Based on empirically based ethnographic and sociological research in schools and communities in St Louis (which operated the nation's largest voluntary desegregation plan) and Atlanta (a city that abandoned its desegregation plan in the 1970s), this book captures the experiences of African American families from a community in St Louis.

These are turbulent times. We live in a climate of vigorous testing and memorization, so how can we both engage and challenge our children to learn and become thinking citizens in our society? In her invaluable new book, Selma Wassermann takes a step forward from Louis Raths seminal work and gives us some truly helpful answers to this modern dilemma. Using new data from her extensive field work, Wassermann (a co-author of Teaching for Thinking, Second Edition) provides a wealth of innovative classroom strategies that will enable and empower students to grasp the big ideas across virtually all curriculum areas and apply this knowledge to problem solving.