Background/Context: The United States is becoming increasingly racially and ethnically diverse, and increasingly racially isolated across race-ethnic boundaries. Researchers have argued that both diversity and racial isolation serve to undermine the social cohesion needed to bind American citizens to one another and to society at large. Focus of…

Background/Context: Perpetuation theory predicts that attending a racially segregated school paves the way for a lifetime of segregated experiences in neighborhoods, schools, and jobs. Research conducted in the 1970s and 1980s linked racial isolation in high schools with later racial isolation in many social settings among African-American…

Using detailed administrative data for the public K-12 schools of North Carolina, we measure racial segregation in its public schools. With data for the 2005-2006 school year, we update previously published calculations that measure segregation by unevenness in racial enrollment patterns, both between schools and within schools. We find that…

The disproportionate representation of minority students in special education has long been recognised as a problem in the United States. It is, however, only with the 2004 authorisation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) that Congress has tried to prescribe a remedy for this. Beginning with a deconstruction of…

Although the No Child Left Behind Act was intended to help "all students meet high academic standards," it is focused on subgroups of low-achieving students. The authors analyze the possible impact of the legislation's requirement for performance reporting by racial subgroup in light of the considerable racial segregation in U.S.…

Offers a photographic overview of the history of segregation, illustrating how it encompassed education from the outset. (EV)

In this review essay, Harvey Kantor and Robert Lowe explore the history of the culture wars in public education in the United States. Drawing on three books--David Tyack's "Seeking Common Ground," Jonathan Zimmerman's "Whose America?" and Amy Binder's "Contentious Curricula"--Kantor and Lowe review the history of…

This book analyzes the two basic constitutional problems in the Brown vs. Board of Education case--how the Constitution prohibits racial segregation, and what can be done under the Constitution to enforce this prohibition. The roles of the justices, interpretations of the Constitution and relevant amendments, the impact of the decision, and…

Are most charter schools more racially segregated than traditional public schools (TPS)? How do local circumstances affect the degree to which charter schools are more racially segregated or diverse than TPSs? As the charter school movement in Michigan and nationwide gains popularity, these questions have become important policy issues. In order…

This article addresses the stubborn and persistent underrepresentation of African American and Chicano-Latino in California higher education by examining the academic resources, performance, and postsecondary outcomes of students from public high schools with different racial compositions. The results from this study provide evidence for the…

Using detailed administrative data for the public K-12 schools of North Carolina, we measure racial segregation in the public schools of North Carolina. With data for the 2005/06 school year, we update previously published calculations that measure segregation in terms of unevenness in racial enrollment patterns both between schools and within…

A number of public school districts in the United States have adopted income-based integration policies--policies that use measures of family income or socioeconomic status--in determining school assignment. Some scholars and policymakers contend that such policies will also reduce racial segregation. In this article this assumption is explored by…

An in-depth discussion of the history and effects of racial segregation, defacto or otherwise, in the U.S. educational system. (BRT)

Criticizes the conclusion in the Coleman, Hoffer and Kilgore study "Public and Private Schools" that private schooling does not affect overall racial segregation in American schools. The authors discuss four flaws in the research methodology that make its conclusions invalid. (AM)