In the debate about urban school effectiveness and teacher quality, one proposition has emerged as indisputable: The success of urban schools depends heavily on the quality of the teachers who serve the schools and the administrators who support the teachers. Unfortunately, urban school district recruitment policies are often not aligned with research and practical knowledge about urban teacher effectiveness; thus, the best candidates are often ignored, neglected, or otherwise discouraged. To achieve challenging goals for student achievement, urban school districts must tailor their recruitment and retention efforts to address the characteristics and motivations of potential urban teachers.
This article presents data collected on the use of yo in schools in Baltimore as a new third-person singular pronoun, as in Yo handin' out papers `She (the teacher) is handing out papers' and Peep yo `Look at him'. In the spring of 2004, a number of middle and high school teachers enrolled in a graduate linguistics class for teachers noted that their students at certain city schools were using yo in place of he or she. The authors collected spontaneous occurrences of the pronoun and then designed several writing activities and sentence judgment tasks. The tasks were administered to more than 200 students in two unrelated schools in Baltimore. It was clear from the results that students in these two schools use yo as a gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun, primarily in subject position. Limited follow-up was conducted in the spring of 2007.
The Professional Immersion Master of Arts in Teaching (ProMAT) program is a cooperative venture between Johns Hopkins University and Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools, a large school district that has experienced increased urbanization. This graduate-level teacher preparation program provides candidates with extensive internship experiences, a high degree of supervisory support, and significant financial assistance. The school district provides tuition assistance in return for a multiyear commitment by candidates to teach in the district. Data from an exit survey indicate candidate satisfaction with the program. A comparison of Praxis II Pedagogy examination scores with state minimum passing scores shows that in two thirds of the ProMAT certification areas, candidates score significantly higher than the state’s required passing scores.
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