Housing policy directly impacts schools. Public schools typically reflect their neighborhood demographics because most students are assigned to schools based on their residence. In 2021, over two thirds of K-12 public school students nationwide attended their neighborhood school. Thus, any serious hope of integrating America's public education…

"The Way We Do School: The Making of Oakland's Full-Service Community School District" offers an in-depth profile of the nation's most ambitious community school initiative. The book focuses on a nearly ten-year effort to transform all eighty-six district schools in Oakland, California into community schools in order to better meet the…

In Philadelphia, if a student chooses not to attend their neighborhood school, other options include schools with specialized programming in the arts, sciences, or business fields, schools with career and technical education options, and competitive magnet schools. But choosing an out-of-catchment school rather than a neighborhood school may…

The focus of this report is on mental health interventions delivered in K-12 neighborhood public schools. A vast array of commercially available programs, conceptual frameworks, and approaches to school-based mental health are not unanimously recommended, applied, or agreed upon. This poses a challenge to any comprehensive description or…

This report examines current educational options for U.S. students and the challenges of ensuring that choices are equally available and offer high-quality education. The report suggests what state policymakers can do to create high-quality opportunities that offer each family a system of schools worth choosing. The analysis starts from the…

Throughout much of the nation, parents have a clear-cut choice of where to educate their children--in a public school, at taxpayer expense, or in a private school, at the family's expense. In Milwaukee and some other cities, however, that line is not so clear; students can attend public schools operated by private organizations and private schools…

This list of resources offers promising strategies that communities and policymakers can use to make sustainable advances in achieving equitable transportation systems. Resources are organized into seven categories: transportation equity, Safe Routes to School, school siting, complete streets, non-motorized transportation, community design, and…

Discusses the Fourth Circuit Court's decision in "Riddick v. School Board of Norfolk" allowing the school board to stop busing children even though the return to neighborhood schools creates many racially isolated schools. The argument turns on whether segregation is "de jure" or "de facto"; the distinguishing factor…

The many advantages of preserving the nature of community schools is discussed in light of the development of voucher programs and reasons to oppose the voucher system are outlined. [This document originally appeared in the "IDRA Newsletter", however some accompanying charts and graphs may not be provided here.]

Outlines a plan for school attendance near family workplace. Advantages include wider school choice and a new approach to integrating schools. Some disadvantages include transportation and child care needs. (MD)

Smart growth schools are small in size, encourage broad community involvement, and make good use of existing resources. Promoting small, community-based schools requires innovation, new partnerships, and a commitment to working to overcome the barriers presented by traditional rules and regulations. (Author/MLF)

This document offers a detailed description of the dynamics involved in the choice of an independent neighborhood school. These primarily urban schools are an expression of cultural power and identity among minority groups who wish to ensure access to opportunities for academic achievement for their children and also to control the content and…

In the summer of 1986 the Institute for Independent Education brought to Washington, D.C., 27 teachers who teach mathematics to children enrolled primarily in grades five to eight at independent neighborhood schools that serve mainly African-American children in inner-city neighborhoods. The program included a training course in mathematics…

This monograph documents major events in the Cincinnati (Ohio) School District (CSD) in 1990-91 concerning the Bronson Settlement, which was the result of a racial segregation suit against the CSD (Mona Bronson, et al. v. Board of Education of the City of Cincinnati). The Bronson Settlement ordered changes in nine areas of the CSD. This report…

This book analyzes how community-based organizations in low income urban neighborhoods can promote reform of their local public schools. Chapter 1, "Reassessing the Declining Urban Neighborhood," discusses the sources of urban decline in terms of a structural relationship between "haves" and "have-nots." Chapter 2,…