Gilberto Q. Conchas

Michael Gottfried

Briana M. Hinga

Leticia Oseguera

Educational policies explicitly implemented in order to reduce educational gaps and promote access and success for disenfranchised youth can backfire—and often have the unintended result of widening those gaps. In this interdisciplinary collection of case studies, contributors examine cases of policy backfire, when policies don’t work, have unintended consequences, and when policies help. Although policy reform is thought of as an effective way to improve schooling structures and to diminish the achievement gap, many such attempts to reform the system do not adequately address the legacy of unequal policies and the historic and pervasive inequalities that persist in schools. Exploring the roots of school inequality and examining often-ignored negative policy outcomes, contributors illuminate the causes and consequences of poor policymaking decisions and demonstrate how policies can backfire, fail, or have unintended success.

Case Studies on the Limitations and Possibilities of Educational Innovation

Educational Policy Goes to School

Through students' own voices and perspectives, this book reveals how and why some racial minorities achieve academic success, despite limited opportunity. Based on the experiences of Black, Latino, and Vietnamese urban high school students, the author provides a revealing comparative analysis that offers insight into how schools can provide opportunities and safe learning environments where youth acquire real goals, expectations, and tangible pathways for success. Offering alternatives to current practices and structures of inequality that plague educational systems throughout the nation, this sociologically informed book: takes a rare look at urban school success stories, instead of those depicting failure; explores the social processes that enable racial minority youth to escape the unequal structures of urban schooling to perform well in school; and focuses on youth's interpretations and reactions to the schooling process to determine how schools can empower youth and promote the social mobility of low-income urban populations.

Gilberto Q. Conchas

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