ERIC Number: EJ1058664
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-May
Pages: 51
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0895-9048
EISSN: N/A
The "Post-Racial" Politics of Race: Changing Student Assignment Policy in Three School Districts
McDermott, Kathryn A.; Frankenberg, Erica; Diem, Sarah
Educational Policy, v29 n3 p504-554 May 2015
Many school districts have recently revised, or tried to revise, their policies for assigning students to schools, because the legal and political status of racial and other kinds of diversity is uncertain, and the districts are facing fiscal austerity. This article presents case studies of politics and student assignment policy in three large school districts: Boston, Massachusetts; Wake County (Raleigh), North Carolina; and Jefferson County (Louisville), Kentucky. In all three districts, there has been pressure to change student-assignment policies in ways that respond to the priorities of White and middle-class populations, with the potential to worsen the options available to students of color. Our case studies reinforce the criticisms of race-neutral politics and policy that have been made by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and others. Race-neutral politics during fiscal retrenchment tends to reframe privilege as common sense and to obscure some students' structural disadvantages.
Descriptors: Race, Politics of Education, Student Placement, Board of Education Policy, School Districts, Case Studies, Equal Education, School Desegregation, Public Schools, Desegregation Litigation, Court Litigation, Elementary Secondary Education
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: California; Kentucky; Massachusetts; North Carolina; Texas
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Bakke v Regents of University of California; Brown v Board of Education; Grutter et al v Bollinger et al; Hopwood v Texas; Rose v Council for Better Education
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A