Society has moral and economic obligations to assist the urban poor to overcome adverse conditions. A national urban policy designed to ameliorate substandard conditions is recommended along with realistic policies and programs of effective schooling. The urban poor have a responsibility to accept and use the help offered to them. (Author/VM)

Data from seven large urban areas are examined to determine the relationship between neighborhoods with a high incidence of poverty and social disorganization and low reading achievement. (ST)

Reviews competing explanations for disproportionate rates of school failure among poor, minority students, advancing a culture-centered framework that locates the problem in the complex interaction between nonmainstream students and mainstream schools. Chronic school-based inequalities exacerbate existing differences between poor and middle class…

Conducted observations in urban and suburban schools, arguing that critical theorists should more closely examine differential structural constraints on pedagogical choice. Urban teachers made pedagogic choices that reinforced social hierarchies (partly to help students manage urban environmental risks). Changing the role of power in urban public…