In this article, I use perspective gained from 18 years of experience as an urban public school parent between 1978 and 1996 to provide insights into "Brown" at 50. Through description of two public conflicts over special choice programs in the school districts where my family and I lived during those years, I analyze the emergent issues of…

Since the landmark "Brown v. Board of Education" ruling, most of the literature on school desegregation has focused on the experiences of African American students or school districts in which remedies were fashioned for African American students. However, little is known about the efforts of other ethnic and racial groups who have…

Twenty-five percent of California's elementary schoolchildren attend schools operating on nontraditional, staggered, overlapping attendance calendars collectively referred to as multitrack year-round education (MT-YRE). This case study reveals substantial differences in the characteristics of students and teachers across the four attendance tracks…

Introduces a special section comprised of papers presented at a National Research Council workshop. The four papers focus on: what constitutes racial discrimination in education from a social science perspective and from a legal perspective; what empirical data exist on the sources of discrimination and racial differences in educational outcomes;…

Synthesizes the social science research on racially correlated disparities in education, focusing on biological determinism (behavioral genetics); social structure (e.g., reproduction theory and resistance theory); school organization and opportunities to learn (e.g., resources, racial composition, and tracking); family background (financial,…

The paper recapitulates the flow of a 2-day conference on the 40 years since "Brown v. Board of Education," focusing on 2 general-session presentations that examined "Brown" as promise and discussed visions for the future. "Brown" is viewed as a benchmark of American democracy and an opportunity for redemption. (SM)

The ideology behind the educational justifications for a national curriculum and national testing can damage members of society who have the most to lose. The paper analyzes the conservative agenda, discusses connections between national curricula and testing, increasing privatization, and choice plans, and notes resulting patterns of differential…

Discusses examples of sharp inequalities in school financing. Argues that the goal of educational equality does not confront the basic cause of educational inequality; fear of school integration perpetuates the existence of a multiplicity of school districts, which substantially increases the burden to fund education and ultimately costs society.…

Examines the social organization of the university, faculty organization, class and education, and race and ethnicity in the context of an expanded canon. (SM)

Examines Boston's school desegregation from 1962 to 1972, focusing on African-American women who demanded quality education for their children. The article discusses the constituency that supported a 1972 suit by Boston's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People claiming that Boston public schools denied equal education to…

This article reports on the extensive qualitative and quantitative findings of a multi-method participatory study designed to assess urban and suburban youths' experiences of racial class justice or injustice in their schools and throughout the nation. Constructed as a letter to Zora Neale Hurston, who was immediately critical of the Brown…

Forty years after "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" mandated equal education for black students, racial discrimination thrives in public schools. Educators must lead the fight for quality education for black students in racially isolated urban schools and for monitoring the educational offerings provided for minority…

Examines the dual meaning of promise (hope and vow) in relation to "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas," discussing how the two conceptions are implemented in a desegregated school and explaining how multicultural education can help meet the dual expectations of "Brown" as promise/vow and promise/hope. (Author/SM)

Argues that the movement to provide parents with financial incentives to send students to private schools will increase the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic homogeneity of American schools. Six common assumptions about the positive effects of privatizing education are examined and deemed false. Probable costs of tuition vouchers for private…

The at-risk concept has become a deficit notion. Policymakers neglect those for whom at-risk programs are intended, ignoring accounts of institutional injustice previously accompanying the term. At-risk has become an administrative agenda that identifies failure before it occurs. Effective reform efforts require parents, teachers, and students who…