ABSTRACT
The chapters by Linda Skrla and James Joseph Scheurich, Edward Fuller and Joseph Johnson, and James Koschoreck in this part of this volume report on urban schools using social justice principles to enact meaningful reforms for African-American and Latino/Latina students through the use of state testing policy in Texas. The chapters offer readers a detailed analysis of teacher/ administrator/community-led, pro-active policy initiatives in the contested political terrain of high stakes educational assessment accountability. The authors review the key findings of assessment measures and their deleterious impact on African-American and Latino/Latina children, as well as various efforts by schools and school districts in Texas to use the TAAS assessment requirements as an opportunity to raise the level of care about the academic welfare of African-American and Latino/Latina children in particular urban districts in Texas. This is very similar to efforts going on in other states like California and how some school districts have reacted to statewide assessment mandates with increased efforts to focus on the technical core of curriculum and instruction in mathematics (Cohen & Hill, 2000). The authors also do justice in discussing and showing overall support for the main points of the race-culture based movements to challenge the power of these tests and the state education agency to define minority education.
