Achieving Equal Educational Opportunity for Students of Color

Valencia presents the most comprehensive, theory-based analysis to date on how society and schools are structurally organized and maintained to impede the optimal academic achievement of low-SES, marginalized K-12 Black and Latino/Latina students--compared to their privileged White counterparts. The book interrogates how society contributes to educational inequality as seen in racialized patterns in income, wealth, housing, and health, and how public schools create significant obstacles for students of color as observed in reduced access to opportunities (e.g., little access to high-status curricula knowledge). Valencia offers suggestions for achieving equal education (e.g., implementing fairness of school funding, improving teacher quality, and providing students of color access to multicultural education) by disrupting structural racism. Considering the rapid aging of the White population and the sharp decline of White youth--coupled with the explosive growth in people of color--this book argues that the "American Imperative" must be to assiduously mount an effort to provide an excellent education for students of color, who the nation will depend on for a sizable proportion of its work force.

Book Features:

• Examines how society and schools are failing Black and Latino/Latina students, principally Mexican Americans who are by far the largest Latino/Latina group.
• Uses theoretical frameworks that draw from analysis of structural inequality, critical race theory, anti-deficit thinking narratives, class-by-race covariation, and an asset-based perspective of students of color.
• Discusses the "American Imperative" and the personal and economic consequences of not investing in students of color.

Richard R. Valencia is professor emeritus of educational psychology at The University of Texas at Austin.