The authors explore the ways current curricula continue to frustrate parental and student goals in the classroom, focusing on three separate ethnographic studies of subjects from African American, Appalachian, and Latino backgrounds. The researchers determine that, despite the idiographic nature of their individual studies, many marginalized populations demonstrate overlapping concerns that continue to rest outside the primary foci of educational reform. Results indicate the need for a critical examination of curricular goals and relationship building between educators and families. Revised institutional-level aims should include building on parents' and students' funds of knowledge in an effort create more equitable classroom environments. Locating and dismantling perceived barriers to educational dialogue and opportunity are imperative if our goal is to include diverse cultural viewpoints in the educational process.