Nestled in neighborhoods of varying degrees of affluence, suburban public schools are typically better resourced than their inner-city peers and known for their extracurricular offerings and college preparatory programs. Despite the glowing opportunities that many families associate with suburban schooling, accessing a district's resources is not always straightforward, particularly for black and poorer families. Moving beyond class- and race-based explanations, Inequality in the Promised Land focuses on the everyday interactions between parents, students, teachers, and school administrators in order to understand why resources seldom trickle down to a district's racial and economic minorities. Rolling Acres Public Schools (RAPS) is one of the many well-appointed suburban school districts across the United States that has become increasingly racially and economically diverse over the last forty years. Expanding on Charles Tilly's model of relational analysis and drawing on 100 in-depth interviews as well participant observation and archival research, R. L'Heureux Lewis-McCoy examines the pathways of resources in RAPS. He discovers that-due to structural factors, social and class positions, and past experiences-resources are not valued equally among families and, even when deemed valuable, financial factors and issues of opportunity hoarding often prevent certain RAPS families from accessing that resource. In addition to its fresh and incisive insights into educational inequality, this groundbreaking book also presents valuable policy-orientated solutions for administrators, teachers, activists, and politicians.
"A major contribution of Lewis-McCoy's book is that it helps reveal not only how schools shape families' participation, but also how they determine the outcome of parent engagement . . . The book is a welcome addition to current scholarship on suburban schooling and racial inequality and will be an appreciated and engaging resource for researchers, parents, and policy makers."
American Journal of Sociology
"In this important new book, Lewis-McCoy reminds us that as America's suburbs have become increasingly diverse, the challenge of providing all children with access to a high quality education has not gone away. Through his nuanced analysis of one community and its schools he shows us why even in these affluent enclaves race and class disparities in academic outcomes persist, and resentments over f
New York University
"As Lewis-McCoy digs into Rolling Acres [...], it seems less and less a promised land. Despite all of its ostensible advantages, the district and its broader community reveal how much inequality exists under the surface . . . Lewis-McCoy does us a great service in tackling his difficult and complicated task. More to his credit, he succeeds, to a considerable extent, in making this more subtle and
