This study investigated the efficacy of race-neutral student assignment policies following the 2007 Supreme Court decision in "Parents Involved". Highlighting one urban school district--Chicago Public Schools--we examined differences in racial composition at their elite, "selective enrollment" high schools before and after…

A Midwestern state allocated grant funding to encourage more accessible alternative programming at the middle level. Seventeen schools were approved for this grant and used the funds to supplement the operation of a new or existing program. This study provides policymakers and educators with an overview of the various types of alternative middle…

When planning for college, students face a range of constrained choices governed in part by variation among institutions. What are the economic consequences of those decisions and constraints during and after college? We know borrowing patterns vary by institutional sector, yet colleges within a sector vary considerably by admission and graduation…

We use statewide administrative data from Missouri to examine the explanatory power of high schools over student sorting to colleges and majors at 4-year public universities. We develop a "preparation and persistence index" (PPI) for each university-by-major cell in the Missouri system that captures dimensions of selectivity and rigor…

The purpose of this study is to better understand college students' experiences of working while in college with the awareness of potential differences based on students' socio-economic status. Working while in college is a prevalent and necessary activity for most students, and this study aims to examine students' decisions to work, and the…

Challenges of broadening access, escalating cost, maintaining desirable quality and enhancing meaningful learning experiences in African higher education (HE) have spurred debates on how to restructure higher education delivery to meet the diverse needs of heterogeneous learners and adapt pedagogical models to the educational realities of…

The Civil Rights Project was hired to identify barriers to equitable access in Buffalo (New York) Public Schools' criteria schools and propose solutions, which, if accepted by both parties, could resolve the civil rights violations and create more equitable access to those schools. The researchers found that students of color, low-income students,…

Depending on the particular definition of culture they employ, pedagogical approaches meant to promote integration, inclusion, and empowerment across cultural divides can end up magnifying existing feelings of alienation, exclusion, and disempowerment. This article explores the negative consequences that can arise when "funds of…

The Wisconsin Department for Public Instruction (DPI) is required to submit this report to the Legislature regarding the status of existing charter schools, the number of petitions for new charter schools, and the action taken by school boards and the DPI on petitions for new charter schools. This report offers the results of new charter school…

Addressing both the increasingly complex process of becoming an educator at the tertiary level and the growing recognition of the importance of student engagement, student-faculty partnerships have emerged as one way of fundamentally rethinking academic development. Participant reflections suggest that the over-time, partnership approach to…

This article reports the findings of a study on the nature of parent-school engagement at an academically selective public high school in New South Wales, Australia. Such research is pertinent given recent policies of "choice" and decentralization, making a study of local stakeholders timely. The research comprised a set of interviews…

Neoliberal education policies have altered the operational environments of schools and affected school principals' job descriptions and requirements. As a result of managerialism, decentralisation and marketisation of education, principals are increasingly responsible for profitability, marketing and striving in competition, in addition to their…

Chicago's public school system is decidedly less diverse and less affluent than the city that hosts it. In order to combat racial and socioeconomic segregation within the district, and to encourage greater diversity and opportunity for the district's most competitive and popular programs, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) designed an innovative system…

The admissions process used today in America's most selective colleges and universities is a classic case of interest group politics gone awry. Nobody champions or fights for smart, low-income students. The result is an admissions process reduced to a series of "preferences." Taken together with other widely-used admissions practices,…

This dissertation illustrates how admission policies shape access to postsecondary education. Evidence comes from two sectors, each with a distinct type of admission system: highly selective institutions that practice holistic admission (chapters 2 and 3) and less selective public four-year colleges that use admission thresholds (chapter 4). The…