Julian Vasquez Heilig, an award-winning researcher and teacher, is an associate professor of educational policy and planning and African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also a faculty affiliate in the Center for Mexican American Studies and the John Warfield Center for African and African American Studies. His current research includes quantitatively examining how high-stakes testing and accountability-based reforms and incentive systems affect urban minority students. Additionally, his qualitative work considers the mechanisms by which student achievement and progress occur in relation to specific NCLB-inspired accountability policies in districts and schools for students of different kinds. Vasquez Heilig’s work has appeared in such journals as Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Teachers College Record, and Journal of Educational Administration.

Keffrelyn D. Brown is an associate professor of cultural studies in education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is also an affiliated faculty member in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies and the John Warfield Center for African and African American Studies and the Center for Women and Gender Studies. Brown is a former classroom teacher, school administrator, and curriculum consultant/writer whose scholarly work examines how sociocultural knowledge operates in the work of teachers, curriculum, and popular culture. Her work has been published in Teachers College Record, Teaching and Teacher Education, Race Ethnicity and Education, and Equity and Excellence in Education.

Anthony L. Brown is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also an affiliated faculty member in the John Warfield Center for African and African American Studies and the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies. Brown is a former classroom teacher and school administrator whose scholarly work explores theoretical, curricular, historical, and empirical questions concerning race and the education of African Americans. His work has been published in Teachers College Record, Equity and Excellence in Education, Teaching Education, and Race Ethnicity and Education.