What do you think?
Rate this book
Opportunity Lost: Race and Poverty in the Memphis City Schools
In Opportunity Lost, Marcus D. Pohlmann examines the troubling issue of why Memphis city school students are underperforming at alarming rates. His provocative interdisciplinary analysis, combining both history and social science, examines the events before and after desegregation, compares a city school to an affluent suburban school to pinpoint imbalances, and offers critical assessments of various educational reforms.
Employing a rich trove of data to demonstrate the realities of racial and economic inequality, Pohlmann underscores the difficulties that plague the urban schools and their students-problems that persist despite the fact that the city schools often have more resource advantages than the county better student-to-teacher ratios, more teachers with advanced degrees, and even greater spending on each student. Pohlmann demonstrates that post-industrial economic shifts and continuing racial exclusion have resulted in a predominance of low-income students at these schools. This economic disadvantage has had a lasting impact on performance among students at all grade levels and has not been reversed simply by increasing resources.
In addition to his analysis of the problems, Pohlmann lays out educational reforms that run the gamut from early intervention and parental involvement to increasing class size and teacher compensation, improving time utilization, and more. Pohlmann's illuminating and original study has wide application for a problem that bedevils inner-city children everywhere and prevents the promise of equality from reaching all of our nation's citizens.
Marcus D. Pohlmann is professor of political science at Rhodes College. He is the author of Governing the Postindustrial City; coauthor, with Michael P. Kirby, of Racial Politics at the Memphis Elects W. W. Herenton; and editor of the six-volume African American Political Thought.
Employing a rich trove of data to demonstrate the realities of racial and economic inequality, Pohlmann underscores the difficulties that plague the urban schools and their students-problems that persist despite the fact that the city schools often have more resource advantages than the county better student-to-teacher ratios, more teachers with advanced degrees, and even greater spending on each student. Pohlmann demonstrates that post-industrial economic shifts and continuing racial exclusion have resulted in a predominance of low-income students at these schools. This economic disadvantage has had a lasting impact on performance among students at all grade levels and has not been reversed simply by increasing resources.
In addition to his analysis of the problems, Pohlmann lays out educational reforms that run the gamut from early intervention and parental involvement to increasing class size and teacher compensation, improving time utilization, and more. Pohlmann's illuminating and original study has wide application for a problem that bedevils inner-city children everywhere and prevents the promise of equality from reaching all of our nation's citizens.
Marcus D. Pohlmann is professor of political science at Rhodes College. He is the author of Governing the Postindustrial City; coauthor, with Michael P. Kirby, of Racial Politics at the Memphis Elects W. W. Herenton; and editor of the six-volume African American Political Thought.
- GenresEducation
280 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
41 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 2, 2026
Snow week read. Would recommend for anyone involved in the current landscape of public ed in Memphis.
I had a lot of takeaways from the book, but probably the biggest was how he discusses that kids from urban areas come to Kindergarten with a two-year disadvantage academically compared to suburban kiddos. Not to mention, teachers are more likely to have advanced degrees who teach in Memphis city limits!
Policymakers continue to hone in on the control of teachers and state testing, but many kids in urban school districts come to school with so many needs starting in K it’s basically impossible for teachers to get kids where they need to be in one school year.
With that being said, I think it’s simple to see that adequate pre-K funding is a good first step to help cut the current “achievement gap.” But also, we need things like increased support for caregiver involvement and support for teacher development / compensation instead of “test, test, test!” It’s also crazy to me some of these simple fixes have been in front of us for quite some time. Could go on! Highly recommend.
I had a lot of takeaways from the book, but probably the biggest was how he discusses that kids from urban areas come to Kindergarten with a two-year disadvantage academically compared to suburban kiddos. Not to mention, teachers are more likely to have advanced degrees who teach in Memphis city limits!
Policymakers continue to hone in on the control of teachers and state testing, but many kids in urban school districts come to school with so many needs starting in K it’s basically impossible for teachers to get kids where they need to be in one school year.
With that being said, I think it’s simple to see that adequate pre-K funding is a good first step to help cut the current “achievement gap.” But also, we need things like increased support for caregiver involvement and support for teacher development / compensation instead of “test, test, test!” It’s also crazy to me some of these simple fixes have been in front of us for quite some time. Could go on! Highly recommend.
February 12, 2011
I read this book to try to understand the current state of education in Memphis right now. If you haven't heard about the debate over school consolidation in Memphis and Shelby County, you probably will soon because I have a feeling it's going to hit the national news any day now. And it's not going to look good.
This book does a wonderful job outlining the history of race and poverty as they relate to public education in Memphis and Shelby County. The first section deals with general information about the state of public education in the US. Next comes the history of Memphis, the history of the Memphis City Schools, and the history of school desegregation. Finally, Pohlmann studies what reforms will work for educating the urban poor. This is a fascinating book for anyone living in the Memphis area, or anyone interested in education, or anyone interested in civil rights.
This book does a wonderful job outlining the history of race and poverty as they relate to public education in Memphis and Shelby County. The first section deals with general information about the state of public education in the US. Next comes the history of Memphis, the history of the Memphis City Schools, and the history of school desegregation. Finally, Pohlmann studies what reforms will work for educating the urban poor. This is a fascinating book for anyone living in the Memphis area, or anyone interested in education, or anyone interested in civil rights.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews