For the first time since 1968, local education authorities in Washington, D.C. embarked on a contentious process of engaging communities as part of a comprehensive revision of the city's student assignment and school boundary policies in 2013. Despite the potentially divisive nature of the issue, public deliberation went beyond re-drawing school…

Purpose: This study investigated how superintendents lead the process of within-district racial and socioeconomic integration. Design/methodology/approach: The researchers used Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology to analyze interviews with superintendents, documents and videos from four school districts in suburban, southeastern…

This study of a multi-district superintendency in rural Minnesota reveals how schools act as spaces where community boundaries expand as a result of partnership and collaboration. The project, informed by grounded theory, seeks to fill a key gap in understanding the experiences of school staff and community members in multi-district resource…

The 2013 merger of Memphis City Schools (with 103,000 students) and Shelby County Schools (with 47,000 students) was the largest school district consolidation in American history. In its first year of operation, the new Shelby County Schools (SCS) commissioned CRPE researchers to perform a critical review of the district's readiness to implement a…

The 1968 Spainhower Commission planned extensive changes in the organization of public education in Missouri, proposing larger, comprehensive districts throughout the state. Intended to increase efficiency and reduce inequities, its reform proposals spurred widespread opposition from both rural and suburban communities. In the suburbs hostility…

In December 2009, a rapid-growth school district on the Texas Gulf Coast shifted its paradigm of rezoning. Even though half of the Katy Independent School District (Katy ISD) was affected, it achieved a genuine ownership for boundary changes that would affect more than 11,500 students at five schools. Katy ISD accomplished this by seeking…

Redrawing school attendance boundaries is one of the most sensitive tasks a school board faces. Factors to consider include the following: (1) life span of the change; (2) effective date; (3) racial balance; (4) resource equity; and (5) program, public, and financial impact. Outlines a process for developing redistricting plans. (MLF)

Describes judicial actions concerning two recent changes of significance to educational control and finance--the consolidation of urban and suburban school districts, and the busing of elementary pupils away from their neighborhood schools. Explains how the lines of action taken go contrary to well known and well accepted findings of political…

According to an Ohio elementary principal who chaired a redistricting committee, establishing new school attendance boundaries can be frustrating. Despite good intentions, the nearly all-white, all-female committee worked harder to protect their individual neighborhoods than to achieve common goals. The process would have benefited from a more…

Last year, 67,000 children in Jefferson County were bussed every day; this year, there was violent and angry opposition to the bussing of a few thousand additional children, the difference being that these children were to be bussed because of court-ordered desegregation of the merged Louisville and Jefferson County school systems. (Author/JM)

In 1969, the New York City school decentralization law divided the city school system into 31 (later 32) community school districts, each under the auspices of a locally elected board. The findings and recommendations of a large-scale evaluation of the governance of New York City schools in the post-decentralization era are presented in this…

Using data from 168 central city school boards, this study examines the impact of different selection plans (at-large, mixed/ward, and appointive) on the relationship between Blacks' resources (numbers, money, and organization) and Black electoral success. Findings suggest that the use of an "at-large" selection system impedes the conversion of…

In one Missouri farming community, school district consolidation threatens the existence of the town's only school and the town itself. The school is the area's largest employer, and it carries the town's history. Though consolidation is not being forced, the financial burden of supporting the school is overwhelming. (SM)

Presents information on trends in school district size, briefly considers the relationship between school size and student performance, discusses the rationale and consequences of consolidation of small and rural schools, and briefly outlines positive views on small schools. (IAH)

The author uses the "lifecourse" of one model--the community partnership plan--as a lens into school reform in Philadelphia, focusing particularly on the politics of school reform and Philadelphians' responses to privatization. The aim of the article is to show that education reform is not about the orderly implementation of a particular…