The purpose of this study is to inform public policies aimed at improving parental school-choice processes. The study estimates both the utility obtained by parents from different school attributes and the effective utility obtained with the actual school choice made by parents. The difference between both types of utilities provides a panorama on…

The continued presence of educational management organizations (EMO) is explained as an inevitable and continued component of the public school landscape. This article discusses both why EMOs are here to stay and the benefits of EMOs in public education. Statistics are shared showing a 420% increase in the number of EMOs over the past 11 years as…

This study investigates the interrelationship of categorical funding mechanisms within the Colorado school finance system for English language learners (ELLs) in an effort to test overall equity of the system in light of an underfunded categorical program. Using several analytical techniques, the study set out to determine the degree to which…

Inaction to address housing segregation in metropolitan areas has resulted in persistently high levels of residential segregation. As the Supreme Court has recently limited school districts' voluntary integration efforts, this article considers the role of residential segregation in maintaining racially isolated schools, namely what is known…

The state of North Carolina is one of few states in the South in which two large districts committed to desegregating schools in the early 1970s. However, the state's two largest districts, Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools (CMS) and Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) have experienced ups and downs in their policy commitment to desegregated…

Students are more racially segregated in schools today than they were in the late 1960s and prior to the enforcement of court-ordered desegregation in school districts across the country. This special issue addresses the overarching theme of policies, practices, or roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders that may directly or indirectly…

This article argues that one possible avenue for addressing and increasing student body diversity in charter schools may lie with the authorizer. In particular, we focus on the role of university-based authorizers, a group of sponsors that would appear to be especially concerned with educational opportunity given their faculties' traditional…

This study addresses the segregation of English language learner (ELL) students in schools across Texas. We descriptively analyze levels of racial, economic, and linguistic isolation experienced by ELL students across the state of Texas. We also examine the association between segregation by race/ethnicity, economic disadvantage, and language…

This daily diary study followed, over a 2-week period, 252 beginning New York City public school teachers. Seventy percent were alternatively certified (New York City Teaching Fellows) and the rest, traditionally certified teachers. Alternatively certified teachers were more likely to experience stressors such as violent incidents and classroom…

The educational community is divided over which is the best approach for improving urban schools: focus on teaching and learning or underlying social inequity? This article argues that the students who attend urban schools can inform the debate. The study draws on interviews with fourteen urban youth about their participation in a community-based…

This qualitative research study examined ethnic identity development among underrepresented students of color at a selective, research intensive, predominantly White university. The objective focused on influences of the campus experience on students' ethnic identity development when they entered and as they prepared to graduate from college.…

Often research on the professional development (PD) of staff is framed within a problem-based context that focuses on the PD-related problems experienced by staff. This study pursued a different approach by using the appreciative inquiry (AI) theoretical perspective to study the positive experiences of staff in respect of PD and their desire to…

This article challenges the view that citywide referenda alone are an effective means of ensuring accountability for mayoral control. Through new empirical analysis of the referenda results in Boston and Cleveland, the article shows that rather than establish genuine democratic legitimacy, the referenda in fact mask strong class-based, and in…

This manuscript begins by distinguishing the common structural and cultural arguments that tend to guide popular urban achievement gap research. It highlights Jencks and Phillips, and Payne, as two cases of popular texts followed by critical responses to them. It concludes by imagining a compass to guide burgeoning scholars toward reading into…

The articles included in this volume of "Education and Urban Society" inform the special issue theme that poses the question "Are We There Yet?" An examination of educational equity in the era of school reform and accountability. Despite two decades of dramatic shifts in educational reform and policy among states and local school districts pre-…