This study explores smartness as a cultural construct rather than a biological capacity. The cultural construction of smartness has broad consequences related to teacher expectations, student academic identity development, and schooling inequities. This study is based on a 1-year ethnography in a kindergarten classroom, and the author investigates smartness by first historicizing the concept of intelligence and then using the theoretical framework of figured worlds. Through the teachers' disciplinary and pedagogical practices, students were taught and learned not just whether they were smart themselves, but how other student identities were constructed according to smartness as well. Analysis suggests smartness was used as a mechanism of control and social positioning along racial and class lines. Implications are discussed related to schooling practices and policy.

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The US has one of the most inequitably funded school systems and the largest prison population in the industrialized world. These two factors help to construct what is known as the school to prison pipeline. The past 30 years has included punitive policies within schools and the criminal justice system that have resulted in a disproportionate number of Latino and African-American youth being suspended from school, dropping out, and/or incarcerated. In this article, the lived experiences of incarcerated youth framed by institutional policies within prisons and schools are discussed. In total, fifteen interviews with incarcerated youth who spontaneously discussed drug trafficking were analyzed using criminological theory. A key theme for many youth was how a lack of educational opportunity and success shifted their focus to attaining economic opportunities through drug trafficking. Policy implications are discussed relating to school and corrections funding along with the costs to society.Keywords Drug trafficking Á School-to-prison pipeline Á Discipline Á Urban When you're 14 and you're making $4,000-5,000 in 2 days, school doesn't seem as important…I felt like as long as I had money I was safe-meaning I could do anything I wanted. It made me proud of myself.-Darren, incarcerated youth.When I interviewed Darren, from the quote above, his statement initially shocked me but over time I began to hear similar sentiments from other incarcerated youththat school had not provided them something meaningful, not even hope for a better future. Instead, many of the youth expressed finding hope and meaning through B. Hatt (

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