SAT Bronx: A Collaborative Inquiry Into the Insider Knowledge of Urban Youth

Working with 14 high school students and two teachers from the Bronx, New York, in 2006–2007, the author facilitated a year-long conversation about matters of deep concern to the students' lives and learning, both in and out of school. Their discussions resulted in a short book, which took the form of a standardized test they called SAT Bronx. Using students' words and experiences as test passages, its multiple-choice questions attempted to shake up the perspectives of outsiders looking at the culture of minority youth in urban schools, so they might question in new ways what they know about students so unlike themselves. This article discusses the process of creating this book, describing its effects on those involved as well as their evolving stances on what they know and how they demonstrate it.