This book traces the long legal history of first racial segregation, and then racial desegregation in America. The authors explain how rapidly changing demographics and family structure in the United States have greatly complicated the project of top-down government efforts to achieve an "ideal" racial balance in schools. It describes…

In South Africa, racial identification determines all facets of a person's life--political, economic, and social. Divided into ten chapters, this book was prepared to increase public awareness of black South Africans' struggle for freedom. Chapter one discusses how the system of apartheid is built on the official identification of all citizens by…

How can we fix America's floundering public schools? The conventional wisdom says that schools need a lot more money, that poor and immigrant children cannot do as well as most American kids, that high-stakes tests just produce teaching to the test, and that vouchers do little to help students while undermining our democracy. But what if the…

On April 10, 1994, The Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University's School of Education sponsored its third conference on the impact of the famous "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka" decision. Fourteen discussion groups analyzed the following questions: What was the promise of "Brown," and has that…

This book examines student politics in South Africa during the period 1968 to 1990, and specifically at two black higher education organizations: the South African National Students' Congress (SANSCO) and the South African Students' Organization (SASO), focusing on their ideological and political orientations, internal organizational structure,…

Throughout the English-speaking world, and now Western Europe and parts of East Asia, parental choice and educational markets are being seen by politicians and policy advisors as the panacea to problems of low educational standards and social exclusion. This book tests the key assumptions underlying the faith in markets by linking an analysis of…

This book contends that choice is critical to the process by which parents, students, and teachers can build consensus that allows a community of learning to emerge. It argues that the key to meaningful school choice is a system of tuition vouchers involving nongovernment schools, together with deregulation, which will foster an education that is…