Often, if there is one lone person of color in the classroom she or he is objectified by others and forced to assume the role of "native informant." For example, a novel is re ad by a Korean American author. White students turn to the one student from a Korean background to explain what they do not understand. This places an unfair responsibility on to that student.

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

Many professors have con-veyed to me their feeling that the classroom should be a "safe" place; that usually translates to mean that the professor lectures to a group of quiet students who respond only when they are called on. The experience of professors who educate for critica! consciousness indicates that many students, especially students of color, may not feel atall "safe" in what appears to be a neutral setting. It is the absence of a feeling of safety that often pro-motes prolonged silence or lack of student engagement

All too often we found a will to include those considered "marginal" without a willingness to accord their work the same respect and consideration given other work. In Women's Stud-ies, for example, individuals will often focus on women of color at the very end of the semester or lump everything about race and difference together in on e section. This kind of tokenism is not multicultural transformation, but it is familiar to us as the change individuals are most likely to make

Arnong educators there has to be an acknowledgment that any effort to transform institutions so that they reflect a multi-cultural standpoint must take inta consideration the t'cars teachers have when asked to shift their paradigms. There must be training si tes where teac

My sister, who is half Chinese, one-quarter Thai, and one-quarter Southeast Asian Indian, attended a historically Black college. Not by choice but by lack of cultural capital. As the eldest child in our family, she was the first to brave the collegiate admission process. Her high school counselor never called her in for counseling, "noticed her potential," or placed her in contact with various colleges and admissions offices around the country. Those consultations hap-pened frequently for her White counterparts. She had no idea when applications were due, what they entailed, what fee waivers were, or when to take standard-ized tests. She dreamed of attending James Madison University. She ended up at Norfolk State University because it was the only college to accept her applica-tion late. She dropped out before the midpoint of her first semester.

This form of early tracking, or dividing children into labeled groups based on the teacher's designation of their skill level, seems innocent. What we know, however, based on mounds of research-most notably among them Rist's (1970/2000) study of same-raced children of various social classes-is that teacher and peer expectations for academic achievement (and their subsequent treatment of students) are based largely on low and negative perceptions of the poor, regardless of their actual ability.

On the basis of the inability of far too many people of color, as well as a vast number of Whites-neither of whom inherited wealth from their forebears-to purchase homes or, more important, to purchase homes in a "good school dis-trict,,, housing segregation continues to plague the educational and social out-comes of multiple members of the underclass.

What scores of students-well-meaning educators, all-fail to realize is that public education does not serve its intended function as the great equal-izer. Quite contrarily, schools actually structure inequality (gasp!) in insidiously subtle ways. To introduce countless future teachers to this "radical" notion ' I devised a plan to combat pernicious thinking about poor students, the educa-tional "failures" of poor students, and the "self-inflicted" demise of the poor.

Mann chided the economic elite for shirking obligations to their fellow man by favoring private education over common schools. He conceptualized public education as "the great equalizer," or the most powerful mechanism for abating class-based "prejudice and hatred," and, most important, the only means by which those without economic privilege or generational wealth could experience any hope of equal footing.

Unlike schooling in every other major industrialized country, public educaoo~ in this country is democratic and deeply local. Despite the rhetoric of presi-d . I d'd . . th 1· . that enua can 1 ates, it 1s not e federal government but states and loca 1oes carry most of the burden of public education. Until recently local prope_rtY taxes provided the hulk of the financing for public schools, and local officials ·11 ak d · · b · ..,,.,ents stl m e most ec1S1ons a out personnel and pedagogy. School ass1gn1~· _ for students are based on local district or community residence; when corn

Yet this progress has met limits. Hispanics and inner city residents still drop out much more frequently than others, the gap between black and white achievement rose during the 1990s after declining in the previous decade, the achievement gap between students from lower-and higher-class families has barely budged, and poor students in poor urban schools have dramatically lower rates of literacy and arithmetic or scientific competence. Most importantly, life chances depend increasingly on attaining higher education, but class back-ground is as important as ever in determining who attends and finishes a four-year college.

The paradox stems from the fact that the success of one generation depends at least partly on the success of their parents or guardians. People who succeed get to keep the fruits of their labor and use them as they see fit; if they buy a home in a place where the schools are better, or use their superior resources to make the schools in their neighborhood better, their chil-dren will have a head start and other children will fall behind through no fault of their own

Public schools are where it is all supposed to start-they are the central institutions for bringing both parts of the dream into practice. Americans ex-pect schools not only to help students reach their potential as individuals but

HE AMERICAN DREAM IS A POWERFUL CONCEPT. It encourages each person who lives in the United States to pursue success, and it cre-ates the framework within which everyone can do it. It holds each person responsible for achieving his or her own dreams, while generating shared values and behaviors needed to persuade Americans that they have a real chance to achieve them. It holds out a vision of both individual success and the col-lective good of all.

Even more shocking, high-scoring poor kids are now slightly less likely (29 percent) to get a college degree than low-scoring rich kids (30 per-cent). That last fact is particularly hard to square with the idea at the heart of the American Dream: equality of opportunity.

More insidious and more widespread has been the rapid prolifera-tion of pay-to-play policies now imposed on students in more than half of American_ high schools. One nationwide survey in 2010 estimated that team fees and other costs of extracurricular sports averaged be-tween $300 and $400 per student. An annual survey of six Midwestern states found that pay-to-play fees for high school sports alone doubled from $75 in 2007 to $150 in 2012, while average marching band fees rose from $85 in 2010 to $100 in 2013. Even in California, where pay-to-play was found by the courts to be unconstitutional, schools circumvented the ruling by collecting "donations" that were, in effect, mandatory. 64 Some schools charge distinct fees for different sports; in Painesville, Ohio, cross-country costs $521, football $783, and tennis $933!65 In addition, equipment costs (formerly borne by the school, bur now typically borne by parents) amount to roughly $350 per year

A first, fundamental fact is residential sorting. As we have seen in Port Clinton, Bend, Atlanta, and Orange County, rich and poor Ameri-cans are increasingly living in separate neighborhoods.21 Although not all kids attend schools based on their parents' residence, most still do. Thus, residential sorting by income over the last 30 to 40 years has shunted high-income and low-income students into separate schools

On the measures most obviously controlled by school systems-spending, teacher quan-tity and quality, and counseling-the two schools seem broadly similar. What is decidedly not similar about these two schools, however, are their student populations, as measured by poverty rates, ethnic backgrounds, English proficiency, and even physical fitness. Santa Ana students are overwhelmingly poor and Latino and heavily Spanish-speaking, whereas Troy students come from ethnically diverse, eco-nomically upscale backgrounds. More striking still are the contrasts in the "output" measures of the two schools-graduation rates, statewide academic and SAT test scores, truancy and suspension rates. Students at Santa Ana are four times more likely than students at Troy to drop out, roughly ten rimes more likely to be truant or suspended, and only one third as likely to take the SAT

Today, when I reflect on Ms. Hill's class, I realize that I simply did not know one of the most important aspects of the hidden curriculum: build social capital with teachers, guidance counselors, and other professional staff. 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.

As class went along Ms. Hill called on different individuals to read aloud passages from a text. Next, she asked us to analyze the passages and look for larger social meanings in them. I was uncomfortable speaking out because I did not want to make dumb comments.

According to some scholars, the school system privileges individuals who comply with dominant culture, like that of middle-class and upper-middle-class teachers, professional staff, and administrators (Bourdieu, 1984, 1986; Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990; Musoba & Baez, 2009).

Research indicates that social class can influence cognitive abilities because a lack of money results in fewer experiences at muse-ums and traveling, fewer books in the home, and less access to preschool educa-tion (Bowles & Gintis, 2002; Good & Brophy, 1987)

Starting 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. Instead they are judged on quali-ties determined by dominant cultural norms: the attitudes, preferences, tastes, mannerisms, and abilities valued by a system that never was designed to meet their needs (Apple, 1982, 1990).

I didn't speak English. I saw different teachers. 1 saw different classmates .. 1 didn't understand what the teacher was saying. 1 couldn't find my classes and Thad no .friencls in school. 1 felt lonely. l c was a new school for me. Berkeley High School is a new school for me. Everything is new. But 1 like this school. Gene Sirngh, ESL Level l, L 996

With the exception of m::irh and foreign language, class of 2000 ninth graders cook the same detracked classes in English, world history, and ethnic studies. However, rheir GPAs at the encl of ninth grade, when disaggregated by race, show the begin-nings of the achievement gap as measured by grades.

Tracking is not the only school structure char Sl.,lpporrs thL: success o(high-achicving students. Policies such as self-scheduling also do so by perpetuating the myth th.=it students choose their own path-ways through high school.

Pierre Bou:r<lieu (1977) argues that cultural knowledge, srnrus, and distinctions mcdi;:ice the rclarionship between economic structures, schooling, ;ind people's lives.

83 percent of rhc ninth graders who were placed in Math A, the low~crack prealgebra class, were African American. In contrast,►87 Qercent of students from that same cohort of ninth graJers \yho were placed in Honors Geometry, the advanced-track math class,

Thus, whereas middle-class children are often treated as a project to be developed, working-class and poor children are given boundaries for their behavior and then allowed to grow

The study generated the often-cited finding that over a year's time, pro-fessional parents utter an average of eleven million words to their toddlers. The corresponding figures for working-class and welfare families were six and three million, respectively.

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.

The ... soccer team's new warm-up suits, socks and shirts cost the Tallingers $100. Piano runs $23 per weekly lesson per child. Tennis clinic is $50; winter basketball $30. It costs the family money to drive to out-of-state tournaments and stay overnight. Fees for Garrett's summer camps have varied; some have cost $200 per week .. . [Mrs. Tallinger] reported expenditures for Garrett alone as exceeding $4,000 per year, a figure that other middle-class families also report."

It shows that children from families in the top 20 percent of the income distribution already outscore children from the bottom 20 percent by 106 points in early literacy. This difference is nearly twice the size of the gap between the average reading skills of white and both black and Hispanic children at that age, and nearly equal to the amount that the typical child learns during kindergarten. Moreover, the reading gap was even larger when the same children were tested in fifth grade. Gaps in mathematics achievement are also substantial