This book examines both the promises and complexities of racially and culturally diversifying todays teaching profession. Drawing from a 5-year study of the lives of 21 new teachers of color working in urban, hard-to-staff schools, this book documents the tensions these teachers experience between serving as role models and fulfilling district and state mandates.

Betty Achinstein is a researcher at the Center for Educational Research in the Interest of Underserved Students (CERIUS). Her recent books include: Mentors in the Making: Developing New Leaders for New Teachers and Community, Diversity, and Conflict Among Schoolteachers: The Ties that Blind. Rodney T. Ogawa is Professor of Education and Director of the Center for Educational Research in the Interest of Underserved Students (CERIUS) at the University of California, Santa Cruz.