Beth Blue Swadener is Associate Professor of Education, Kent State University. Beth Blue Swadener is Associate Professor of Education, Kent State University.

• Foreword Christine E. SleeterThe Social Construction of Children and Families "at Risk": An Introduction Beth Blue Swadener and Sally LubeckI Deconstructing the "at Risk" Label 1. Children and Families "at Promise":Deconstructing the Discourse of Risk Beth Blue Swadener2. Mothers at Risk Sally Lubeck3. The Politics of Who's "at Risk" Michelle FineII Children and Families at Promise 4. Voice Unaltered: Marginalized Young Writers Speak Elizabeth Quintero and Mary Kay Rummel5. "Motherwit": Childrearing Lessons from African American Mothers of Low Income Donelda A. Cook and Michelle Fine6. Exploding the Myths: African American Families at Promise Mary Smith Arnold7. Native Americans at Promise: Travel in Borderlands Carolyne J. WhiteIII Reconstructing Classrooms and Community Contexts 8. Learning in and out of School: Critical Perspectives on the Theory of Cultural Compatibility B. Robert Tabachnick and Marianne N. Bloch9. Creating a Classroom Culture of Promise: Lessons from a First Grade Mary E. Hauser and Cynthia Thompson10. Student Success: A Matter of Compatibility and Expectations Joyce S. Waldoch11. Advocating for Aric: Strategies for Full Inclusion Lisa Leifield and Tina MurrayEpilogue Naming and Blaming: Beyond a Pedagogy of the PoorValerie PolakowContributors Index

"In Children and Families 'At Promise': Deconstructing the Discourse of Risk we see how deconstructing the at risk label is inextricably linked to a critical analysis of pervasive poverty and exclusionary and discriminatory educational practices within our society. Many myths have been decoded in these chapters. The 'at promise' narratives present a countertext of possiblility and action. It is clear, in reading the accounts of successful classrooms in this book, that when classrooms do become landscapes of promise, they offer children a place where their selfhood matters, where they do find acceptance and possibility, and where they can become meaningmakers within their lifeworld of school." — from the Epilogue by Valerie Polakow, author of Lives on the Edge: Single Mothers and Their Children in the Other America