Critics of school choice claim support for educational options was an outgrowth of racist, segregationist views following the U.S. Supreme Court's Ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. In this paper, I examine these claims by analyzing the development of the public school system in the United States and the historical records from Citizens for…

Purpose: This article reflects on the 60th anniversary of the "Brown v. Board of Education" Supreme Court decision while discussing the significant lessons learned from this and subsequent court decisions. Argument: In this article, we posit that a fundamentally different conversation surrounding the legacy of Brown is needed if we are…

In this reflective essay, the author addresses fellow educators and their responsibility to students on issues surrounding the ongoing struggle for civil rights. She links the integration of Little Rock, Arkansas schools in 1957 with the 2018 student protest against gun violence following the Parkland, FL mass shooting. As a facilitator of…

Recent research suggests that high-stakes standardized testing has played a negative role in the segregation of children by race and class in schools. In this article we review research on the overall effects of segregation, the positive and negative aspects of how desegregation plans were carried out following the 1954 Supreme Court decision…

Building on the premise that closing achievement gaps is an economic imperative both to regain international educational supremacy and to maintain global economic competitiveness, I ask whether it is possible to rewrite the social contract so that education is a fundamental right--a statutory guarantee--that is both uniform across states and…

What explains the rise of race-conscious affirmative action policies in undergraduate admissions? The dominant theory posits that adoption of such policies was precipitated by urban and campus unrest in the North during the late 1960s. Based on primary research in a sample of 17 selective schools, we find limited support for the dominant theory.…

This paper considers African-American student protests in secondary schools during the 1960s and early 1970s. Taking a national perspective, it charts a growing sense of independence and militancy among black students as they made the schools a focal point of activism. Activist students challenged established civil rights organisations on a…

Historically, the Supreme Court responds to the majority of cases brought before it with a decision or commentary that directs one or both of the parties on what to do--whether reparations by judgment, delivery of specific property, incarceration, or cessation of doing something. In May 1954, when the school segregation cases of "Brown"…

Changes in the world of higher education since the '60s can be captured in several photographs, including the aftermath of the war protest rally at Kent State, James Meredith with the National Guard, Allan Bakke beside a patient's bed, and the Asian student in Beijing who challenged government tanks. (MLW)

An analysis tracing the repercussions and problems raised by the Brown decision, with respect to the use of constitutional litigation as an instrument of social reform. (EH)

The conditions that students, parents, teachers, and administrators experienced are a product of economic, political, and social influences that impact the day-to-day operation of urban schools. One cannot understand the context of urban schools in the United States without considering the economic, political, and social influences that have made…