Anyon's work examines the intersections of race, social class, education policy, and the economy. In the 1970s and early 1980s, she, along with others, laid the foundation for the field of critical educational studies. Her early articles on social reproduction, social class and the hidden curriculum and her now classic 1997 book, "Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform", were groundbreaking and changed the way a generation of educational scholars viewed the relationship between urban schools and communities. Her later work made important contributions to social and educational theory and provided a powerful illustration of the need to connect urban school reform to social and economic policy and grassroots, community-based movements.