Virtually all this evidence-quantitative and qualitative-might seem to exonerate schools from any responsibility for the widening class gap, and suggests chat schools might be helping to level the playing field, just as America's educational reformers have hoped. Bue-and it is a big "buc"-there's no denying chat rich and poor kids in chis country attend vastly different schools nowadays,

Lola says chat Santa Ana High was "a total different story," com-pared to their previous schools. The girls observe chat the Santa Ana High School buildings are not so bad, though they are ringed by a high chain link fence, "Keep Out" signs decorated with gang graffiti, and lurking police cars. Jr's the social environment, not the physical plant, that makes Santa Ana High a very different place from Troy High.

The sisters were very close co their grandparents and remain close co their step-grandfather. Family dinners were regular. Their grandmother "made sure I had braces," recalls Lola. Their step-grandfather rearranged his work schedule so he could pick them up from school, and he helped Sofia with her math homework. Boch grandparents encouraged them co do well in school.

Troy is able to mount such an astonishingly wide range of extra-curricular activities because of very active fund-raising among parents and community members. Many activities have an associated booster group. Clara explains that like other parents, they regularly donate money to the schools. "That's how they get laptop computers for all the kids in the tech program, and even in the elementary schools," Clara says. "The parents want their children to be well prepared technically. My girlfriend Samantha easily donates $ l ,000 a year to her elementary school, because she thinks it's cheaper-her daughter was at a private school, and it's $12,000 to $15,000 a year. So for her to donate $1,000 is nothing."

In LA most middle-class or professional Hispanics move to areas where they have better schools, because most of us grew up in the inner city, and so we were familiar with what [our children] would be exposed to-gangs and violence and probably lower-level educa-tion, unfortunately, where the teachers are basically managing the students. We knew exactly what we wanted for our kids. We wanted chem to compete with the kids chat go to Ivy League schools. So for us it's education, education, education for our children.

"I wanted to make a difference in my community," Clara says, explaining her choice of profession, "hoping char fewer kids were going into gangs and drugs."

In fact, recognizing that Clara and Francisco came from a disad-vantaged background, on weekends their teachers sometimes took them with their own families to Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. "They were our role models and our mentors," Clara says. "We said, 'We're going to do well academically, and we're going to challenge ourselves, because we need to get our of the neighborhood.'"

That said, she also recalls chat she and her brother were occasionally shepherded home by friendly black teachers. Seeking greater safety, the family moved around South Central and southeastern Los Angeles, always in poor, mostly Latino neighborhoods. "We grew up in a com-munity where it was low-income, lots of drugs," Clara says, adding chat many of her classmates in junior high and high school were "fried" from habitually sniffing glue. Latino gangs-whom Clara calls "cockroaches"-dominated the schools that she and her brother attended.

Clara and Ricardo, both in their 50s, grew up in the 1970s in an im-poverished Hispanic ghetto in South Central Los Angeles. By the 1990s they had become successful professionals, and in search of safe neigh-borhoods and stellar schools they moved to Fullerton with their grow-ing family (Michael, now 27; Isabella, now 20; and Gabriel, now 15). Today they live in a large ranch-style house on a peaceful cul-de-sac and are well integrated into the Orange County middle class.

Troy High School in Fullerton and Santa Ana High School. Spending per pupil at the two schools is comparable, for exam-ple, as are the student-teacher ratios, the number of guidance counselors, and two standard measures of teacher quality: formal education and experience. Troy offers a richer menu of extracurricular activities than Santa Ana, but, as we shall see, private fund-raising explains chat differ-ence, not unequal investment by the school districts. On the measures most obviously controlled by school systems-spending, teacher quan-tity and quality, and counseling-the two schools seem broadly similar.

ost Latinos in Orange County live in the impoverished cities of the inland valleys of the northern half of the county, among them Santa Ana. A 2004 report by rhe Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government identified Santa Ana as the Most Troubled City in America because of its high unemployment, high poverty rate, undereducated population, and crowded housing. Latinos in Orange County are more likely to live not only in poverty bur also amidst street violence and gang activity. Santa Ana alone is home co 29 street gangs.

If I had established a strong mentoring relationship with Mrs. Locket, who had referred me to the honors class in the first place, and with others in the building, they could have given me advice on how to handle the situation with Ms. Hill.

tarting in kindergarten, schools rarely reward poor students for the quali-ties they bring to their schools: their perseverance, compassion, flexibility, patience, and creativity, just to name a few

Chantelle believed that if she did not take prealgebra during her first year, she would have to make it up later. Both of these beliefa were based on erroneous information.

owever, it is possible to address school conditions that contribute to disparities in achievement, such as school size, the student-to-counselor ratio, procedures that are used to track stu-dents into higher-an<l lower-level courses, and processes used to provide academic support co students who are struggling. These aspects of the school structure all contribute co the achievement gap, and unlike the backgrounds of students, they can be easily modified and reformed.

One study found that mothers' reports of their mental health were more positive after the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program increased its payments to working families.1

his level of deprivation can harm children in many ways.10 Poor nutri-tion and inadequate health care have long-term effects on children's in-tellectual development. Exposure to lead paint affects children's nervous systems, resulting in hyperactivity and irritability, with long-term con-sequences for both intellectual and emotional development. Exposure to violence results in an inability to stay focused on the task at hand. In other words, poverty creates deficits in children that are long-lasting and very difficult to overcome. Moreover, as we explain in the next chapter, children

Children are more successful in school when they are able to pay at-tention, when they get along with peers and teachers, and when they are not preoccupied or depressed because of troubles at home.

nthony and Alexander, many national studies have investigated gaps in school performance among children from similarly disparate back-grounds.

II we truly believe that "the potential for brilliance is sprinkled evenly across all ethnic groups" and all social classes, ◄

At long last, even after first-generation and poor students like me sur-mount class-based difficulties in college, the debt looms for decades. Although a college education is "the most reliable step" for upward social mobility, the debt that poor college students incur and retain for years keeps them at a handsome distance below their more well-off

Even after poor students enter college, there is often an imposed sense of not feeling entitled to their own admission. Minorities of any kind are positioned as "affirmative action babies" or "token [fill in the blank]." Legacy admits, how-ever, are rarely if ever questioned.

A college education is the most reliable step for moving from a low-income to a middle-class and higher status"

This form of early tracking, or dividing children into labeled groups based on the teacher's designation of their skill level, seems innocent.

_The neighbor's point was an excellent one. Access to quality child care, early learning, preschool, and even kindergarten (which is not mandatory in all states) is key. Investments in quality early childhood education not only has one of the highest yield

Lack of access to health care and, more specifically, to prenatal health care plagues far too many women in poverty and, consequent!~, their chil~ren a~d future public school students. Inadequate nutrition, und1~gnosed d1fficult1es prior to childbirth

U.S. public schools illustrate th · 1. · f . . . . . . e s1mp 1c1ty o reproduction-that 1s, the mdehble relat1onship between curre t d 1 . n an eventua class membership-by way of replicating class status in the superior ed t. I · · f h · h uca 10na opportumt1es o t ose wit more money If you can b f · h · · -y way o m entance real estate, or a_cc~mulated class capital and wealth-afford a better home in ~ better school d,stn~t, Y0_u will therefore receive a predictably better education

Masses of people of color who have been denied personhood, rights to stolen lands citizenship, and any number of basic human freedoms based solely on race hav; also been denied generational access to wealth in the form of inherited propert

Any serious discussion about the inception of poverty in this country m~st begin by recognizing that class is highly racialized (even globally), and vice versa. The origins of poverty among people of color-specifically descendants of African slaves

children

educating poor children with students who are more privi-leged, or educating them like students who are more privileged, has improved their performance and long-term chance of success

The gap between beliefs and actions not only leads to contention and con-fusion, it also generates policies that are irrational in the sense that they are inconsistent with evidence of what works or are not based on any evidence at all.

The controversies-over matters like school funding, vouchers, bilingual education, high-stakes testing, desegrega-tion, and creationism-seem, at first glance, to be separate problems.

When we, as educators, allow our pedagogy to be radically changed by our recognition of a multicultural world, we can give students the education they desire and deserve. We can teach in ways that transform consciousness, creating a climate of free expression that is the essence of a truly liberatory liberal arts education. 4 Paulo Freire This is a playful dialogue with myself, Gloria Watkins, talking with bell hooks, my writing voice. I wanted to speak about Paulo and his work in this way for it afforded me an intimacy-a familiarity-I do nat find it possible to achieve in the essay. And here I have found a way to share the sweetness, the soli-darity I talk a bo ut. Watkins: Reading your books Ain 't I a Woman: Black Women a nd Feminism, Feminist The!Yfy: From Margin to Center, and Talk-ing Bach, it is clear that your development as a critica! thinker has been greatly influenced by the work of Paulo Freire. Can you speak abou~ why his work has touched your life so deeply? hooks: Years before I met Paulo Freire, I had learned so much from hi s work, learned new ways o f thinking a bo ut social reality that were liberatory. Often when university stu-45

Hence, educators are poorly prepared when we actually confront diversity. This is why so many of us stubbornly ding to oid patterns. As I worked to create teacbing strategies tbat would make a space for multiculturallearning, I found it necessary to recognize wbat I have called in other writ-ing on pedagogy different "cultural codes." To teacb effectively a diverse student body, I bave to learn tbese codes. And so do students. Tbis act alone transforms tbe classroom. Tbe sbaring of ideas and information does not always progress as quickly as it may in more bomogeneous settings. Often, professors and students bave to learn to accept different ways ofknowing, new epistemologies, in the multicultural setting. Just as it may be difficult for professors to sbift tbeir para-digms, it is equally difficult for students. I have always believed tbat students sbould enjoy learning. Yet I found that tbere was ií

so I bave had to make it clear from the outset that this is a requirement in my classes. Even if there is a student present whose voice cannot be heard in spoken words, by "signing" (even ifwe cannot read the signs) they make their presence felt.

To some extent, we all know that whenever we address in the classroom subjects that stu-dents are passionate about there is always a possibility of con-frontation, forceful expression of ideas, or even conflict. In much of my writing about pedagogy, particularly in classroom settings with great diversity, I have talked about the need to examine critically the way we as teachers conceptualize what the space for learning should be like.

As a çonsequence, many teachers are disturbed by the political implications of a multicultural education because they fear losing control in a 35