The strengths of Urban schools Part 2

Although America’s cities are "the strongest they have been in a decade," according to a 1998 State of the Cities report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, poverty remains more concentrated in distressed urban areas and affects a disproportionate share of minority families. "When asked why people are leaving cities," the report relates, "two answers most commonly cited are the poor quality of urban schools and the relatively high rates of urban crime."
Without ignoring these challenges, however, more and more educators are asking a question intended to help all city kids, whether they go to school in Detroit or Portland, New York or Anchorage: What can schools do to help students thrive in the urban neighborhoods where they live and learn?
Researchers at the Center for Education in the Inner Cities (CEIC), a project of the Laboratory for Student Success at Temple University, are focusing on educational resilience as a key to helping urban students succeed—even if they live in neighborhoods beset by social and economic woes. "Although not forgetting for a moment the details, complexity, and history of the problems cities face," relates the CEIC impact report, Next Steps in Inner-City Education, "researchers focus on the ‘positives’ of inner-city life, the vast resource of the cities, and, most important, the resilience and potential of inner-city children and youth."
Bonnie Benard, who has written widely on the topic of resiliency, reports that "new rigorous research" supports nurturing the strengths of urban youth rather than targeting services to overcome their deficits. Teachers have the power "to tip the scale from risk to resilience," she writes in Turning It Around for All Youth, a 1997 ERIC Digest. Benard cites three school-related factors that have the power to transform city kids’ lives:
Caring relationships with teachers who demonstrate kindness, respect, and understanding
Positive and high expectations, which can challenge students beyond what they believe they can do and help them not see setbacks as pervasive
Opportunities to participate and contribute, which allow students to express their opinions, solve problems, and help others