Despite the Best Intentions

About this book

On the surface, Riverview High School looks like the post-racial ideal. Serving an enviably affluent and diverse district, the school is well-funded, its teachers are well-trained, and many of its students are high-achieving. Yet Riverview has not escaped the same question that plagues schools throughout America: why is it that even when all of the circumstances seem right, black and Latina/o students continue to lag behind their peers? The authors present their study of how the racial achievement gap continues to afflict American schools more than fifty years after the formal dismantling of segregation. Their book addresses both the knotty problem of academic disparities and the larger question of the color line in American society.