This article describes the cultural characteristics of four elite African American high schools, initiated prior to Brown v. Board of Education, that produced outstanding graduates. Positive school culture characteristics examined were leadership, faculty, curriculum and instruction, student qualities, the environment, and internal and external…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Welcoming School Climates." Contents include: (1) Welcoming and Safe Schools…

Many urban public schools are often perceived as inclusive due to the demographics of their diverse student populations. This myth of inclusivity reifies notions of equity in both education and broader society. However, upon closer inspection, this myth of inclusion crumbles once immersed within an urban high school. In this article, I present the…

The purpose of this oral history is to document the lived experience of the learning environment of African American students and culturally specific practices of African American teachers who taught in the legally segregated Louisville Central High School. Historically, segregated African American schools have been depicted as inferior…

Full membership is acceptance and belonging in a school community where all stakeholders have a voice and the culture is reflective of these values and beliefs. This qualitative study compared the perceptions of general and special education teachers from two southern high schools. The author explored how scripts of disability inform teacher…

This study examines the impact of racial isolation on high school student performance in North Carolina, a state in the southeast United States. Our research goal is to investigate if increased isolation negatively impacts Black students' academic performance. Employing the North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) dataset, we…

Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, this study examines the association between high school socioeconomic segregation and student attainment outcomes and the mechanisms that mediate those relationships. The results show that socioeconomic segregation has a strong association with high school graduation and college enrollment.…

This article examines the experiences of 20 students of color who voluntarily attend a racially integrated school. The study draws from the Socio-Cultural dimension of schooling as a framework to understand how the students of color fared on a social, cultural, and environmental level within a predominantly White school. Through a questionnaire,…

The presence of the Little Rock Nine at Little Rock's Central High in September 1957 as a result of "Brown vs. the Board of Education" evoked anger, fear, and even panic among some parts of the white community, and many white women and girls responded with near hysteria. This article seeks to answer why. What was it about integration…