This work investigates the persistent and systemic nature of racial and economic segregation within the American public school system. Paul Street, a researcher and social critic, utilizes historical data and contemporary educational statistics to argue that the promise of desegregation remains largely unfulfilled. The text provides a critical framework for understanding how institutional policies and socioeconomic disparities continue to reinforce unequal learning environments for marginalized student populations.

Experts and educators frequently cite this text as a critical examination of the structural barriers within the American educational landscape. Readers often note the analytical density of the prose and the author's uncompromising focus on the intersection of race and class in public policy.