Data presented in a previously reported ethnographic research project indicated that an urban elementary school regularly subjects its students to dated curricular materials and supplies. As reported, this occurred even though the school had at its disposal updated and even state-of-the-art resources, such as computers, visual aids, curriculum and photocopying machines. The critical race analysis presented in this article demonstrates that these practices are expressions of allochronic discourses that ingrain racial oppression in US schools and society. This article considers the roles of narrative and ethnography as measures to explicate allochronic discourses that inform public education. It also considers what American post-industrialism and globalization mean for US public education and concludes with a discussion of the implications of critical race theory for contemporary urban school reform.