On Becoming and Being Faculty-Leaders in Urban Education and also Being African- American...Seems Promising

Seven African-American women and men faculty members at a Southeastern urban research universityreflect on their collective experiences of creating an intellectual community and spearheading an urbanteacher education initiative within their School of Education . Employing a qualitative self-study and projectreflection approach, the authors situate themselves within the historical trajectory of the African-Americanstruggle for education, emphasizing the problems and promises confronting contemporary urban educators.Highlighting their role in launching the Training and Retaining Urban Student Teachers (T.R.U.S.T.)Initiative in the Birmingham City Schools, the authors conclude that the future of urban education ispredicated on the capacity of contemporary African-American educators to forge effective alliances firstwith one another, and then with other partners in higher education, urban school districts, the localcommunity, and national educational organizations

Unmasking subtle and concealed aspects of parent involvement: perspectives from African-American parents in the urban south

Focus group findings from 34 African American parents in an urban southern school district unmask subtle and concealed aspects of involvement. In contrast to formalized school-sponsored parent activities, involvement is described by participants as their encompassing a physical presence at the school to monitor their children's behavior, receiving timely communication from teachers, helping with homework, and being an advocate for their children

Parathyroid hormone inhibits renal phosphate transport by phosphorylation of serine 77 of sodium-hydrogen exchanger regulatory factor–1

Parathyroid hormone (PTH), via activation of PKC and/or protein kinase A, inhibits renal proximal tubular phosphate reabsorption by facilitating the internalization of the major sodium-dependent phosphate transporter, Npt2a. Herein, we explore the hypothesis that the effect of PTH is mediated by phosphorylation of serine 77 (S77) of the first PDZ domain of the Npt2a-binding protein sodium-hydrogen exchanger regulatory factor–1 (NHERF-1). Using recombinant polypeptides representing PDZ I, S77 of NHERF-1 is phosphorylated by PKC but not PKA. When expressed in primate kidney epithelial cells (BSC-1 cells), however, activation of either protein kinase phosphorylates S77, suggesting that the phosphorylation of PDZ I by PKC and PKA proceeds by different biochemical pathways. PTH and other activators of PKC and PKA dissociate NHERF-1/Npt2a complexes, as assayed using quantitative coimmunoprecipitation, confocal microscopy, and sucrose density gradient ultracentrifugation in mice. Murine NHERF-1–/– renal proximal tubule cells infected with adenovirus-GFP-NHERF-1 containing an S77A mutation showed significantly increased phosphate transport compared with a phosphomimetic S77D mutation and were resistant to the inhibitory effect of PTH compared with cells infected with wild-type NHERF-1. These results indicate that PTH-mediated inhibition of renal phosphate transport involves phosphorylation of S77 of the NHERF-1 PDZ I domain and the dissociation of NHERF-1/Npt2a complexes