This article describes how Alan Newton has put his life back together after he was set free. Before he came to Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, Newton spent 22 years locked up in 12 different New York state prisons for a crime he did not commit. His ordeal began when a White woman who had been raped in the Bronx mistakenly identified the…

Background/Context: Most narratives of Brown v. Board of Education primarily focus on integrated schooling as the ultimate objective in Black people's quest for quality schooling. Rather than uniformly assuming integration as Black people's ideological model, the push by Black people for quality schooling instead should be viewed within the…

The experiences of African American professors reach back nearly 150 years beginning with their pioneering efforts to educate Africans in Liberia. With the gradual racial integration of the American professoriate in the post-World War II era and the redoubled effort of the federal government and private agencies, along with the support of colleges…

"From the Courtroom to the Classroom" examines recent developments pertaining to school desegregation in the United States. As the editors note, it comes at a time marked by a "general downplaying of race and ethnicity as criteria for the allocation of public resources, as well as a weakening of the political forces that support…

"Charter Schools in Eight States" uses longitudinal data from eight states to evaluate the effects of charter schools on achievement, attainment, integration, and competition. The findings are mixed. "Achievement": The study examines seven jurisdictions and finds insignificant effects on reading and math performance in five,…

This study explored the state of desegregation and integration in South African schools 11 years after the demise of Apartheid. Three classrooms in three desegregating schools with different histories and race profiles were visited. Overall, each classroom was visited on 10 occasions over a period of 2 weeks. Direct observation was the main data…

Community building has been a key concern for a wide array of educational projects. Recently, educational theories concerned about social justice have begun to challenge assumptions about community in U.S. education by criticizing its tendencies toward assimilation and homogeneity. Such theories point out that a communitarian agenda excludes the…

A study draws on the case study of one suburban school district in U.S. to detail the structural, institutional, and symbolic inequalities that characterize such settings and contribute to educational inequality. It finds that even in supposedly integrated suburbs, African American and Caucasian students navigate a racialized educational terrain…

A number of public school districts in the United States have adopted income-based integration policies--policies that use measures of family income or socioeconomic status--in determining school assignment. Some scholars and policymakers contend that such policies will also reduce racial segregation. In this article this assumption is explored by…

This study examined 7-year follow-up data from the Yonkers Project, a study of a 1985 court-ordered neighborhood desegregation program in Yonkers, NY. Low-income Black and Latino families residing in impoverished neighborhoods who were randomly selected to relocate to publicly funded townhouses in middle-class communities and demographically…

William Galston posed two dilemmas about parental rights and education in "Liberal Purposes". The first of these arises from conflict between the proper ends of civic education in a liberal society and the values that some parents will want to honor in the way they rear their children; the second arises from conflict between how the basic…

While the academy has made real efforts at creating opportunities for people of color in the last several decades, real integration remains wanting. In the majority White, upper-class academy, people of color are often seen but not heard. Working from the experience of the author--a first generation Latino in higher education--this piece examines…

Race remains poorly understood and inadequately represented in library and information science (LIS) education. Educators tend to avoid the term "race," preferring the more inclusive "multiculturalism." Yet these terms are far from equivalent: the various dimensions of multiculturalism, including race, ethnicity, class, and gender, have different…

The U.S. Supreme Court provided evidence that its membership had shifted to be more critical of affirmative action as it heard oral arguments last week in two cases involving the race-based assignment of students to public schools. Although the court did not exhibit any desire to reconsider its stand on affirmative action in higher education, the…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Charting a New Course toward Racial Integration: Districts Seek Legal Routes to Capture the Benefits of Diversity (Brigid Schulte); (2) Voluntary Integration: Two Views--(a)…