Schools Betrayed

Inner-city schools suffered from far fewer problems a century ago, when black children in most northern cities attended school alongside white children. In "Schools Betrayed", Kathryn M. Neckerman tells the story of how and why these schools came to serve black children so poorly. Focusing on Chicago public schools between 1900 and 1960, Neckerman compares the circumstances of blacks and white immigrants, groups that had similarly little wealth and status yet ended up with vastly different educational outcomes. That difference, she argues, stemmed from officials' decision to deal with rising African American migration by segregating schools and denying black students equal resources - and it deepened because of techniques for managing failure that only reinforced inequality.