Four years after publishing her provocative study, Reading Families: The Literate Lives of Urban Children, Compton-Lilly revisits the same group of urban students (then first graders, now fourth and fifth graders) and their families. Armed with rare longitudinal data from follow-up interviews and reading assessments, she once again upsets widespread misconceptions about reading and urban families. This eye-opening sequel uses case studies to explore important issues, such as students’ feelings of connection to their school; gender and schooling; parents’ experiences dealing with “the system”; high-stakes testing; and technology use at home.


Building on past insights, this book:




Uses an innovative approach to educational research to explore why urban students often have difficulty becoming proficient readers.
Employs case studies to support a new construct called “reading capital.”
Offers important recommendations for teaching in diverse communities.
Models longitudinal qualitative research, describing the critical role it plays in studying a child’s experiences with school.

Series edited by: Susan L. Lytle, Marilyn Cochran-Smith