The 2014-2015 academic year marked the first year that American, preK-12 public school enrollment became majority nonwhite, with Hispanic/Latino as the largest minority. Population shifts have continued to occur, with Latinos now representing 28% of public school students. American public schools are in trouble, with national achievement reaching…

"Resisting Divide-and-Conquer Strategies in Education: Pathways and Possibilities" examines the ways in which divide-and-conquer strategies operate in the American public education system. In U.S. education, these mechanisms are endemic and enduring, if not always evident. Coordinated, strategic, well-funded, politically-viable campaigns…

As the 1968 Bilingual Education Act (BEA) reaches its 50th anniversary, we provide a critical historical review of its contradictory origins and legacy. By distilling the BEA's history into three periods that we label "power to the people," "pride for the people," and "profit from the people," we demonstrate that the…

Derrick Bell's interest convergence thesis is a seminal framework to analyze social change within critical race theory. While interest convergence's influence has grown, two foundational questions have been raised: do interest groups act rationally; does interest convergence also offer a change prescription or only an explanation of prior events.…

This article takes a look at the Mendez v. Westminster School District, a landmark case that faded into historical obscurity. In the 1940s, Gonzalo and Felicita Mendez wanted their three children to attend the school nearest their farm, which was the 17th Street Elementary School in Westminster. But in the Westminster, Orange County, El Medina,…

In the waning months of World War II, Latino families in Orange County, California, protested efforts by local authorities to place their children in segregated schools. Their victory presaged the Supreme Court showdown in the next decade. (EV)

The United States is quick to celebrate the Brown v. Board of Education decision, but there is an insidious trend toward resegregation in the public schools. For the first time since 1954, school segregation is actually increasing for African American students. In several rarely discussed decisions, the Supreme Court has opened the door for the…

This report examines a decade of resegregation from the time of the Supreme Court's 1991 "Dowell" decision, which authorized a return to neighborhood schools, even if that would create segregation, through the 2001-2002 school year. It goes beyond previous reports by Harvard's Civil Rights Project to study the impact of resegregation in…

Describes the progress made to improve the educational experience of Latinos incident to Brown v Board of Education as well as the legal history of Latino desegregation. It focuses on bilingual education as a remedy for educational inequity and on the rise of multicultural education, the latest instructional approach to emerge in the evolution of…

Provides a list from the ERIC database of teaching materials and background information on desegregation. Topics include American Indian boarding schools, Brown v. Board of Education, and segregation in relation to Asian and Hispanic students. Offers directions for obtaining the full text of these materials. (CMK)

Do social policy intellectuals and their research help to strengthen quality education? Was the 1954 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, which relied heavily on social science research, flawed in its reasoning on school desegregation, equal educational opportunity, and quality education for African Americans?…

Bilingual education has had great impact on education in the United States. Bilingual education programs have existed since 1845. Between 1854-1877, eight states enacted laws stipulating that local school boards had the power to require English-German bilingual programs. Many bilingual education programs were created, thrived, and eventually died;…

Schools are inadequately prepared to serve the needs of increasing numbers of culturally diverse students. Problems relate to desegregation, multicultural education, higher quality education, and bilingual education. New York City is used as an example, noting the school system's role in serving New York's immigrant students. (SM)

Describes the facts and legal basis of federal court decisions in "Zelman v. Simmons-Harris," a case before the U.S. Supreme Court to determine if Cleveland's school voucher program violates the Establish Clause. Discusses the possible educational, legal, and political consequences of the Court's decision. (On June 27, 2002, the Supreme…

This issue reviews national demographic trends in school segregation, summarizing research findings. Though the national debate on school segregation emphasizes blacks and whites, present-day school segregation includes segregation by socioeconomic level, ethnicity, and native language. The research study examined features of the ecology of…