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…

Race has been a central thread in the American fabric since the country's inception, and relationships among racial groups, particularly between Whites and African Americans, have been strained due to the nation's historic founding. Larger, societal tensions around race likely manifest in schools and threaten to impede the premise and promise of…

The "Brown" v. Board of Education ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court brought hopes of long-denied freedom to Black communities and their inhabitants. However, implementation of Brown ushered in more misery than a mandate for equality. The "Brown" v. Board of Education ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court brought hopes of long-denied…

Over the past half century, law and policy have helped cement tremendous inequities into the structure of our cities. District boundary lines separating multiple, unequal school systems within a single metropolitan (metro) area play a central role in structuring racial and economic isolation. Using data from the National Center for Education…

The purpose of this "Equity by Design" brief is to provide information to parents, community members, and school district leaders and teachers about the relationship between housing policy and school policy. Specifically, this brief provides a succinct history of U.S. housing policy, discusses some current educational policies that…

Discourses that supported de jure segregated schools often invoked White innocence in the form of altruistic motivations. These same invocations are found in more contemporary school policy discourses. The authors of this article argue, based on the concept of intertextuality of discourse, the existence of contemporary schooling policies as…

The 2007 "Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1". Supreme Court 5:4 decision suggests that the Court is divided in its interpretation of "Brown" and its intent in addressing racial segregation. Although "Brown" intended equal educational opportunities through desegregation practices,…