No Child Left Behind and the Every Student Succeeds Act have made accountability central to conversations about education policy. But neither statute articulates a clear vision of what constitutes "quality" or "equity" in education, nor do they include a mechanism to ensure that schools have sufficient resources to pursue that…

Author Michael Wehmeyer began his career in special education shortly after the passage of the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (which later became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA). In those early days, he recounts, students with disability were mostly segregated from other children, and many of the adults…

Mexican Americans have a long history in the struggle to end school segregation and achieve educational equality. Rubén Donato and Jarrod Hanson trace that history through a series of court cases that show how their fight for desegregation both intersects with and differs from the more well-known struggle of Black Americans. In some cases, Mexican…

"Kappan"'s editor talks with the distinguished historian Vanessa Siddle Walker about the hidden -- and lost -- tradition of political advocacy by Black educational leaders in the segregated South. To promote equity and excellence for all students, she argues, today's educators will need to recover the sorts of extensive and…

Sixty-five years after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, the federal and judicial role in school desegregation has declined. In a more difficult political and legal environment, it has fallen on school districts to develop and implement voluntary integration plans through diversity-minded student assignment…

Tenure is under fire. Conservatives have long attacked such policies as tenure that constrain the ability of managers to fire whomever they want, but the latest assaults on tenure have invoked liberal egalitarian ideals. With all the problems in education, why are we so fixated on teacher tenure? What is really going on? How did tenure get its…

In this age of real and fake news, students need to be able to assess the trustworthiness of evidence. The authors' current research examines students' use of evidence in secondary social studies classrooms as students deliberate contemporary public policy issues. The authors found that students shifted their evaluations of the trustworthiness of…

To halt "white flight" to the suburbs occurring since a 1969-70 court decision imposed cross-town busing, neighborhood schools should be reinstated. The board's decision was challenged by the United States District Court, upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals (Fourth Circuit), and may become a Supreme Court case. (MLH)

Evaluates the Supreme Court's decisions relating to education during the past few years and the effect that the retirement of Justice Lewis Powell will have on the balance of the Supreme Court. Discusses nominee Robert Bork and his possible effect if he becomes a member of the Supreme Court. (MD)

Considers the role of the federal government and the courts in school desegregation. Notes the resegregative effects of White flight to the suburbs resulting from desegregation efforts, and discusses the Reagan administration's apparent retreat from enforcement of desegregation orders, using Denver as an example. (PGD)

Houston (Texas) public schools have been declared officially desegregated. After trying many desegregation methods with varying degrees of success, the school district has used magnet schools in conjunction with majority-to-minority transfers as its primary desegregation tool. Attention has also focused on equal facilities, staff stability, and…

The result, for those seeking a metropolitanwide solution to school desegregation, is that neither Milliken nor the implementation of Gautreaux offers very much hope for the near future. (Author)