Through the conceptual use of systems analysis, systems which impinge upon current urban education are discussed in this paper. Examples are offered of subsystem changes within education and ways these changes affect the results of the educational system. Relationships between urban education and the United States social and economic systems are stressed in terms of the education of blacks and minority groups. Decisions taken in the crisis provoking atmosphere of the civil rights movement are cited as examples of education's response to its social mission. Errors resulting from this response are mentioned. Within the economic system, a number of subsystems are shown to play crucial roles in urban and minority education. These include the publishing system and the business generated by the demand for textbooks and materials appropriate to new educational approaches, the system of Federal and State funded programs, and the standardized testing procedure system. In all of these cases it is asserted that the subsystems, because they possess such a capacity for employment of persons and/or generation of income, manipulate education, rather than the reverse. It is also shown that the testing system contributes to the current role of urban education, that is, a legitimization of the social and economic status quo. Academic failure of black children under this system is discussed to illustrate this problem. (GC)