For the past thirty years, Michigan has used Emergency Management (EM) and receiverships to solve city and school finance issues. The impact of these state intervention policies has been highly publicized and has led to institutional distrust among black citizens in urban communities --with the Flint water crisis standing out as the most infamous…

This brief uses data from the Michigan Department of Education to explore suspension and expulsion rates among students who have experienced homelessness compared to their housed peers. Key takeaways from the analysis include: (1) Greater economic and housing instability is associated with higher rates of disciplinary action; (2) The association…

How can we suppress racism? How can we suppress homophobia? How can we suppress antisemitism and Islamophobia? How can we suppress ableism? How can we suppress classism? As teachers, scholars, learners, colleagues, writers, and people who serve in various roles in their personal and professional lives, what do we need to do to suppress the -isms…

The authors describe a promising approach to engaging high school students in intergroup dialogues, relying on "near peers"--in this case, local college students--to facilitate a series of classroom discussions about racial identity, differences, and opportunities to connect. Early results suggest that the approach had significant…

It has been almost five years since Michigan voters chose to ban race-conscious programs from state-funded institutions. The impact of the decision was swift and painful for many, particularly in the state's public higher education landscape. Minority enrollment in public colleges--which was already low--plummeted in many categories as…

Professor Cohen describes the arduous path to the passage of Proposition 2 in Michigan in 2006. In considering the reasons for its victory, he shows how claims (sometimes well-intended) "for" preferences rest on truly bad arguments. (Contains 8 footnotes.)

Understandably, current discussions about access that take place in higher education circles often focus on the underrepresentation of students from low-income families. At the same time, recent events in Michigan have refocused attention on questions of race- and gender-based affirmative action. Thus, how can higher education ensure that students…

A study compared 311 junior high school students who received suspensions with 2,050 who did not. The relationship of suspension to student's race, sex, and academic achievement test scores was examined. It was found that white higher achievers were suspended less often than any other group. (GC)

The importance of diversity and inclusion to higher education was the focus of intense legal and social scientific analysis in the decisions of the United States Supreme Court concerning affirmative action at the University of Michigan. The leadership of higher education and several other sectors of society offered overwhelming support, and a…

The U.S. Supreme Court provided evidence that its membership had shifted to be more critical of affirmative action as it heard oral arguments last week in two cases involving the race-based assignment of students to public schools. Although the court did not exhibit any desire to reconsider its stand on affirmative action in higher education, the…

Grounded in integrated and excerpt style (Emerson, et al., 1995), this article chronicles Mr. Lehrer, an English teacher who provides his students access to standard and nonstandard writing conventions. Student writing samples and discursive practices illustrate enhanced awareness of distinctions between nonstandard language (African American…

This is a collection of papers from a 2001 symposium at Harvard University entitled "State Merit Aid Programs: College Access and Equity." After a Foreword by Gary Orfield, the seven papers are (1) "State Merit Scholarship Programs: An Introduction" (Donald E. Heller); (2) "Merit Scholarships and College Access: Evidence…

The empirical evidence about whom charter schools serve is extensive but inconclusive. Some studies conclude that America's charter schools serve a larger percentage of minority and low-income students than do the nation's traditional public schools (TPS) (U.S. Department of Education, 2004). Other studies find charter students are not more…

THE SOCIALIZATION PROCESS OF NEGRO AND WHITE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WAS STUDIED. PRIMARY DATA WERE GATHERED FROM FIVE HIGH SCHOOLS LOCATED IN VARIOUS REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES. THE SCHOOLS WERE SELECTED ACCORDING TO THEIR RACIAL COMPOSITION AND REGION, TWO IN THE SOUTH AND THREE IN THE NORTHEAST. SOUTHERN SCHOOLS HAD EXAMPLES OF ALL NEGRO AND ALL…

In two succeeding years, 1974 and 1975, the same attitude questionnaire is given to students in succeeding grades to determine attitude change as they move from third to fourth grade or from sixth to seventh grade. Rather than reporting on each of thirty-five attitude items separately, a statistical technique is applied to select the most…