finger of blame pointed at which one may have the more successful students.

(http://www.citymayors.com/society/urban_teens.html)

• Jordan, Jennifer. "Suburban, urban school gap remains." Rhode Island news 1.1 (2008): n. pag. Web. 24 Feb 2010. .

This article is slightly different then the others because it has more specific examples and is talking about rings of schools in Providence Rhode Island. It is talking about how the "urban" rings are incredibly below average and if they cant bring their averages up then they are facing severe budget cuts and even school closures which can be incredibly bad and cause many children to go without an education.

This relates back to my point because once again it shows how the students grades are failing due to peer pressures. Although not directly stated in this article it is made clear by the simple fact that these students in urban areas are failing.

(http://www.projo.com/news/content/SCHOOL_CLASSIFICATIONS_08-20-08_27B8U6T_v47.3f5f96b.html)

• Noguera, Pedro. "San Francisco: Improvements are rooted in local initiative and leadership." Achieving Success Through Shared Accountability in Urban Schools 1.1 (1997): n. pag. Web. 24 Feb 2010. .

This is an old article and the reason i chose it was because from the very beginning of when San Francisco was starting to turn around its school systems and this article was published which made this article that much more valuable. It showed how the urban areas were beginning to turn themselves around and by doing that they were making it a better place.

This relates back to my topic because it shows that even though urban schools were bad they still had the ability to improve and the social situations and social hierarchy's still had room to change.

(http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/pnsf.html)

• Knudson, Brigitte. "A Liberal Education." Wordpress.com. 15 Jul 2008. Wordpress.com, Web. 3 Mar 2010. .

This article said that the difference between urban and suburban schools and which ones do better depends on which ones have less "underprivileged children" because they tend to not do as well on standardized testing and that is what schools are usually marked by for their success.

This article is helpful because it gives a very close minded and almost racist view into the success rates of school. She says that suburban schools are better because they have less poor kids and they don't do as well as middle class kids. She didn't bring race into it but i think that would be next. I think that this article does give a urban outlook on success/failure rates outside of their own little bubble.

(http://brigitteknudson.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/education-in-urban-vs-suburban-schools-comparing-apples-and-oranges/)

Basically what i learned from these articles is that upbringing and personal background and such play very important roles in your personal role at school and no matter what area you live in those things will still be key.

HW 42 - Significance

How does the social hierarchy in urban/suburban schools connect to the success failure rate of today's youth?

The reason that this topic interests me is because i have a good number of friends who go to school on long island and what they learn is incredibly mundane and usually straight from a textbook, but yet they all seem to do quite well in college and get scholarships whether they be academic or sports related. Most of the people who i know who went to college from the city don't seem to really amount to anything like that, they go to decent colleges and jobs that get them by from there.

I want to know if it is a trend that this is between urban and suburban schools or is it just the people i know. I want to know if this is a pattern. Since i am presented this opportunity then i should take it and maybe see what the cards hold for me for my future. I really don't want to end up in some dead end job that gets me by because i didn't do everything i could in high school. I want to do something that makes me happy. I know i need to work for that but i want to know why it seems that suburban kids have such an advantage.