"Education Matters" is the monthly newsletter of the Association of American Educators (AAE), an organization dedicated to advancing the American teaching profession through personal growth, professional development, teacher advocacy and protection. This issue of the newsletter includes: (1) The New Debate: Is "Separate but Equal" the Best We Can…

This article examines the norms of school failure and illuminates ways in which low-income students of color respond to their needs for educational advancement when conditions to support their college-going identities are severely limited in the school context. This study's primary finding confirms the value of a grassroots approach to improving…

During the 2008-09 school year, over 5,000 charter schools operated in 40 states and Washington, D.C. and were attended by over 1.5 million students, or about three percent of the nation's public school students. Although the first U.S. charter schools opened in 1992, debate continues over whether they provide students with a better education than…

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…

Background/Context: Even though not fully realized, in legislation and theory, the requirements of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act and the No Child Left Behind Act have created pressure to address the historical inequity in educational opportunity, achievement, and outcomes, as well as disparities in achievement between…

After generating months of anxiety among both proponents and opponents of public-school integration, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a predictably close 5-4 decision, ruled that the use of race in student-assignment policies by the Seattle and Louisville, Kentucky, school districts violated the rights of the white petitioners whose children were denied…

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…

South Africa is currently experiencing a crisis in its educational systems that if not addressed, could threaten the stability of the newly established democracy. A lack of access to quality education and severe shortage of skilled trained educators is perpetuating vestiges of the old apartheid state in the nation. Approximately 6,000 students…

Background:This study grew out of a recent Supreme Court case known as "Horne v Flores." The case began in 1992 in Nogales, Arizona when a 4th grade English learner (EL), Miriam Flores, sued the district and the state for failing to provide her (and other EL students) with an appropriate education as guaranteed by the Equal Educational…

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…

"Research on Schools, Neighborhoods, and Communities: Toward Civic Responsibility" focuses on research and theoretical developments related to the role of geography in education, human development, and health. William F. Tate IV, the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in…

This study uses national data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study to model educational inequality as a feedback process among course placement, student engagement, and academic achievement, separately for students in schools with high and low percentages of African American students. Results find strong effects of placement,…

Achievement data of African American, Hispanic American, and Caucasian students from racially segregated and racially integrated settings in an urban, Midwestern school district were analyzed to determine the effect of racial isolation on achievement within each racial group. In the district studied, achievement of students from segregated schools…

Sizeable achievement differences by race appear in early grades, but substantial uncertainty exists about the impact of school quality on the black-white achievement gap and particularly about its evolution across different parts of the achievement distribution. Texas administrative data show that the overall growth in the achievement gap between…

Building on their important findings in "The Source of the River," the authors now probe even more deeply into minority underachievement at the college level. "Taming the River" examines the academic and social dynamics of different ethnic groups during the first two years of college. Focusing on racial differences in academic performance, the…