Rejecting the view that racial differences in educational achievement are a product of innate or cultural differences, Darby and Rury uncover the historical interplay between ideas about race and American schooling, to show clearly that the racial achievement gap has been socially and institutionally constructed.

Derrick Darby is professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Rights, Race, and Recognition, and coeditor, with Tommie Shelby, of Hip Hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason. John L. Rury is professor of education and, by courtesy, history and African and African American Studies at the University of Kansas. His other books include Education and Social Change, The African American Struggle for Secondary Schooling with Shirley A. Hill, and Education and Women's Work.