This article describes the cultural characteristics of four elite African American high schools, initiated prior to Brown v. Board of Education, that produced outstanding graduates. Positive school culture characteristics examined were leadership, faculty, curriculum and instruction, student qualities, the environment, and internal and external…

The underrepresentation of African American male teachers in K-12 education significantly impacts educational equity and student success, especially in urban areas where these students often lack relatable role models. Historically, African American males were a significant presence in teaching, but their numbers have drastically declined since…

This study explores educators' perspectives on educational equity and the challenges in overcoming instructional barriers. Despite the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, an enduring achievement gap persists, particularly affecting Black students due to inadequate teacher preparation and culturally relevant knowledge. Through action…

Between 2017 and 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court examined three cases that involved states that tried to limit the use of public money to support religious-affiliated schools. The Supreme Court found a violation of the Free Exercise Clause in all three cases. Although not the focus of the Court's opinions, these cases may have created avenues for…

In today's society, the teaching workforce should be more diverse. However, it still consists of majority white females. From a survey reported by Education Week in 2017-2018, the teaching workforce consisted of 79.2% white teachers. The same data reported that the teaching workforce consists of 7% African-Americans (Will, 2020). From that 7% of…

Using Quant Crit analysis, Resilience Theory, and Critical Race Theory, this qualitative phenomenological study was designed to gather information to further understand the phenomena of racism and sexism. The study involved K-12 charter school administrators with at least three years of charter school administrative experience in central New York.…

In this article Danielle Marie Greene-Bell and Francis A. Pearman II examine racial disparities in school closures across the United States, with a particular interest in majority Black schools. Using survival analysis and longitudinal data, they find that majority Black schools are far more likely to close than non-majority Black schools and that…

On May 15, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division issued a fact sheet highlighting examples of the Division's recent work to protect students and combat segregation and race-based discrimination in schools. The Civil Rights Division has worked for decades to ensure equal educational opportunities for all of America's…

America's schools are more segregated today than they were three decades ago. After initial progress in the wake of the Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in "Brown v. Board of Education"--further bolstered by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, as well as by several other rulings by the court--the nation's schools began a process of resegregation in…

This study examines North Carolina's past educational politics from the desegregation era as a means to better contextualize its modern-day school pushout crisis. It marks desegregation as the bedrock for racialized school pushout as white resistance to integration proved difficult and at times dangerous for Black students as they entered formerly…

In 2012, Denver Public School District superintendent Tom Boasberg wrote to his employees about the state of their schools: "Yet there's a great deal of work ahead because our gaps still aren't closing at all. They remain strikingly and distressingly similar to the national data. Our schools still aren't the equalizing force that they need to…

Efforts such as the "Brown v. Board of Education" (1954) have focused on providing an equitable education for Black students. However, educational inequality for marginalized and underrepresented students continues to persist. Education experiences for black students are impacted significantly by implicit bias. The purpose of this…

This article uses Charles W. Mills' Racial Contract to interrogate the political, historical, and philosophical roots of the conservative campaign against critical race theory (CRT) in schools. Prescribing that political power will be used to maintain a white supremacist racial hierarchy, the Racial Contract connects itself to American schools…

Decades after the historic ruling in "Brown v. Board of Education," AAM students are not only performing poorly academically but are also dropping out of traditional high schools at an alarming rate and enrolling into Alternative Education (AE) or Alternative Learning Programs (ALP). Public education officials and policymakers were…

Black students in today's classrooms face major challenges unknown to white teachers. In this article, the authors share instructional practices, mindsets, and reflective questions that teachers can implement, practice, and respond to in order to support Black students to feel safe and welcome in their mathematics classrooms. In doing so, the…