ABSTRACT
The changing demographic texture of the United States has resulted in unprecedented diversity in schools. In particular, urban schools and communities have witnessed these shifts for some time. As a country that has celebrated in theory its diversity, the United States has seen its urban communities often serve as the hallmark of the ethnic, socioeconomic, racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity that the United States purports makes it unique. The paradox in this current state of affairs is that while urban schools and communities have witnessed the type of diversity that the United States supposedly cherishes, the manner in which children in urban schools have been served has been far from ideal (Delpit, 2012; Howard, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2006). In fact, although one might argue that schools in U.S. society are diverse, a closer examination of racial and ethnic trends in urban schools demonstrates less diversity as many schools are resegregating (Boger & Orfi eld, 2005). A perusal of the professional literature would reveal that low-income, and children of color (namely African American and Latino American-the populations most present in urban schools) perform far below their high-income and White peers on standardized tests (Barton & Coley, 2010; Chubb & Loveless, 2002; Jencks & Phillips, 1998; Pino & Smith, 2004).
