In this paper, I share the findings of my qualitative study of parental choice processes that reflected an intricate system of advantages and resulted in the creation and maintenance of increasingly segregated, like-minded school communities. Drawing on Dewey's conceptions of public and private and of democratic education, I argue that the…

This article outlines different forms of education privatization operating globally, examines their prevalence within the United States, and analyzes whether student marginalization and segregation occurs at the local level. We analyze six U.S. districts with higher saturation levels of charter schools, the most predominant type of privatization…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Data for Actionable Knowledge." Contents include: (1) Office for Civil Rights…

The purpose of this "Equity by Design" brief is to provide information to parents, community members, and school district leaders and teachers about the relationship between housing policy and school policy. Specifically, this brief provides a succinct history of U.S. housing policy, discusses some current educational policies that…

Market theory positions the consumer as a rational choice actor, making informed schooling choices on the basis of "hard" evidence of relative school effectiveness. Yet there are concerns that parents simply choose schools based on socio-demographic characteristics, thus leading to greater social segregation and undercutting the…

Desegregated schools are linked to educational and social advantages whereas myriad harms are connected to segregated schools, yet the emphasis on school desegregation has recently receded in two North Carolina city-suburban school districts historically touted for their far-reaching efforts: Charlotte and Raleigh. In this article, we use…

Challenging the popular perception that the free market can objectively ameliorate inequality and markedly improve student academic achievement, this book examines the overly positivistic rhetoric surrounding charter schools. Taking a multifocal approach, this book examines how charter schools reproduce inequality in public education. By linking…

A half century of research details how segregating racial groups in separate schools corresponds with disparities in funding and quality teachers and culturally narrow curricula. But we know little about whether young Latino children have entered less or more segregated elementary schools over the past generation. This article details the growing…

The publication of this report marks the 65th anniversary of "Brown v. Board of Education," the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case declaring racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. In the immediate years after the "Brown" ruling, the effort to integrate schools faced many difficult challenges and progress was…

Background: While postwar suburban migration established suburbs as relatively affluent, homogeneous white enclaves distinct from the urban core, recent waves of suburbanization and exurbanization have been spurred largely by rapid growth in the nonwhite population. While these increases in suburban racial/ethnic diversity represent a significant…

Purpose: Layered with myriad considerations, school closure and rezoning processes in urban school systems are politically fraught with the potential for damaging consequences. This article explores the politics and impacts of a closure and rezoning process in Richmond, Virginia, through the lens of themes applicable to urban school systems and…

This article examines the emergence of Mexican American school segregation from 1915 to 1935 in Kansas, the state that gave rise to "Brown v. Board of Education" in 1954. Even though Mexicans were not referenced in Kansas's school segregation laws, they were seen and treated as a racially distinct group. White parents and civic…

In 2014, Virginia's Montgomery County school division adopted a place-based social studies curriculum titled "My Place in Time and Space" for fifth grade students. The curriculum promotes an awareness of the impact of place on local knowledge and disciplinary understandings in southwest Virginia, while also connecting local history to…

In 1975, a court-ordered busing program was launched to desegregate the schools of New Castle County, Delaware. It was by many accounts one of the most significant and successful desegregation programs in the nation (Armor & Rossell, 2002; Orfield, 2014; Raffel, 1980). In 1995, the districts of the county were declared "unitary" and…

This article explores issues associated with schooling and political justice. Such issues are understood in light of the contention surrounding how Western schooling contexts might best represent marginalised groups--in ways that accord them a political voice. The significance of group identity politics is explored drawing on international debates…