Couched within a larger critique of assessment practices and how they are used to stigmatize African American children, the authors examine teachers' instructional practices in response to demands of increasing test scores. Many mathematics teachers might be unaware of how these test-driven instructional practices can simultaneously reflect…

It's a familiar refrain in American education: African-American children score lower on standardized tests, graduate high school at lower rates, and are considerably more likely to be suspended or expelled than the general population. Two recent reports, one from the Council of the Great City Schools and one from the American Institutes for…

On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in the case of "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka," which struck down the "separate but equal" doctrine of the 1896 "Plessy v. Ferguson" decision. The Court claimed, "To separate them [African American children] from others of similar age…

This article presents an overview of five key issues: access to materials; student motivation; teacher preparation; instructional practices; and parent-teacher-student relationships, that must be addressed in effecting change in the academic performance of African-American students. These issues are deemed important if the No Child Left Behind…

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…

Background: Public schools in the United States are still segregated along cultural and racial lines 50 years after the 1954 Supreme Court's ruling. For example, Orfield and Lee, 2004; and Orfield, 2001) indicated that White student in the United States attended schools that were 80 percent White. Ethnic minority children (children of color),…