More than five decades after Brown v. Board of Education and four decades after the Civil Rights era, racial prejudice remains a national problem cutting across social class and culture. Although schools may seem ideal places to teach children about tolerance and harmony, there is little consensus on how to best reduce negative sentiments and behaviors toward peers of different racial or ethnic backgrounds. To understand the modest gains made by various prejudice reduction programs (each relying on different theoretical assumptions), we first review what psychologists have learned about the environmental conditions affecting prejudice, the social-cognitive constraints supporting prejudice, and the multiple manifestations of prejudice among children since this issue gained national attention via the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. We then apply these lessons learned to analyze the effectiveness and promise of three approaches: multicultural curricula, cooperative learning techniques, and anti-bias/social-cognitive skills training. In conclusion, recommendations are made about age- and context-appropriate methods to reduce prejudice in schools and future topics to address in basic research. (Contains 3 tables.) [Commentaries from Bernadette M. Hickman-Maynard, Robert L. Selman and Clark McKown are included. Commentaries are individually referenced.]