The Urban Schools in the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

The Urban Schools in the United States - Essay Example tion in schools apart from the disparity in the enrollment rates of students as well as the availability of teachers belonging to different races and ethnic origins. â€Å"Equity is central to the current reform movement in science education. Although all students are capable of understanding and doing science, persistent and widespread differences continue to exist in students’ access, retention, and achievement, depending on their culture, gender, race, and socioeconomic status† (WCER, 2007). Besides, teachers and students are exposed to a lot of challenges in the urban schools. Background of Urban Schools In the United States, the education sector has been a major priority, with numerous efforts on reform being implemented to improve students’ performance. Urban schools in the United States are located in urban areas, where there are relatively high rates of poverty. Besides, the student population here possesses limited English proficiency and is, therefore r egarded as high need areas (Ruso, 2004). Gaskell (2012) claims that in the early years, wealth was accumulated by a limited number of individuals and, as a result, poverty levels in the urban areas increased significantly. The urban population in the United States increased as well, resulting in many differences, such as racism and inequality. The funding of schools among the wealthy and the poor districts remained fraught with inequality. The urban schools in the United States have, over the years, faced a declining level of test scores and high rates of violence. According to Stark (2011), urban schools in the 1800s have been started with an aim of providing immigrant parents with affordable places for their children to stay during the day as they worked in mills, factories or shops. By 1920, the urban... This essay approves that research on teacher turnover is examined and the situation in urban schools is related to the factors for teacher turnover that have emerged from the research. Finally, the review also presents factors that contribute to teachers’ motivation to stay in urban schools despite the difficult conditions. The researcher hopes that by looking at both the challenges and the motivating factors, this study will be contribute to the understanding of teacher retention in urban schools. There appears to exist a whole range of factors that demotivate teachers in general and science teachers in particular from continuing with the profession of teaching. While teachers receive only low salaries, the job is extremely demanding both in terms of time and physical as well as emotional stress it entails. The most unfortunate aspect of the job of teaching is the fact that a teacher is held wholly responsible and accountable for the behavior and results of students. The prof ession of teaching is too taxing, which prevents a teacher from attaining a balance between his or her personal and work life. This report makes a conclusion that teacher turnover is a particular problem in most of the urban schools. Negative reports about urban settings have discouraged properly qualified teachers from taking up teaching jobs in these schools. The high level of stress and exhaustion experienced in these schools also result in high teacher turnover. Despite the negative factors, however, there are some teachers that remain in the urban schools and they are motivated to provide quality education. The literature also reviews some of the teacher qualities that motivate teachers to teach in urban schools.