"Yeo's ethnographic study is a refreshing authoritative look by an urban school teacher of how African American inner-city youth negotiate daily the harmful and marginalizing effects of official school culture." -- Stepehen Haymes, DePaul University

• Special Features,*oProvides concrete examples of teacher-student interaction in and out of the classroom ,*Chronicles the author's difficult beginnings and how he learns to teach and empathize with the lives of his students ,*Critiques economics, public policy and teacher education in relation to urban school failure ,Contents ,*Introduction ,*Connecting Inner Cities and Urban Schools: Racism's Slippery Slope ,*When and Where They Enter: Going to School in Urban America ,*Teaching in an Urban School: A Personal Narrative ,*Multicultural Education: Maintaining the Borders in Inner-City Schools ,*A Vested Interest in Failure: Teacher Preparation and Inner-City Schools ,*The Search for New Connections ,*Appendix, Bibliography, Index ,Courses for Adoption Anthropology of Education ,*Sociology of Education ,*Politics of Education ,*Urban Education ,*Middle School Education ,*Curriculum and Administration ,*Discipline and Classroom Management ,*Educational Psychology ,Indexes. Appendix. Bibliography.