In a context that privileges neighborhood zoning and school choice over within-district busing, we examine urban residents' perceptions of the benefits of racial diversity. We analyze public opinion trends by race and residents' experience as a student in a district under court-ordered desegregation--Nashville, TN. We find racial differences…

In the wake of political and legal challenges facing race-based integration, districts have turned to socioeconomic integration initiatives in an attempt to achieve greater racial balance across schools. Empirically, the extent to which these initiatives generate such balance is an open question. In this article, we leverage the school assignment…

In 1981, Cambridge, Massachusetts, became the first school district in America to replace its neighborhood schools with a "controlled choice" assignment plan, which considered parental preference and racial balance. This article considers the history preceding this decision to explore how and why some Americans became enamored with…

The racial achievement gap has persisted in the decades since "Brown v. Board," despite large-scale investment in school reform. Accordingly, some administrators and politicians are reconsidering integration policies as a means of addressing the gap. This study examines one Chicago community's discussion of such integration policy.…

Neighborhood schools engender the idea that schools can be integral community centers, with learning facilitated by the personal relationships developed among teachers, administrators, students, and parents. Neighborhood schools also have represented stigmatized segregated spaces located in communities with high poverty rates, low high school…

America's schools are more segregated now than they were in the late 1960s. More than 50 years after "Brown v. Board of Education," educators need to radically rethink the meaning of "school choice." For decades at Wake County, buses would pick up public school students in largely minority communities along the Raleigh…

The interplay between sociopolitical forces and economic agendas becomes apparent when one examines the June 28, 2007 United States Supreme Court Decision, Parents Involved In Community Schools v. Seattle School District . In a reversal of the 1954 Brown Decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that public schools could not use race as a…

"From the Courtroom to the Classroom" examines recent developments pertaining to school desegregation in the United States. As the editors note, it comes at a time marked by a "general downplaying of race and ethnicity as criteria for the allocation of public resources, as well as a weakening of the political forces that support…

In light of a monumental class size research study completed in Tennessee, the U.S. Department of Education should reexamine the 1954 "Brown v. Board of Education" decision and make legal accommodation for field testing new mechanisms affecting public policy equity decisions. Neighborhood schools should be reinstated in selected cities…

Examines the courts' role in desegregating American schools in the 40 years since "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" and discusses reasons why desegregation is still a desirable goal for public schools. Having recognized its limited power to end segregation during the 1970s, the U.S. Supreme Court is gradually relinquishing…

Describes the cultural consequences of a local school closing in a predominantly black community as a result of desegregation policies. It shows that, although segregation was abolished in this community, educational equality remains elusive, concluding the real result was the closing of a school that the town felt a sense of ownership in for the…

Reprints Marion Wright Edelman's 1975 article in which she argues that resistance to school desegregation means denying African-American children equal protection. Forty years after Brown v Board of Education, suggests that the current debate on educational quality be broadened to include issues of social inequality. (SK)

Traces school integration progress and emphasizes the role of pride and community spirit in building good schools. (DW)

Reviews the struggle for access to education waged by minorities after the Brown decision (1954), considering both gains and losses in the search for educational equity. New tactics are needed to move to a truly multicultural education. (SLD)

Lists 69 annotated entries of writings between 1973 and 1982 on the social, political, and economic effects of Brown v Board of Education. (CMG)