American schools have been dealt a blow that included a pandemic, economic crisis, as well as racial unrest, initiating an energized charge for social justice advocacy. Our superintendents are currently facing an unprecedented challenge in ensuring that the campus community lives in a fair, inclusive, and opportunity-rich society. However, school…

Very little is known about the complaint investigation process in the Office for Civil Rights, despite its scope and reach. We examine key parameters (number and types of complaints received, types of resolutions, average time of resolution) of civil rights complaints nationwide over a 20-year period (1999-2019). We find that 10%-40% of all…

One in five Americans, or about 60 million people, lives in a rural area. Because 97% of the nation's landmass is considered rural, by definition these areas are sparsely populated and far from urban centers (United States Census Bureau, 2017). Although rural school districts are small--median enrollment is fewer than 500 students--the overall…

This case illustrates the importance for school leaders and teachers to be knowledgeable about current legal precedent when creating district and school policies. We describe a legal battle that occurred in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in which a school district instituted a policy affecting English learners that was in violation of two federal laws.…

Throughout the past decade, scholars have argued that the persistent achievement gap between Black male students and their White peers is a result of unequal and inadequate educational opportunities instead of inherent differences in their capability or character. School counselors can help support Black males by using equity-focused…

Education systems reproduce social inequality based on social class, gender, and minority ethnicity ascriptions, and are organized along national structures. This paper explores, how migration and international mobility shape an individuals scope of possibilities in the context of education. We analyze how societal and institutional possibilities…

Previous research in middle-class school districts has focused on "within-school" segregation but not "between-school" segregation. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork and 122 in-depth interviews with students, parents, and faculty in an affluent suburban school district, I find that students who struggle…

The reasons minority students are subject to exclusionary discipline more often than others are varied, but many experts agree that they often have little to do with the students themselves. Large rates of suspensions and expulsions tend to result from discipline policies in need of revision that are exacerbated by numerous administrators and…

Investments in girls' education in developing countries support U.S. foreign policy, demonstrate U.S. compassion and generosity, drive development efforts, and help reduce extreme poverty. The US Agency for International Development's (USAID's) programming takes into account the gender-related constraints that prevent access of both boys and girls…

This article explores the discursive function and rhetorical effect of references to place, focusing specifically on the ways place-based ideologies can sustain inequalities in higher education. We draw on two interviews (one with an instructor and one with a student) to analyze the ways habituated, place-based ideologies--what we term…

There are very few Black children in programs for gifted children when both historical and contemporary research indicate that such environments contain elements very similar to those described as advantageous for Black children. Presented here is an overview of the research regarding Black children's learning styles, multiple intelligences, and…

Student success efforts often focus on issues related to students' college-readiness, but the authors of a recent book, "Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success," challenge higher education professionals to take a different approach. The admission of increasingly greater numbers of students from…

Over the past three decades, children from low-income families and those from more affluent families have increasingly been attending different public schools. While recent work has helped us understand patterns of income segregation between districts and schools within districts, we know very little about segregation of students as they…

Educational choice programs--defined broadly as programs that provide parents with financial aid to help their children opt out of the traditional public school system--are a hallmark of meaningful educational reform. Yet despite widespread news coverage of such programs, polls show most Americans are unfamiliar with how educational choice…

School choice is an increasingly important part of today's educational landscape and this timely volume presents fresh research about the competitive admissions policies of choice systems. Based on their investigation of a unique civil rights challenge to school choice admissions policies in politically and racially divided Buffalo, New York, and…