Our Schools Suck: Students Talk Back to a Segregated Nation on the Failures of Urban Education

Shares the voices of students speaking out against the failures of urban education

Our schools suck. This is how many young people of color call attention to the kind of public education they are receiving. In cities across the nation, many students are trapped in under-funded, mismanaged and unsafe schools. Yet, a number of scholars and of public figures have shifted attention away from the persistence of school segregation to lambaste the values of young people themselves. Our Schools Suck forcefully challenges this assertion by giving voice to the compelling stories of African American and Latino students who attend under-resourced inner-city schools, where guidance counselors and AP classes are limited and security guards and metal detectors are plentiful--and grow disheartened by a public conversation that continually casts them as the problem with urban schools.

By showing that young people are deeply committed to education but often critical of the kind of education they are receiving, this book highlights the dishonesty of public claims that they do not value education. Ultimately, these powerful student voices remind us of the ways we have shirked our public responsibility to create excellent schools. True school reform requires no less than a new civil rights movement, where adults join with young people to ensure an equal education for each and every student.

Author: Jeanne Theoharis, Gaston Alonso, Noel S. Anderson
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 05/01/2009
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.92lbs
Size: 8.88h x 6.10w x 0.73d
ISBN: 9780814783085

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 06/12/2009 pg. 20
Multicultural Review 08/01/2010 pg. 53

About the Author

Jeanne Theoharis is Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College, City University of New York and co-editor (with Komozi Woodard) of Groundwork: Local Black Freedom Movements (NYU Press).