Education has been increasingly lauded as the path to achieving the American Dream, and in this book Martin Sanchez-Jankowski uses extensive ethnographic research to explore the dynamics of the interrelated obstacles that low-income students must surpass in order to make transitions successfully from high school to college. With compassion and rigor, and engaging in participant observation to examine how individuals navigate the education system, Potholes in the Road shows how the roadblocks of social capital, wealth, and culture make achieving the American Dream through education nearly impossible.