Student assignment policies (SAPs) in K-12 schools can either reproduce or help ameliorate existing inequality. Some districts are trying to maintain voluntarily adopted integration policies despite the Supreme Court's recent 2007 decision in "Parents Involved," which prohibited most race-conscious school choice policies that were…

Background/Context: On June 28, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in "Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District #1" (PICS) that school districts not currently under court order for racial desegregation could not, under most circumstances, use race as a criterion for assigning students to schools. Purpose: In this…

Last summer, the Supreme Court declared voluntary student assignment plans to racially integrate the public schools in Louisville, Kentucky, and Seattle, Washington, unconstitutional by a 5-4 majority. This was a landmark ruling for public school integration and civil rights; the "Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School…

"From the Courtroom to the Classroom" examines recent developments pertaining to school desegregation in the United States. As the editors note, it comes at a time marked by a "general downplaying of race and ethnicity as criteria for the allocation of public resources, as well as a weakening of the political forces that support…