The University of Pennsylvania has one of the most respected schools of education in the United States, and, with this first edition of the online journal Perspectives on Urban education, they continue with one of their prime interest areas, namely that of urban educational outreach and scholarship. As their mission statement suggests, "The purpose of an electronic journal format is to provide a vehicle for fostering conversations about the complexities of urban education among practitioners, researchers, policymakers and graduate students, groups who often work in isolation from each other." The first edition of this journal includes articles by James Comer (founder of the Comer School Development Program), Edgar Epps, Barbara Bowman, and Susan Fuhrman, who is the Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Penn. Additionally, the online journal contains a Notes from the Field section, which features pieces by doctoral students and others about their work in urban educational settings.