Information regarding the 1964 Civil Rights Act, its value and importance in the elimination of state-imposed school segregation is described. The 1964 granted the US Attorney General the power and authority to bring suits on behalf of the African American plaintiffs in thousands of school districts operating racially segregated public elementary…

Most Americans are keenly aware of the African American civil rights movement. However, few know about the comparable struggle of Mexican Americans to enjoin the practice of segregated public schools in the Southwest. This article analyzes "Mendez v. Westminster School District," a 1946 federal court case that ruled that separate but…

Using institutional data on fall 1999 freshman admissions, we document the existence and magnitude of inequalities among California high schools in the access they provide to the University of California (UC). Because high schools are segregated by socioeconomic status and race, we examine how schools that differ on these dimensions also differ in…

Increased funding is vital to any educational renewal. The papers in this publication provide a critical look at the educational system and show that it is clearly a dual system that, more than 40 years after the "Brown vs. the Board of Education" decision remains largely separate and unequal. A key issue is that of educational standards. The…

Argues that the GI Bill has largely gone unfulfilled for blacks. This is because the poverty in which most blacks found themselves after World War II made seeking higher education problematic. College overcrowding, inadequate precollege preparation, and segregationist policies at schools did not help. The result was greater pressure on black…

Provides a historical overview of public education, advocates freedom of choice as the best method for distributing education, describes some of the benefits of parental choice, and answers objections to tuition tax credits. (SK)

Patterns of enrollment of Hispanic Americans in institutions of higher education are examined, and the consequences of segregation on Hispanic students are explored. Hispanics are concentrated in two-year colleges with limited opportunities for participation in four-year schools, and a two-tiered system is also developing in high schools. (SLD)

This case study traces the formation of a school district profoundly affected by race, political, sociological, and economic factors by examining a district in Cincinnati (Ohio) from the turn of the century through the 1950s. The study confirms the relationship between economic participation and educational opportunities. (SLD)

Reviews the historic white fear of the educated black man in the Jim Crow period and earlier, when education of the African American was seen as a threat to the stable workforce African Americans represented. Curtailing educational opportunity was an important means of racial control. (SLD)

Uses survey data from 1,833 high school students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, North Carolina, to study the direct and indirect negative effects of segregation on academic achievement in the context of the "Swann" court decision. Demonstrates how whites retain privileged access to greater opportunities to learn and how segregated…

It's a little-known fact, but, 50 years ago, the junior high and high schools of Topeka, Kan., were integrated--though in name only. Fear was the order of the day at the high school, where an African American assistant superintendent by the name of Harrison Caldwell roamed the halls as the "White folks' enforcer," ensuring that African…

Schooling and the state of student achievement will receive intense scrutiny this year during the observance of the 50th anniversary of "Brown v. Board of Education" (2004). In "Brown" the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the "separate but equal" doctrine that had been established under "Plessy v. Ferguson" (1896) and the legal foundation under which…

This paper focuses on the dropout rate of Hispanic students and provides an overview of dropout programs developed by Hispanic community-based organizations (CBOs). First, the paper documents the disproportionately high percentage of Hispanic dropouts, and considers the way in which school districts compile and report dropout statistics. Next,…

This paper presents recent data on the education and educational status of Hispanic Americans. The focus is on participation in elementary and secondary schools, and on the factors that prevent school completion and access to higher education. All included data are footnoted by source to facilitate further research, but the primary source of…

This non-regulatroy guide from the U.S. Department of Education focuses on the McKinney-Vento Education for the Homeless Children and Youth (McKinney-Vento) program as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. An introductory section explains the purpose of McKinney-Vento, the statutory authority for the program, how the new McKinney-Vento…