Discussing ideologically opposing views of beginning reading, the authors trace the politics of reading curriculum in two racially diverse New Jersey school districts working to raise the literacy achievement of traditionally underserved students through socially just literacy education.

By infusing social justice themes into social studies lessons and creating interdisciplinary units, educators not only changed the curriculum, but also created a school-wide culture of understanding and valuing human rights.

Out-of-school, community demographic and family-level variables have an important influence on student achievement as measured by large-scale standardized tests. Studies described here demonstrated that about half of the test score is accounted for by variables outside the control of teachers and school administrators. The results from these…