Despite earning the highest grade point average (GPA) in her graduating class at the recently integrated Cleveland High School (CHS) in Cleveland, Mississippi, Ms. Jasmine Shepard, an African-American female, was named "co-valedictorian" with Ms. Heather Bouse, a White female, who had a lower GPA. Utilizing Derrick Bell's rules of racial…

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the way that families and policymakers view K-12 education. Learning loss is having an outsized impact on students who were furthest from opportunity before the pandemic. And families are increasingly looking for new educational options for their children. For decades, access to educational options…

This report, the first in the Economic Vitality and Education in the South (EVES) series, provides state-by-state information on more than 20 critical data points associated with the education-to-workforce pipeline. The report looks specifically at the 17 states in the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) region: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware,…

Preparing high-quality teachers is supposed to be the responsibility of state Departments of Education and university teacher education programs, yet the mandated Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) is operated by Pearson, a private corporation. Standing on the frontline to implement edTPA, faculty have witnessed equity issues within the system…

For the past 30 years, America's K-12 education system has experienced an era of expanding educational choice. Although students who participate in private school choice programs and are enrolled in charter schools comprise a small portion of the K-12 population relative to students in district schools, choice is becoming a larger part of the K-12…

As of 2015, 17 special education voucher programs (SVPs) existed in 13 states and proposals continue to emerge. Eligible parents utilize these vouchers to enroll their children in private schools and thereby relinquish special education services and protections provided under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Using a…

For this report, State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) surveyed selected historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and HBCU-adjacent school districts to help SHEEOs and nongovernmental organizations understand what drives successful teacher preparation at HBCUs. The report suggests ways to use HBCUs as resources to resolve…

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor reported a record-high 6.2 million job openings. Yet many employers report they cannot find the well-prepared candidates they need in the South and across the country. The problem is students' lack of preparation for college and career training. Also in 2017, the ACT college admissions test examined the…

In the 21st century, U.S. Blacks in public schools experience disenfranchisement, as did their ancestral predecessors in the 19th and 20th centuries. This research utilizes the "White Racial Frame," which essentially encompasses the cognitive racialized false stereotypes and beliefs Whites hold regarding people of color (Feagin, 2010).…

The purpose of this slide deck is to shine a spotlight on education in the American South with a focus on equity and to provide an understanding of the historical, social, political, and economic context in which the education sector operates. Any movement serious about improving education and life outcomes for underserved student groups --…

This article examines the history of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools to illustrate how integrating the Civil Rights Movement into the social studies curriculum refocuses the aims of American education on participatory democracy. Teaching the Civil Rights Movement and employing the teaching strategies used in the Freedom Schools leads to the…

This report provides educators and policymakers with information they can use to celebrate their successes, understand their unique challenges, and set meaningful goals to increase opportunity for all students. It is important to note that while AP® Exams are valid measures of students' content mastery of college-level studies in specific academic…

The goal of the present paper is to recount a legal history of the Ayers case from its inception through the Fifth Circuit's 2004 approval and the Supreme Court's decline to review the 2001 settlement agreement, ending 30 years of litigation. Then from the critical race theoretical frame of interest convergence, I argue that while the "Ayers…

Reviews single-sex schools' history and legal status. Explores constitutional dimensions of gender-based discrimination delineated in five leading cases (in Philadelphia, New York City, Detroit, Mississippi, and Virginia). Due to claims of Equal Protection Clause and/or Title IX violations, such schools are unlikely to proliferate. (20 references)…

In 2002-2003, 27% (12.5 million) of public school students attended school in communities of fewer than 25,000 and 19% (8.8 million) attended school in smaller communities of fewer than 2,500. In this report, the authors focus on the schools in those smaller communities, the most rural schools in America. They frame the report around 22…