There is mounting evidence of substantial "teacher quality gaps" (TQGs) between advantaged and disadvantaged students, but practically no empirical evidence about their history. We use longitudinal data on public school students, teachers, and schools from two states--North Carolina and Washington--to provide a descriptive history of the…

This book explores a profoundly negative narrative about legally segregated schools in the United States being "inherently inferior" compared to their white counterparts. However, there are overwhelmingly positive counter-memories of these schools as "good and valued" among former students, teachers, and community members.…

On the night of Feb. 8, 1960, J. Charles Jones, then a student of religion and psychology at Johnson C. Smith University, knew instinctively what it was he needed to do for his generation. He first met with a handful of other classmates and friends, letting them know what he had just learned on the radio--other Black students in neighboring…

We examine whether the legal decision to grant unitary status to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district, which led to the end of race-conscious student assignment policies, increased the probability that families with children enrolled in the district would move to neighborhoods with a greater proportion of student residents of the same race as…

The purpose of this study was to find out how W. S. King School, a school for African American students that operated during segregation, impacted student learning and thereby, influenced the community. Because the former all-black W. S. King School was known to have produced graduates who went on to become successful, productive citizens in…

This article explains how Jim Crow's teachers--former teachers of legally segregated schools for blacks--prepared and motivated disadvantaged students in spite of funding and resource deprivation. According to the author, black teachers fashioned situated pedagogies for the acquisition of educational capital that could be used in exchange for…

This paper examines sorting into interracial friendships at selective universities. We show significant friendship segregation, particularly for blacks. Indeed, black friendships are no more diverse in college than in high school despite the colleges blacks attend having substantially smaller black populations. We show that part of the reason for…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine how college-level minority student leaders make meaning of those leadership experiences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 students. Major findings noted a strong personal motivation to participate in student leadership positions. Further research on the impact of familial…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential for salary-based policies to generate a more equitable distribution of teachers characterized by strong qualifications across schools. The analysis is based on rich longitudinal administrative data on teachers and schools in the state of North Carolina. The authors' analysis first confirms the…

Scholars have long debated the complicity of Southern white women after the Civil War in helping create a racialist and racist regional identity and denying or delaying civil rights for African Americans. These studies have largely focused on the activities of elite white women property owners, club members, and writers. Yet few scholars have…

Given the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of E. Franklin Frazier's award-winning "Black Bourgeoisie", this article reconsiders the political nature of a respectability discourse among black teachers in the Jim Crow South. Writing against Frazier's image of a materialistic and status-addicted black middle class, I argue that the…

Background/Context: In most judicial and social science debates about school desegregation, it is usually assumed that educational and social benefits, if significant, help establish a compelling purpose for school desegregation plans. Less thought has been given to whether the degree of benefits should factor into whether a plan is narrowly…

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the differences in teacher quality, student achievement, and graduation rates among select North Carolina urban high schools based on their racial segregation when measured by the entropy index. The entropy index is a measure of evenness among racial groups used to determine the level of segregation…

Using panel data that track individual students from year to year, we examine the effects of charter schools in North Carolina on racial segregation and black-white test score gaps. We find that North Carolina's system of charter schools has increased the racial isolation of both black and white students, and has widened the achievement gap.…

Using evidence from Durham, North Carolina, we examine the impact of school choice programs on racial and class-based segregation across schools. Theoretical considerations suggest that how choice programs affect segregation will depend not only on the family preferences emphasized in the sociology literature but also on the linkages between…