The author was startled by the carelessness and selectivity of Robert Slavin's comments, which give his words the ring of a promotional release rather than of intellectual reflection. He agrees that Slavin is accurate in saying that the scores on reading tests at P.S. 65 in the South Bronx improved during a period in which, among a number of other…

Argues that the current emphasis on the future economic worth of low-income, inner-city children is often inappropriate, because it tends to view them as economic units, some of whom may end up a burden to society while others have only limited utility. The paper suggests that these children have great value now and unlimited potential for the…

Many Americans who live far from major cities and who have no firsthand knowledge of realities in urban public schools seem to have a rather vague and general impression that the great extremes of racial isolation they recall as matters of grave national significance some 35 or 40 years ago have gradually, but steadily, diminished in more recent…

This book examines what is happening, in the context of segregated and unequal public education, to children from poor families in the inner cities and less affluent suburbs, and describes how children of poor families get less real education, less hope, and less concern than children from rich families. Chapter 1 of the book examines the causes…

Inner-city schools are currently as separate and unequal as they have ever been. School reform has failed to address the dual system, and it will remain ineffective as long as an unequal and racially divided system operates. Suggestions are given for turning rhetoric to action. (SLD)