Designed to complement the dominant discourse of school reform by presenting a compendium of critical pedagogical writings that analyze the issues in urban education and demonstrate alternative praxis for failing schools, this book employs a critical pedagogy and praxis in calling for wholesale changes within our urban schools.

Contents: Christopher Knaus: Developing Urban Youth Voice: A Framework for Culturally Responsive Classrooms – Greg S. Goodman: Students’ Stories: Bear & Antoine – Christopher Knaus: You Are the Ones Who Need to Hear Us: The Role of Urban Youth Voice in a Democracy – Alfred W. DeFreece, Jr.: Where Do We Go from . . . Where? Identifying the Ideological Bases of Low-Income, Urban Black Adolescents’ Views on Racism – Chance W. Lewis/Terah Venzant Chambers/Bettie Ray Butler: Urban Education in the 21st Century: An Overview of Selected Issues That Impact African American Student Outcomes – Floyd D. Beachum/Carlos R. McCray: Through the Fire: How Pretext Impacts the Context of African American Educational Experiences – Floyd D. Beachum/Carlos R. McCray: Dealing with Cultural Collision: What Pre-Service Educators Should Know – Luis F. Mirón: How Do We Locate Resistance in Urban Schools? – Greg S. Goodman/Adriel A. Hilton: Urban Dropouts: Why Persist? – Susan Fuhrman: Urban Education Challenges: Is Reform the Answer? – Rochelle Brock: What Does «Good» Urban Teaching Look Like? – Christine Sleeter: The Quest for Social Justice in the Education of Minoritized Students – Ebony Elizabeth Thomas: The Next Chapter of Our Story: Rethinking African American Metanarratives in Schooling and Society – Julia Ellis/Susan Fitzsimmons/Jan Small-McGinley: Encouraging the Discouraged: Students’ Views for Elementary Classrooms – Jane Bean-Folkes: Schools of Hope: Teaching Literacy in the Obama Era – Rochelle Brock: A Pedagogy of Wholeness – Larry F. Forthun/Jeffrey W. McCombie/Caroline Payne: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Life Space Crisis intervention (LSCI) – Shanesha R. F. Brooks-Tatum: Transformative Educational Spaces: Black Youth and Education in the Twenty-First Century – Mary Hollowell/Donna Moye: Therapeutic Art, Poetry, and Personal Essay: Old and New Prescriptions.

«Rochelle Brock and Greg S. Goodman have done it again: addressing the most pressing issues facing us in education! School Sucks! is a must-read for all who care about changing education for the better!» (Karen T. Carey, CSU Channel Islands) «Never ones to acquiesce to the educational establishment, Drs. Brock and Goodman offer a thoughtful and poignant critique in their raw and authentic style as educators of the people! School Sucks! will inspire you to reconsider commonly held assumptions and to consider new alternatives for changing our schools!» (David Weber, Fresno Pacific University)