After spending much of your career in California, you are now teaching at the University of Texas. What's inspiring about Texas is that they don't have the history of educational reform that California does. Texas is about a generation behind, and it is fantastic being able to mobilize a lot of people. It is very exciting not only because of the social justice concerns but because we really have no choice. We must do better.
Schools make many mistakes.
One is the reliance on pull out programs that effectively track students. Equally dangerous are programs that create a focus on ethnic separatism. It is one thing to identify differences but another to celebrate commonalties. We need to look at multiculturalism as a reality, rather than a goal. What we have in common is far greater than what separates us.