This book is about education in Burgherside, a low-income neighborhood in Stockton, California, the majority of whose residents are blacks and Mexican-Americans: They make up about 92% of the elementary school population. The study reported here probes into the reasons for many children from the neighborhood failing in public schools. The goal was…

Social scientists have adopted two different views on the influence of the community and home on academic achievement of lower-class and minority students. The first is the deficit perspective, or the failure-of-socialization hypothesis. The second is the difference perspective, or the cultural-discontinuity/failure-of-communication hypothesis.…