Immense amounts of resources, time and money have been devoted to improving the quality of education available to disenfranchised urban communities. Academics, administrators, teachers, politicians, and the private sector have all worked to develop solutions to reduce the rate of school failure and underachieving students. Poverty, drugs and broken family structures fostered a spiral of despair and apathy that undermined the integrity of educational infrastructure in these urban areas. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay From charter schools to federal laws like No Child Left Behind, the focus on better education has been approached from a variety of angles . At the same time, the role of individual responsibility is an approach that has traditionally not received much attention compared to the more macro and institutional approaches championed by researchers and government institutions. Despite a poor upbringing in Indiana, Dr. James P. Comer (1995) achieved his great aspiration of becoming a physician, then an acclaimed leader of education reform and an expert on race relations. In his article, What I Learned in School: Thoughts on Race, Child Development, and School Reform (1995), Dr. Comer suggests that students' success depends on their ability to take personal ownership of their education and their future, despite the obstacles. that they meet.Dr. Comer emphasizes that students must have some sort of personal responsibility to prepare themselves to accomplish life's tasks. They must claim ownership of the education system to the extent that they wish to reside in it and strive to own all that it offers. Ultimately, this essay will address the issue of the failure of schools in urban areas and examine how it relates to the prescription set forth by Dr. Comer for transforming the level of education available in these environments, and explore how his approach contributes to expand the broader discourse. on solving the ills of urban education. Erik Morales (2010), in his research on high-achieving students in schools in low-income areas, identifies a set of factors that allowed 50 students to defy broader trends and experience considerable advancement and upward mobility . Morales identifies factors through surveys that he says have proven critical for these students to excel. Using resilience theory, it illustrates how these factors undermined risk factors, allowing these students to thrive. Morales also offers pragmatic applications of these factors that are also explored for institutional implementation by schools. Echoing Dr. Comer's sentiment, for increased accountability, Lambert (2013) explores how school leadership at the institutional level, including teachers and principals, must be developed and held accountable. to ensure better performance, particularly in areas where the student population is particularly at risk given the socio-economic landscape. The study examines current protocols dedicated to leadership and professional development and recommends what should be included to make institutional figures better leaders and therefore more accountable for the performance of their schools and students. Keep in mind: this is just a sample.Get a custom article now written by our expert writers.Get an essay..