ABSTRACT
As a center for education ‘reform’ in the United States, Chicago sheds light on state apparatuses seeking to end public education and replace it with market-driven ventures, largely by way of public–private partnerships. Critical to this process is the idea of ‘choice’ which has come to operate as a political device providing the illusion that students, parents, and families have options leading to educational improvement. The residual effects of the convergence of Renaissance 2010 and the Plan for Transformation have been devastating for a growing number of African-American and Latino/a communities in Chicago. CRT is traditionally rooted in counterstories or accounts based on the experiential knowledge of the racially oppressed. Ultimately, the intent is for those who share counterstories to begin to interrogate the underpinnings of policies that are purported as beneficial to the academic achievement of urban youth of color from low-income and working-class communities, particularly when those policies have the opposite effect.
