Abstract
Almost 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, issues of race and schooling continue to trouble urban schools. In fact, despite years of litigation, inner-city public schools are becoming increasingly resegregated since the Supreme Court has essentially signaled that it is no longer interested in dealing with school desegregation. Against this sad fact, the articles in this special issue identify and address key issues surrounding school resegregation issues in urban areas and what can be done to provide more equitable schooling.
Dana N. Thompson Dorsey, the guest editor of this special issue of Education and Urban Society, introduces the issue in “Segregation 2.0: The New Generation of School Segregation in the 21st Century.” In so doing, she offers a more detailed overview of the articles while briefly discussing the legal milieu that led to resegregation.
Erica Frankenberg’s piece, “The Role of Residential Segregation in Contemporary School Segregation,” examines the relationship between housing patterns in urban communities and racial segregation in schools. Sheneka M. Williams and Eric A. Houck’s article, “The Life and Death of Desegregation Policy in Wake County Public School System and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools” analyzes the history and outcomes of the desegregation policies of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, home to what had been one of the longest running school desegregation cases, and Wake County Public Schools from 1999 to 2009.
In “Segregation in Charter Schools: The Important Role of University-based Authorizers,” Suzanne E. Eckes and Jonathan A. Plucker look at how charter schools have contributed to the growth of school resegregation while also considering the role university-based authorizers could play in encouraging student body diversity in charter schools. “Nearly 50 Years Post-Jim Crow: Persisting and Expansive School Segregation for African American, Latina/o and ELL students in Texas” by Julian Vasquez Heilig and Jennifer Jellison Holme rounds out the issue. This article investigate the triple segregation of English Language Learners in the forms of racial, economic, and linguistic segregation along with the connection to high-stakes accountability ratings in public schools in Texas.
The sad fact is that resegregation in urban schools is likely to continue to increase unless lawmakers, educational leaders, community, and others work together to devise alternatives. Against this background, the articles in this special issue of EUS challenge readers to engage in dialogue to develop means to ensure the promise of Brown by providing equal educational opportunities for children who attend inner city public schools.