This book aims to unveil some of the intricacies and paradoxes in the links among education, poverty, and inequality in the Americas by offering a current account of the status of educational opportunities for low-income groups. The goal is to offer various frameworks to conceptualize the dynamics of educational inequality at the micro-level and to discuss, based on empirical evidence, the short- and long-term impact of various policy efforts aimed at expanding the learning opportunities of poor children. The book covers Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and the United States, with two chapters on Latin America as a region. Analyses frequently point out the particular disadvantagement of rural and indigenous children. Chapters are: (1) "What Can We Learn from Studying Educational Opportunity in the Americas and Why Should We Care?" (Fernando Reimers); (2) "Perspectives in the Study of Educational Opportunity" (Fernando Reimers); (3) "Excellence, Equity, and Diversity in Education" (Charles V. Willie); (4) "Educational Opportunity and Policy in Latin America" (Fernando Reimers); (5) "Educating the Poor in Latin America and the Caribbean: Examples of Compensatory Education" (Donald Winkler); (6) "Can Education Measure Up to Poverty in Argentina?" (Ines Aguerrondo); (7) "Educational Policies and Equity in Chile" (Juan Eduardo Garcia-Huidobro); (8) "Education and Poverty in Chile: Affirmative Action in the 1990s" (Ernesto Schiefelbein, Paulina Schiefelbein); (9) "Equity and Education in Colombia" (Alfredo Sarmiento Gomez); (10) "Poverty and Education in Mexico, 1984-1996" (Teresa Bracho); (11) "The Schooling Situation of Children in Highly Underprivileged Rural Localities in Mexico" (Patricia E. Muniz); (12) "Education and Indian Peoples in Mexico: An Example of Policy Failure" (Sylvia Schmelkes); (13) "Function and Evaluation of a Compensatory Program Directed at the Poorest Mexican States: Chiapas, Guerrero, Hidalgo, and Oaxaca" (Carlos Munoz Izquierdo, Raquel Ahuja Sanchez); (14) "Education and Poverty in Peru" (Kin Bing Wu, Patricia Arregui, Pete Goldschmidt, Arturo Miranda, Suhas Parandekar, Jaime Saavedra, Juan Pablo Silva); (15) "Policy and Equity: Lessons of a Third of a Century of Educational Reforms in the United States" (Gary Orfield); and (16) "Conclusions: Can Our Knowledge Change What Low-Income Children Learn?" (Fernando Reimers). Thirteen chapters are followed by short commentary, written by Carlos Munoz Izquierdo, Teresa Bracho, Jorge Padua, Terrence Tivnan, Noel McGinn, Lewis A. Tyler, Emily Hannum, Suzanne Grant Lewis, John H. Coatsworth, Richard Murnane, and Sylvia Schmelkes. (Contains references in each chapter and an index.) (SV)