Despite the growing ideological divisions, there has been a surprising political convergence on some issues related to urban policy, social services, and housing. From the spread of charter schools and school choice to the expansion of home ownership through financial deregulation, it is apparent that liberals and conservatives agree. Yet these…

The negative consequences of school desegregation on Black families, educators, and communities in the US are well documented in education research today. The purpose of this article is to examine the experiential knowledge and wisdom of practice of former Black school superintendents who attended all Black segregated schools and led desegregated…

Almost everyone knows what the term "achievement gap" means, although the key to closing it remains elusive. Despite efforts spanning a decade or more, the disparity in test scores, graduation rates, and other indicators of academic success separating many students of color from many of their white and Asian peers has not been eliminated. In a…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of neoliberal ideology, and in particular, the economic and social theories of Milton Friedman on education policy. The paper takes a critical theoretical approach in that ultimately the paper is an ideological critique of conservative thought and action that impacts twenty-first century education…

Superintendent James Redmond created a desegregation plan for Chicago Public Schools in 1967, which affected a limited amount of students, but caused great uproar. This article examines the numerous White responses in opposition to busing including those that appear legitimate, such as a desire to maintain neighborhood schools. However, given the…

One of the most striking features of crime in America is its disproportionate concentration in disadvantaged, racially segregated communities. In this paper we estimate the effects of court-ordered school desegregation on crime by exploiting plausibly random variation in the timing of when these orders go into effect across the set of large urban…

In 1982 civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson criticized President Ronald Reagan's attacks on busing to coerce school desegregation for targeting "not the bus, but us." Two decades later, the United States Supreme Court ended the thirty-two-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina, plan which had launched the era of court-ordered busing…

Georgia, like many other states, is facing a budget shortfall of about $2.5 billion, according to the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute. To help cope with its money woes, the state's university system alone has to make at least $200 million in cuts, if not more. As the Georgia Senate chairman of the Higher Education Committee, Seth Harp…

In this paper, the authors estimate the effect of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP, or the Milwaukee voucher program) on integration in public and private schools. Their first question is straightforward: Do the student bodies at private schools participating in MPCP have a racial composition that more closely or less closely resembles…

This report grows out of a conference roundtable on public housing redevelopment, magnet schools, and Justice Reinvestment held on February 29, 2008, in Tampa, Florida. The roundtable was made possible through the financial support of the Open Society Institute (OSI). It was organized and hosted by the Poverty & Race Research Action Council…

This study chronicles the historical divisions of race and class between Detroit and its suburban neighbor as an explanation for current tensions in the communities and schools. This analysis poses implications for educational apartheid and stark disparities between urban and suburban boundaries and consequent discomfort among practitioners when…

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…

In this article, we describe the development and implementation of a project, "Our Leaders Are Us: Youth Activism in Social Movements," that we undertook with New York City high school students exploring events leading up to and following the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown. As part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the…

This is a qualitative study that analyses the views and experiences of teachers and students at selected, desegregated schools in Gauteng, South Africa. It focuses on diversity with regard to race, class and gender. These social relationships are intertwined and often not made explicit in everyday life at school. People fight over them, but also…

"Choosing to Participate" focuses on civic choices--the decisions people make about themselves and others in their community, nation, and world. The choices people make, both large and small, may not seem important at the time, but little by little they shape them as individuals and responsible global citizens. "Choosing to…