"According to Caldas and Bankston, efforts to enhance racial mixing in schools have been self-defeating. They contend that the premise of desegregation was that schools could redesign American society; however, they believe this clashed with the goals of parents who were concerned only with benefiting their own children….In their new book, the authors look at a wide range of secondary sources to conclude that school people in the US face a paradox. While minority youth might profit from attending middle-class schools, middle-class parents abandon schools that must desegregate. Since the authors believe that racial desegregation exacerbates the problems schools and communities face, they favor strengthening neighborhood schools….Recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduates through faculty."
– Choice

"This timely book offers a critical look at school desegregation, guiding readers toward a better understanding of how race, class, and social networks influence educational outcomes. Caldas and Bankston envision an alternative, more realistic, approach to providing equal access to educational opportunities."
(Min Zhou, Professor and Inaugural Chair, Department of Asian American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles)