Noncontiguous school attendance zone boundaries (AZBs) have a unique, relatively uncommon shape that assign two or more non-adjacent residential areas to the same school. Given their ability to shape school enrollments by taking advantage of residential sorting, noncontiguous AZBs have historically been linked to explicit efforts to both segregate…

Efforts to desegregate schools have consistently been undermined by privileged parents finding ways to avoid undesirable schools. In some contexts, a more complex picture is emerging, where 'progressive' privileged parents choose 'diverse' schools but still reproduce segregation. We demonstrate how the desegregation aims of an Indian education…

It has been over 12 years since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in "Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1" (2007), which forced school districts to begin thinking of new ways to integrate their schools without relying on race as the sole factor in their assignment plans. While some school…

In this paper, I examine the use of litigation as a strategic tool of resistance for thwarting school desegregation. Utilizing "Cowan v. Bolivar County Board of Education" as a case study, I argue that, despite losing the constitutional right to racially segregate public schools according to an explicit white supremacist doctrine, whites…

As schools of choice, charter schools typically have the flexibility to enroll students from across an area, rather than being bound to a neighborhood attendance zone. And as schools usually created from scratch, charters can build diversity into their design, choosing educational models designed to appeal to a wide range of families. In practice,…

From the early 1960s through the early 1970s, a new idea drew the interest of local leaders and national networks of educators seeking to further desegregation but concerned about how to do so within the bounds of white resistance. Huge single- or multischool campuses, called education parks, would draw students from broad geographical areas and…

Chicago Public Schools and school districts throughout the country are seeking new ways to foster racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic equity as desegregation consent decrees are being lifted. One of Chicago's selective enrollment high schools drafted parents, educators, administrators, and community representatives to address its own diversity…

In this paper, we investigate whether the school desegregation produced by court-ordered desegregation plans persists when school districts are released from court oversight. Over 200 medium-sized and large districts were released from desegregation court orders from 1991 to 2009. We find that racial school segregation in these districts increased…

In this paper we investigate whether the school desegregation produced by court-ordered desegregation plans persists when school districts are released from court oversight. Over 200 medium-sized and large districts were released from desegregation court orders from 1991 to 2009. We find that racial school segregation in these districts increased…

The Commonwealth of Kentucky was identified in the Adams v Richardson case as one of the nineteen states that were cited for providing separate but equal education for black and white students in higher education. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) required the state of Kentucky to develop a voluntary desegregation plan for its state institutions to…

Eighteen years after the Supreme Court rendered its decision in Fordice, many states have complied somewhat or not at all to its mandates. This has been particularly evident in Maryland, where the presidents of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are pressuring the state to fulfill its commitment with the Office of Civil Rights…

To shed light on the actual impact of school choice on segregation, one has to understand the counter factual--the state of segregation under the current public education system. In the late 1960s and '70s, the trend in public school racial segregation followed the trend in neighborhood segregation. That is to say both improved as American…

What happens if Americans fundamental freedoms are denied or deferred? What is the ideal of freedom? Boston, Massachusetts, has long been a crucible for social, cultural, and political change. Here was the shot heard 'round the world, stronghold of abolition, home to the U.S. Colored Troops, the birthplace of American literature.... Boston is also…

The fight for equal educational opportunity in New York has followed a pattern similar to other diverse or racially transforming states. From the 1950s to 1980s, the issue of school desegregation was an important issue. Local civil rights pressure, the courts, and legislation attempted to desegregate large urban school systems through both…

North Carolina has a storied history of school integration efforts spanning several decades. In response to the "Brown" decision, North Carolina's strategy of delayed integration was more subtle than the overt defiance of other Southern states. Numerous North Carolina school districts were early leaders in employing strategies to…