Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America's Classrooms

Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America's Classrooms Written by Tyrone C. Howard Teachers College Press, 2010, 208 pp., ISBN 978-0-8077- 5071-1

Tyrone Howard's book, Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in America's Classrooms challenges us to think about the importance of the sociocultural dimensions of human life as they relate to academic achievement. Howard targets the needs of students from under-resourced communities, arguing that formal education devoid of a rich cultural context can easily miss the mark and fail to fully manifest learning opportunities. Indeed, as the title of this book announces, race and culture matter in schools.

In this well-researched volume, Howard, an education scholar in urban schooling and multicultural education, foregrounds a series of important questions about student need and school efficacy. What socio-structural dynamics buttress the dominant ideology about what types of students can achieve in American schools? Of what significance are the shifting...