Urban School Achievement Gap as a Metaphor to Conceal U.S. Apartheid Education

Abstract

This article uses the metaphor of the achievement gap to make transparent, discuss, and critique the analytical frame/lens used in the articles to analyze urban education. Doing such an analysis is essential to producing an additional lens that has utility in theory and practice. It facilitates a historical analysis of urban education and leads to creating an argument for the new frame in advancing future work in urban education. This will not represent a response to the articles in the issue, but will advance possible alternative analytical frames, scholarly possibilities, and practical approaches to a new generation of urban educators (scholars, school educators, youth, and community members) who utilize the multiple voices, axes of analyses, and perspectives as a tool of urban education thinking, practice, and improvement.

Acknowledgments

Beverly E. Cross is Moss Chair of Excellence in Urban Education, University of Memphis.