Teachers and other education professionals find themselves in schools and districts bombarded by reforms--each one purporting to improve student achievement, particularly in reading and mathematics. This article lays the political economic groundwork of student achievement in urban areas in an attempt to contextualize the studies of literacy in this issue of "Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties." As long as school reforms do not address the economic obstacles facing students from low-income families, significant, sustainable improvements in academic achievement in urban public schools and districts will remain beyond reach. However, financial and other social supports to low-income urban families can and do significantly increase the achievement of the children in those families. It is hoped that literacy reforms and other education reforms will take to heart the economic and social realities of schooling and act on them. (Contains 1 footnote.)