Introduction / Laurence Roulleau-Berger -- Youth experience, socialization and inequalities in France / Francois Dubet -- Racial isolation, poverty and the limits of local control as a means for holding public schools accountable / Pedro A. Noguera -- The paradox of ethnicity in French secondary schools / Jean-Paul Payet -- Qui s'instruit s'enrichit? Re-examining standards and barriers in education in Quebec / Madeleine Gauthier -- Baby boomers in transition: Life-course experiences of the 'class of '73' [in Canada] / Paul Anisef and Paul Axelrod -- Vocational integration and relationship to work among Quebec youths without high-school diplomas / Claude Trottier, Mircea Vultur and Madeleine Gauthier