Urban Community Essay

The world is home to many different types of communities. Each type is made of different people from various walks of life. A very popular type of community is an urban community. Generally the word urban is associated with large cities composed of vast transport systems, skyscrapers and heavy commerce that offers man different career opportunities. A key feature of urban environments is the diverse communities that it creates. This is brought about due to the dense population that large cities accumulate. Urban living is a lifestyle that starts from birth. Many people raised in an urban environment tend to spend their entire life there.
While researching urban environments I had the privilege of meeting three urban residents from different

The first lady I interviewed said that the lack of control over the students and lack of supplies needed to teach was causing major issues in her community. She noted that many of the children are just passed along through the system until they eventually drop out. My second subject said he was happy with the education his children received but noted the classes are much larger for his children than what he had in his rural home town. The final subject I interviewed said that the lack of preparedness the public system has for college caused him to place his children in a private school to receive the education he felt they needed. Urban teachers described their classrooms as overcrowded and noted that in many instances there were not adequate resources available to teach the children (Goldring, 2002). Students in urban schools have a 50% chance of being taught by a certified mathematics or science teacher (Foote, 2005). Some of the teachers were under qualified to teach. Not only are urban teachers less likely to be prepared in their content areas, but these teachers also score lower on literacy skills measures on teacher certification examinations (Goldring, 2002). All of these finding combined lead to the inability to properly teach children and prepare them to pass exams (Ihlanfeldt,

One positive aspect of education that was mentioned was the availability of magnet schools in the inner city. These magnet schools place special emphasis on certain areas of study. Some magnet schools focus mainly on math and science while others have more emphasis on the performing arts. Goldring stated in their book that generally magnet schools are established in urban school districts with enrollments of more than 10,000 students Magnet schools are popular alternatives to the inner city public schools because of the higher education and lower class sizes they contain in comparison to regular public schools (Goldring, 2002). These schools are more selective of the students admitted. Many require certain grades be maintained and require testing before admission (Ihlanfeldt, 2006). In their study, Goldring found that over seventy five percent of school districts with magnet schools have a greater demand for admission than what is allowed to be taken in (Goldring, 2002). Due to the advanced curriculum, many of the teachers employed by magnet schools have higher credentials and more advanced levels of core subjects are offered to