This book for young readers explores ethnic conflict in the schools. Public schools in the United States are among some of the places where members of a country's different ethnic and racial groups are brought together and required to work together more closely. A racial group is a group of people who share certain physical traits and often share a common history and culture. An ethnic group is one whose members are bound together by a shared history, culture, nationality, or religion. The United States has a long history of tensions between racial and ethnic groups, exacerbated by refusal to accept difference, whether of skin color or of language. Racial and ethnic conflict is becoming more common in schools. The largest causes are prejudice based on negative ideas about the group and distrust based on differences. Economic factors, politics, and lack of education also contribute. Avoiding and resolving conflict in the schools is difficult, but not impossible. Many tested techniques are available, and, as two urban case studies demonstrate, progress can be made. A glossary and a list of nine sources for further reading are included. (SLD)