"Turnaround" strategies of educational reform promise that school closure, reconstitution, privatizing, and reopening them will bring miraculous results. Questioning the implications, this article situates "turnaround" strategies locally, following the closure of a predominantly minority high school in 2008, in Austin, Texas. The neoliberal…

This article uses critical theoretical methods to reconsider the potential of "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka" in urban education. It finds "Brown" as a potentially useful tool for coconstructing critical race pedagogy of hope that involves (a) Socratic questioning of the endemic nature of racism and power dynamics of public education and…

The purpose of this article is to extend the growing counternarrative in education research concerning the negative consequences of school desegregation and its implications for urban education, educational leadership, and policy reform in the post-Civil Rights Era. Guided by qualitative and historical research methods, this article presents the…

This study analyzes the increase in school segregation in Delaware from a quantitative perspective. The article tests the hypothesis that the declaration of unitary status that released the Wilmington area school districts from their desegregation order caused the increase in segregation. The research reveals that the declaration of unitary status…

For over a century after the 1896 "Plessy v. Ferguson" decision, researchers have been grappling with how to effectively implement educational reform policies to provide students with an equal education in American schools. This literature review examines previous school desegregation cases and school desegregation plans to investigate how schools…

This article examines a half century of housing and school segregation data in two large California school districts. Based on a review of both the methods and the substantive data available tracking the relationship between school and housing integration, the study reported here shows that very substantial school-level integration in these two…

This study chronicles the historical divisions of race and class between Detroit and its suburban neighbor as an explanation for current tensions in the communities and schools. This analysis poses implications for educational apartheid and stark disparities between urban and suburban boundaries and consequent discomfort among practitioners when…

Many districts are considering revamping the systems determining which schools students attend. These discussions are, inherently, about the fate of the neighborhood school. But this term has never been well defined. We develop a three-dimensional, theoretically, and empirically grounded definition of a neighborhood school. The authors' two case…

Current research suggests that schools in urban settings are experiencing increased instances of de facto segregation. This article explores the implications for creating democratic structures in schools that are segregated and includes a discussion of the desegregation efforts in Kansas City, Missouri, as a way to illustrate the reality of the…

As we revisit the victory of Brown, we know that the work of countless unsung warriors has taken us to a new level in the battle to acquire educational equality for African American children. In an effort to honor those people whose work have brought us this far, we visited with one expert witness and intellectual architect on desegregation to…

This article constructs a local history of resistance to school desegregation in St. Bernard Parish, a predominantly White community in the metropolitan area of New Orleans, Louisiana. Within the scholarly framework of massive resistance, St. Bernard Parish beckons consideration today for its elaborate public school gender-separation scheme, which…

This article examines a decade or more of scholarly and popular writings that blame the persistence of racial inequality in educational performance primarily, if not exclusively, on the cultural inheritance of African Americans. This article focuses in part on the ways in which contemporary rationales for educational inequality are linked to a…

To comply with the district desegregation plan, the San Francisco Unified School District previously required higher scores for Chinese American applicants to its academic magnet high school than for more underrepresented groups. Examines the admissions debate, suggesting that exclusion of Asian and Latino concerns in district policymaking led to…

Examines school desegregation and the lack of research-based decision making by courts and school districts regarding these plans. Discusses the benefits, costs, and losses of school desegregation and recommends the development of programs and curricular strategies that build upon students' cultural backgrounds and strengths and development of the…

Interviewed African American teachers at two suburban elementary schools to investigate their perceptions of and experiences in schools where European American teachers and students predominated. Data were analyzed with a focus on organizational culture and ethnic identity. Results indicate that such teachers need preparation with strategies for…