This year-long ethnographic study analyzed three California charter middle schools: one served mostly low-income, urban African American students; the second served students from working class Latino families; and the third served a middle class, predominantly White suburb. The study illustrates how socioeconomic context of a charter school's community, combined with charter reforms, affect school operations. Significantly, charters serving poor students lacked resources to fulfill their needs, and teachers lacked necessary professional development. As a result of financial and pedagogical difficulties, some charters took a more selective approach to finding students who would help the school, and its teachers, succeed. (Contains 2 tables and 4 notes.)