High-stake reforms and urban education

The United States has exhibited long-standing achievement gaps between Whites and Latina/os, African Americans, and Native Americans in urban schools. These gaps are not coincidence. Whether it was Plessyv. Ferguson 1 (1896) or Arizona’s House Bill 2281 (2010), 2 a long history of legislative, executive, and judicial enactments have relegated many students of color to the periphery of society. Despite an interest in educating students of color spurred by the Civil Rights Movement, they still constitute a large sector of urban students vulnerable to poor school performance, as many of these youth continue to receive uneven instruction (Vasquez Heilig, Cole, & Springel, 2011). As a result, a signifi cant number of urban students of color exhibit low academic achievement, poor performance on standardized exams, low graduation rates, and high dropout rates (Vasquez Heilig & Darling-Hammond, 2008).