School Resegregation: Must the South Turn Back? - Paperback

by John Charles Boger (Editor), Gary Orfield (Editor)

Confronting a reality that many policy makers would prefer to ignore, contributors to this volume offer the latest information on the trend toward the racial and socioeconomic resegregation of southern schools. In the region that has achieved more widespread public school integration than any other since 1970, resegregation, combined with resource inequities and the current "accountability movement," is now bringing public education in the South to a critical crossroads.

In thirteen essays, leading thinkers in the field of race and public education present not only the latest data and statistics on the trend toward resegregation but also legal and policy analysis of why these trends are accelerating, how they are harmful, and what can be done to counter them. What's at stake is the quality of education available to both white and nonwhite students, they argue. This volume will help educators, policy makers, and concerned citizens begin a much-needed dialogue about how America can best educate its increasingly multiethnic student population in the twenty-first century.

Contributors:
Karen E. Banks, Wake County Public School System, Raleigh, N.C.
John Charles Boger, University of North Carolina School of Law
Erwin Chemerinsky, Duke Law School
Charles T. Clotfelter, Duke University
Susan Leigh Flinspach, University of California, Santa Cruz
Erica Frankenberg, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Catherine E. Freeman, U.S. Department of Education
Jay P. Heubert, Teachers College, Columbia University
Jennifer Jellison Holme, University of California, Los Angeles
Michal Kurlaender, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Helen F. Ladd, Duke University
Luis M. Laosa, Kingston, N.J.
Jacinta S. Ma, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Gary Orfield, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Gregory J. Palardy, University of Georgia
john a. powell, Ohio State University
Sean F. Reardon, Stanford University
Russell W. Rumberger, University of California, Santa Barbara
Benjamin Scafidi, Georgia State University
David L. Sjoquist, Georgia State University
Jacob L. Vigdor, Duke University
Amy Stuart Wells, Teachers College, Columbia University
John T. Yun, University of California, Santa Barbara

Front Jacket

Leading thinkers in the fields of race and public education discuss the current trend of resegregation in southern schools, a trend many policymakers would prefer to ignore, but that nonetheless profoundly affects public education in the South. Essays examine why resegregation is occurring; the effects of the trend, especially on students of color and in high-poverty areas; and what might be done to counteract it.

Author Biography

John Charles Boger is Wade Edwards Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law and deputy director of the University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights. He is coeditor of Race, Poverty, and American Cities. Gary Orfield is professor of education, law, political science, and urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles and codirector of The Civil Rights Project at UCLA.