The purpose of this article is to describe a community‐based science project that was coproduced with urban teenagers and to elaborate on my understanding of what it means to create a practicing culture of science learning. This understanding will be positioned in relation to various educationally relevant discourses and research on urban science education, concluding with an exploration of these questions: In what ways did an urban planning and community gardening project help to create a learning environment in which science was relevant? To whom was science relevant and toward what ends? It is argued that in a practicing culture of science learning, science was relevant because (a) it was created from participants' concerns, interests, and experiences inside and outside science, (b) it was an ongoing process of researching and then enacting ideas, and (c) it was situated within the broader community. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 860–877, 2001

In what follows, we develop a conceptual argument for expanding current visions of performance assessment to include the following three ideals: that performance/assessment addresses the value‐laden decisions about what and whose science is learned and assessed and include multiple worldviews, that performance/assessment in science simultaneously emerges in response to local needs, and that the performance/assessment is a method as well as an ongoing search for method. To make this argument, we draw together ideas raised by critical, feminist and multicultural science educators to describe an inclusive science education, one we refer to as critical science education, to raise questions about the nature and purpose of performance assessment in science education. We are particularly interested in how the science of assessment is challenged and transformed within a critical science education perspective and the conditions needed to create an equitable and inclusive practice of science and science assessment across diversity. We present a case study from a youth‐led community science project in the inner city to help contextualize our argument. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 337–354, 2001

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Community-based afterschool programs remain places that support youth development. However, in most places quality is getting the squeeze, making it more difficult to meet the growing needs of youth and parents. This article describes the impact of increased external and regulatory pressures that have taken hold at a time of reduced financial and social capital. In this article, we name the factors that are creating what we call The Accordion Effect and describe its ‘squeezing’ impact on quality programming. We conclude with recommendations for reclaiming quality youth work, a practice that we believe must remain holistic and emergent.

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