Chicano school failure can be fully understood only when analyzed in the broadest political, economic, and cultural contexts. Objective economic and political conditions dynamically interrelate with schooling experiences to influence incidences of school success and failure. Any serious effort to reduce Chicano school failure must address the convoluted path to success in a credential society. In this chapter, Hispanic educational and economic conditions (educational attainment, college enrollment, employment, and income) are detailed prior to analysis of strategies to reduce Chicano school failure. Two strategies, compensatory education and the effective school movement, emerged in the past two decades. Neither demands change in the existing political economy, and both, by accepting a social system that tolerates enormous inequality, have as their ultimate goal the equalization of inequality. While compensatory education failed due to its focus on purported individual and cultural deficits, effective schools have some promising features. Effective schools provided evidence that Chicanos can master college preparatory subjects, but it is unclear how such success will affect Chicano advancement in the political economy. The long-term goals of democratic education, on the other hand, are much more ambitious. Democratic education relies on informed student debate and reflection to empower students and prepare them to be fully participating members of society and to take responsibility for society though social action. Research is needed on democratic schooling and its potential for Chicanos and other victims of social bias and discrimination. A final section examines the relationships among research findings, the political acceptability of those findings, and educational policy formation. Contains 77 references. (SV)