What Are The Major Influences That Shape Schools In Urban Centers?

Based on the reading, urban schools seem to be shaped by environment, both inside the school and outside of it, interests of the educators as well as the administration, beliefs on what the school is or should be, policy, curriculum, techniques, and various other "hoop-jumping" that stops education and furthers the bureaucracy of the situation. These factors influence schools in that legislation can impede them from moving forward and integrating with different populations.

On top of this, the influence of class size and crime, as evidenced in Anderson and Summerfield's exploration of urban, suburban, and rural schools proves that there is little separating urban schools from suburban schools in terms of proximity to violence or even something as benign as class size. Parents seem to appear as if they want the best education for their child and that this is determined by outside factors such as violence or crime and internal factors like class size. However, when one sees that there is little difference between them, one is conditioned to believe that perhaps stereotypes and racial beliefs also influence and impact whether parent chooses for their child to attend a suburban school or an urban school. Therefore, these far-reaching stereotypes seem to influence and shape schools in urban centers by giving them a poor reputation and making them appear as if the schools are not taking steps to combat things like violence or large class size.

However, in fact, these factors within urban schools and suburban schools are the same.
It appears as though many things, including aspects parents may not want to admit to themselves, judges whether or not a school is better or worse for a child. What doesn't seem to factor into these decisions is the types of educators or programs available to the student doing the learning but rather where is the school? And, will the child be safe? According to the Anderson and Summerfield reading, violence and crime appear to be relative. To Fruchter, "changing parent, family, and community cultures is far more difficult than changing schooling cultures." (Fruchter, 27)

Norm Fruchter, in the section of Chapter 2 labeled urban schooling, suggests that "The culture of schooling is what results from how a society structures, organizes, and implements its educational system." If the culture of a school appears to be different in an urban environment than in a suburban or rural environment, then it appears like the urban school has to work twice as hard to establish itself. Fruchter cites curriculum, the school organization, the primary languages of the students, the accountability system, or what sets the standards for the students, and the discipline system as aspects of the "culture of schooling." But, other aspects like policies, standards, teacher certification, and legislation also impact a school.

Furthermore, these aspects impact an urban school because it can set it back from other schools. These aspects influence and shape urban schools because they either work for them or against them. The commonly accepted view is that these aspects act against them. For example, if teacher certification policies are lax and allow a teacher to teach in an urban center through a specific fellowship program, like Teach For America or NYC Teaching Fellows, then we are opening up our urban students to teachers will little to no experience, but a ton of drive and motivation. The lack of desire to formulate principles that work and a set group of rules seems to hurt the students and the urban school in the end. Some of the aforementioned road blocks influence and shape the school by perpetuating the "bad name" and disallowing for any real change or change in policy to take place. As Fruchter says, "Ultimately, the culture of schooling reflects, and embodies, the dominant values of each society's hegemonic class and race." The better school is going to dominate over the school that is perceived as lower.

Urban schools are already viewed as "different." (Summerfield and Anderson) This is another aspect that shapes the school. The idea that techniques have to be different, the policies have to be different, and the teachers and the teaching has to be different in order for the urban school to succeed is continued. This could influence the school to be better and to use its diversity to its advantage, but in some ways it continues to set urban education apart by making it appear difficult and bogged down by issues.