As the federal entity in charge of enforcing civil rights law, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) plays a critical role in addressing the vast inequities that exist in U.S. education. Through an analysis of the policy guidance OCR issued for a number of areas during the Obama administration, we illustrate the agency's…

In June 2007, the United States Supreme Court rendered its most recent decision on the constitutionality of race-based education policies. The Court decided that race-based student assignment policies implemented in two school districts to ensure racially integrated schools violated the United States Constitution. Since the implementation of the…

Since the historic moment of "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka," much has changed in American life and education. By today's standards, the notion that black children could be consigned to separate schools solely because of their skin color--in a nation founded on principles of freedom and equality--seems unconscionable. Fifty years…