In his recent speech at a Harvard commencement ceremony, Bill Gates said that "reducing inequity is the highest human achievement." He recognizes that the problems of global health in this world, the challenges of alleviating poverty and despair, and the wide disparities in educational attainment require significant investment by those…

Suspension increases the likelihood of a student being expelled, dropping out, and being incarcerated, a phenomenon dubbed the "school to prison pipeline". One less punitive model of discipline that is gaining popularity worldwide is "restorative justice". Though restorative justice is now being used in the US to address racial…

The achievement gap that exists between white and minority students is, and has been, a persistent problem in education. Through research, many factors have been uncovered as contributors to this issue, although none has been shown to be the sole cause. A small number of schools have been able to narrow the achievement gap through the…

Jay, an African American male, was placed in the gifted class in fifth grade. He lined up with his new class on the first day of school, but refused to enter the classroom. He was angry that he had been placed in the class with "those kids" and wanted to be in the other class where his friends were. Each day thereafter, Jay struggled with being…

Issues of educational equity and opportunity cannot be understood without regard to special education, as a key response to disabilities, disadvantages, and difficulties. Likewise, globalization cannot be understood without regard to cross-border migration and minority group status in society. Illuminating the nexus of these, research into…

African American women administrators working in urban educational settings have been found to be effective leaders of school improvement. Underutilized women and people of color are the untapped value that organizations of all types need to enhance creativity, change efforts, teamwork, and financial benefits (Northouse, 2001). During the last…

Many educators share the vision of the Equity Principle--teachers holding high expectations for all students. However, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports, minority students continue to lag behind white students in mathematics achievement. Furthermore, the discrepancies are more pronounced on the extended,…

The standards movement in the US has ballooned over the past generation of education reforms to the extent that standards have become a prominent feature of the educational architecture. Most curriculum planning is informed by local, state, and/or interstate content area standards. While the 1980s central focus on the international competitiveness…

This article describes how admissions auditions at schools of music may demonstrate and participate in what critical race theorist, Gloria Ladson-Billings, calls the full social funding of race. Julia Eklund Koza argues that the construction of musical difference, which is an effect of power and is accomplished by the materialization of styles of…

This study examined factors that impact African American students' participation in honors level courses and gifted programs. It also explored common trends that exist with students in honors level courses. From the findings, it is hoped that this study can contribute to an increase in the representation of African American students in gifted…

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the effects of educational reforms (which are guided by a neoliberal political agenda) on educational processes, outcomes, and inclusive education in Sweden. It is focused in particular on the increasing marginalisation and exclusion of students with special educational needs, immigrant students, and…

A vast array of cultural traditions and languages can be found among China's 55 legally recognized minority nationalities. Mother tongue education has been the norm for several of the large minority groups (namely, Koreans, Kazaks, Mongolians, Tibetans, and Uyghurs) for most of the time since 1949. This article, which is based on empirical data,…

Rather than delineating a list of practices that are important for ensuring that mathematics prepares students for a more democratic citizenship, the author has outlined in this article three tensions in teaching that she argues are important in developing an equity stance in mathematics education. This focus on a "stance" suggests that the kinds…

This report is a response to the Jefferson County School Board's request for an independent study of the best way to carry successfully into the future its long-term commitment to diversity in its schools. The Board's first principle is preservation of diversity in the schools. The authors' assignment from the board was two-fold: to build on the…

Student opposition in school is traditionally cast in terms of individual dispositions, whereby particular students or groups of students are said to "resist" or "oppose" school structures and identities aligned with the dominant cultural group. The author examined instead how the teacher and students in a low-track mathematics…