Surmounting the Odds

Our new series will provide an annual volume that examines some of the critical issues impacting upon the education and schooling of African American youth, from pre- through post-secondary education. Our challenge will be, not only, the scholarly production of knowledge, but the transmission of that knowledge to wider audiences. In so doing, we intend to question traditional assumptions and to analyze some of the intended and unintended consequences of those assumptions. This series will not rely upon a single paradigm or discipline to render new understandings. A multi-disciplinary approach will be utilized. Thus, research written in the tradition of law, political science, history, sociology, education, economics, public health, and psychology, among others, will be a regular feature of this series. To be sure, internal factors, that is, what goes on inside the institutional frame called schools are of signal importance to the education of African Americans. However, so too are external factors, contributing variables that originate outside of the institutional frame, that serve to impede or advance African American schooling. In this series, we will stress the centrality of race and schooling and to comprehend from both analytic and policy perspectives, the situations that increase and decrease the life chances and opportunities for African American youth.