Equal access to education is an important American ideal, yet for many years it has been unavailable to a large number of Americans living in impoverished communities. Biddle gives an insightful progress report on today's educational system.

Bruce J. Biddle is Professor of Psychology and Sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. A graduate of Antioch College, he spent a year studying sociology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and then completed his Ph.D. (social psychology) at the University of Michigan. His research focuses largely on role theory, the role of the teacher, classroom interaction, adolescent decision making, the utilization of research knowledge in education, and the recent attack on public education in America.

Chapter 1 - Poverty, Ethnicity, and Achievement in American Schools Bruce J. Biddle Chapter 2 - First Person Plural: Education as Public Property Peter W. Cookson, Jr. Chapter 3 - Poverty, Welfare Reform, and Children's Achievement Greg J. Duncan and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn Chapter 4 - Linking Bordieu's Concept of Capital to the Broader Field: The Case of Family-School Relationships Annette Lareau Chapter 5 - Defensive Network Orientations as Internalized Oppression: How Schools Mediate the Influence of Social Class on Adolescent Development Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar Chapter 6 - Family Disadvantage, The Self, and Academic Achievement David L. DuBois Chapter 7 - Policy, Poverty, and Capable Teaching: Assumptions and Issues in Policy Design Michael S. Knapp Chapter 8 - Social Class, Poverty, and Schooling: Social Contexts, Educational Practices, and Policy Options Peter M. Hall Name Index Subject Index Contributors