Many of the our nation’s most highly qualified and gifted teachers do not teach in the schools where their skills are most sorely needed. Poor students of color are at the bottom of the ladder for receiving services from the most-qualified teachers. Moreover, even though most teachers enter the profession for noble reasons and with great enthusiasm, many of those in urban schools know little about their students and find it hard to reach them. Despite their good intentions, many teachers who work with students of racial and cultural backgrounds different from their own have limited experience in teaching them and become frustrated and angry at the conditions in which they must work. Nearly half of all new teachers in urban public schools quit within five years. The teacher dropout rate is certainly not new, but with the predicted looming teacher shortage, recruiting and retaining excellent teachers who are excited about and committed to teaching students in urban schools is more urgent than ever. According to Sonia M. Nieto, anger, hope, and love are among the reasons that a group of urban teachers have stayed in teaching -- despite everything. http://www.ascd.org/publications/ed_lead/200305/nieto.html