America's schools are more segregated today than they were three decades ago. After initial progress in the wake of the Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in "Brown v. Board of Education"--further bolstered by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, as well as by several other rulings by the court--the nation's schools began a process of resegregation in…

The 2014-2015 academic year marked the first year that American, preK-12 public school enrollment became majority nonwhite, with Hispanic/Latino as the largest minority. Population shifts have continued to occur, with Latinos now representing 28% of public school students. American public schools are in trouble, with national achievement reaching…

America's schools are more segregated now than they were in the late 1960s. More than 50 years after "Brown v. Board of Education," educators need to radically rethink the meaning of "school choice." For decades at Wake County, buses would pick up public school students in largely minority communities along the Raleigh…

This article takes a look at the Mendez v. Westminster School District, a landmark case that faded into historical obscurity. In the 1940s, Gonzalo and Felicita Mendez wanted their three children to attend the school nearest their farm, which was the 17th Street Elementary School in Westminster. But in the Westminster, Orange County, El Medina,…

In the waning months of World War II, Latino families in Orange County, California, protested efforts by local authorities to place their children in segregated schools. Their victory presaged the Supreme Court showdown in the next decade. (EV)

The main criterion for eligibility for special education services in schools has been proof of intrinsic deficit. There are two problems with this focus: First, defining and identifying high-incidence disabilities are ambiguous and subjective processes. Second, the focus on disability has become so intertwined with the historical devaluing of…

This chapter attempts to begin a conversation about how so many of people in the educational and academic communities have come to believe that educational equity could be mediated by legal measures and federal and local reforms without transformation of the historical practices and ideologies that preserve supremacy and "White…

More than 50 years ago, in Brown vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that sending children to separate schools solely on the basis of race was unconstitutional. Seven years prior, the Supreme Court ruled in Mendez vs. Westminster and the California Board of Education that Mexican American children could not be denied access…