Professor Predicts Urban Teachers' Success

By Daniel Gursky

MILWAUKEE--Martin Haberman has been telling anyone who would listen for more than 30 years that not all teaching is the same. Urban teaching is different, he says, and successful urban teachers exhibit a distinct mixture of skills and beliefs.

For almost as long, Mr. Haberman has been arguing that schools of education cannot prepare enough effective teachers for America's city schools because faculty members themselves have virtually no urban teaching experience.

Considering his position as a professor of education at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Mr. Haberman's solution to the nation's chronic shortage of qualified urban...