This text offers a scholarly, in-depth analysis of urban education that provides insights into its current failures while suggesting policies and practices to make it more effective in the future. Payne . . . questions conventional attitudes and approaches to urban education. . . . This well-written text contains extensive footnotes, references, and an index. It compares favorably with quality studies concerned with the problems confronting urban education. Highly recommended for the general public and students at the community college and lower- and upper-division undergraduate levels. Choice Payne's review of the literature is thoroughly documented, his research painstakingly carried out, and his theories are stated lucidly. An important book for those involved with the struggle for educational equality. Library Journal