Drawing on a rich ethnographic study conducted in first grade classrooms in the US, this book reveals the potentially invisible, yet significant ways that race and social class impact student success in the earliest years of their schooling.

Karen Phelan Kozlowski is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern Mississippi, USA.

1. Understanding Sociocultural Differences in Decoding Instruction & Demonstrating Knowledge 2. Unequal Skills: Decoding and Demonstrating Knowledge 3. Learning How to Decode and Demonstrate Knowledge from Parents 4. The Academic Hidden Curriculum: Learning How (Not) to Decode & Demonstrate Knowledge from Teachers 5. Unequal Rewards & Punishments for Demonstrating Knowledge 6. Unequal Skills & Punishments: Segregated Friendships & Concentrated (Dis)Advantage 7. Moving Forward as Theorists and Practitioners Appendix A. Research Methods