Diversity

David J. Armor, sociologist
George Mason University
Fairfax, Va.
703-993-2260
darmor@gmu.edu
Armor’s research has focused on the effect of desegregation on student achievement.

Christine Rossell, professor
Boston University
Boston, Mass.
617-353-2776
crossell@bu.edu
Rossell has studied the history of school desegregation and has compared the effectiveness of voluntary and mandatory plans.

Richard D. Kahlenberg
The Century Foundation
Washington, D.C.
202-745-5476
kahlenberg@tcf.org
Kahlenberg has written about various topics, including the integration of schools by socioeconomic status.

Alfred A. Lindseth, lawyer
Atlanta, Ga.
404-853-8119
al.lindseth@sablaw.com
Lindseth has defended clients in desegregation suits in Connecticut, Los Angeles, St. Louis and elsewhere.

Glenn C. Loury, Professor of Economics
Boston University
617-353-5852
gloury@bu.edu
Loury has written about issues of race and inequality.

James McPartland
Center for Social Organization of Schools
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Md.
410-516-8803
jmcpartland@csos.jhu.edu
McPartland can comment on how desegregated schools are working.

Dennis Parker
Director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program
media@aclu.org
Parker was formerly the chief of the N.Y. State Attorney General’s Civil Rights Bureau and beforet hat an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund who has represented plaintiffs in numerous desegregation cases, mostly in the South.

Gary Orfield, director
The Civil Rights Project
UCLA
Los Angeles, Calif.
310 267 4877
orfield@gseis.ucla.edu
The Civil Rights Project has conducted numerous studies on issues of race, including changing demographic patterns and the effect of court decisions dismantling desegregation plans.

William Taylor
Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights
Washington, D.C.
202-659-5565
btaylor@cccr.org
Taylor, a civil rights lawyer, has been involved in school desegregation cases in several cities, including St. Louis, site of the nation’s largest voluntary desegregation program.

Theodore M. Shaw
Director-Counsel and President
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
New York, N.Y.
212-965-2200
tshaw@naacpldf.org
The organization is a good source on the legal history of school desegregation.

Amy Stuart Wells, professor
Teachers College
Columbia University
New York, N.Y.
212-678-4042
asw86@columbia.edu
Wells’ research includes long-term effects of desegregation, including data on adults who attended desegregated schools

Changing the Game: The Federal Role in Supporting 21st Century Educational Innovation
In a report released by the Brookings Institution, New America Foundation's Sara Mead and Education Sector's co-director Andrew Rotherham proposed that the federal government provide funding for innovation and experiment.
12/12/2008

The Misplaced Math Student: Lost in Eighth-Grade Algebra
The Brookings Institution analyzes the disadvantages of eighth graders taking Algebra I when they are not prepared. Tom Loveless, senior fellow and director of the Brown Center on Education at Brookings, is the lead author of the report.
by Brookings Institution , 12/12/2008

Facing the Future: Financing Productive Schools
The Brookings Institution and the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington released the final report of a six-year study examining the finances of K-12 school districts.
Center on Reinventing Public Education - Paul Hill, Marguerite Roza, and James Harvey, 11/12/2008

Counting on the Future: International Benchmarks in Mathematics for American School Districts pdf
This study by the American Institute for Research (AIR) finds U.S. students from six cities perform equal to, or better than their peers in other countries. The study says student math scores in grades 4-8 in Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Houston, New York and San Diego were on par with their peers internationally.
10/12/2008

Has Student Achievement Increased Since 2002? State Test Score Trends Through 2006-07
The Center for Educational Policy analyzed state test data from 50 states and trends from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)-the federally administered assessment of students on reading and math.
by Center on Education Policy, 7/1/2008

Has Student Achievement Improved Since 2002? State Test Score Trends Through 2006-07
The Center on Education Policy released "Has Student Achievement Increased Since 2002?" Student state test scores in reading and math have risen and the achievement gaps between groups of students---specifically African American and poor children -- are narrowing. CEP analyzed state test data from 50 states and trends from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)-the federal administered assessment of students on reading and math subjects.
Center for Education Policy - Nancy Kober, Naomi Chudowsky, Victor Chudowsky, 6/24/2008

IF IT CATCHES MY EYE pdf
Teenagers aren't much into following serious news online, but news organizations can -and should - cultivate their interest by learning how to catch their eyes, diminish their angst, go where they are, enlist parents and teachers in the cause, and help teens develop a "news persona," according to a study released by the Media Management Center at Northwestern University.
Media Management Center, Northwestern University - Vivian Vahlberg, Limor Peer, Mary Nesbitt,, 1/18/2008

The 2007 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well Are American Students Learning? pdf
This year's Brown Center Report focuses on the nation's testing achievement, private school enrollment and the impact of time on learning math.
The Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution - Tom Loveless, 12/11/2007

Teacher Quality in a Changing Policy Landscape: Improvements in the Teacher Pool pdf
The teaching profession is attracting more qualified people. The new crop of teachers scored higher on national exams such as the SAT and earned higher grades in the classroom.
Educational Testing Service - Drew H. Gitomer, 12/11/2007

Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2007
This is the third annual report from the National Charter School Research Project (NCSRP) at the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public Education. "Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools" in 2007 finds charter schools are ?quieter and less disruptive? than traditional public schools serving similar students.
Center on Reinventing Public Education - Robin J. Lake, Paul Hill, Dan Goldhaber, 12/5/2007

Reading Tests that Misread Children
Screening tests widely used to identify children with reading problems are being misapplied, landing students in the wrong instructional level and delaying treatment for their true difficulties, says new research from National-Louis University and the University of Maryland.
University of Marylan College Parkand National-Louis University - Rochelle Newman, Diane German, 11/19/2007

Standards-Based Reform and the Poverty Gap
The Brookings Institution has released a report examining No Child Left Behind's effect on the education of the nation's poor children. Researchers said there have been some positive effects for students in the improvement of teacher quality.
The Brookings Institution - Thomas Dee, Laura Desimone, George Farkas, Barbara Foorman, Brian Jacob, Robert M. Hauser, Paul Hill, 11/9/2007

Why Rural Matters 2007
Why Rural Matters 2007 is the fourth in a series of biennial reports analyzing the importance of rural education in each of the 50 states and calling attention to the urgency with which policymakers in each state should address rural education issues.
The Rural School and Community Trust - Jerry Johnson and Marty Strange, 10/23/2007

The Postsecondary Achievement of Participants in Dual Enrollment: An Analysis of Student Outcomes in Two States
The Community College Research Center has released a report about the positive outcomes of dual enrollment programs for high school students. Researchers tracked high school and college outcomes for dual enrollment participants in New York City and Florida.
Community College Research Center - Melinda Mechur Karp, Juan Carlos Calcagno, Katherine L. Hughes,Dong Wook Jeong & Thomas R. Bailey , 10/17/2007

Restoring Value to the High School Diploma: The Rhetoric and Practice of Higher Standards pdf

Title I and Early Childhood Programs: A Look at Investments in the NCLB Era pdf
Title I funds under NCLB can be spent on early childhood education. It's an opportunity for schools and school districts to increase investments in high-quality early education initiatives, which may have long-term benefits for at-risk children.
Center for Law and Social Policy - Danielle Ewen and Hannah Matthews, 10/1/2007

Smart Charter School Caps pdf
Public charter schools have experienced relatively rapid growth. This study examines how charter schools can grow without losing overall quality for students.
Education Sector - Andrew J. Rotherham, 9/25/2007

Important, But Not for Me: Kansas and Missouri Students and Parents Talk About Math, Science and Technology Education pdf
The study released by ublic Agenda is based on a 10-year project to improve math, science and technology education in the Kansas City region.
Public Agenda - Alison Kadlec and Will Friedman, 9/24/2007

Public School Practices for Violence Prevention and Reduction: 2003-04 pdf
This report analyzes data reported by school principals during 2003-2004 about the practices in place to prevent violence and crime.
National Center for Education Statistics/U.S. Department of Education - Susan Jekielek,Brett Brown,Pilar Marin,Laura Lippman,, 9/19/2007

In Memphis Classrooms, the Ghost of Segregation Lingers On

Manassas, an all-black, nearly all-poor school, has a lot going for it: a new building, a new set of intensely dedicated teachers who willingly work on Saturdays, and the attention — and money — of national foundations and advocacy groups. The school could be a poster child for the “no-excuses” education reform movement, which argues that schools and teachers should be able to help all students succeed, regardless of the challenges they face outside of school. But the reforms that drove its success are now up in the air. Sarah Garland, The Hechinger Report, Feb. 14, 2012

N.C. School Board Backed by Tea Party Abolishes Integration

As the Wake County school board moves toward a system in which students attend neighborhood schools, some members are embracing the provocative idea that concentrating poor children, who are usually minorities, in a few schools could have merits - logic that critics are blasting as a 21st-century case for segregation. Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post, Jan. 11, 2011

Giving Immigrant Kids the Tools to Excel

The number of LEP students is rising in New Jersey and nationwide. About 65,000 public school students were deemed to have limited English proficiency in New Jersey in 2008-09, up from 60,800 three years earlier. Most grew up speaking Spanish, but New Jersey students come from families speaking 187 languages. The numbers were analyzed through the EWA Education Research and Statistics Boot Camp. Leslie Brody, The Record, Dec. 20, 2010

How Will Suburban Schools Handle the New Influx of Immigrants?

In the next 20 years, the schools in need of the most help may not be the schools in inner cities like Newark or Detroit. Instead, they may be in far-flung suburbs and exurbs, where immigrants are flocking in increasing numbers, according to new projections from the U.S. Census Bureau. Sarah Garland, Hechinger Report, Dec. 15, 2010

New Latino Majority Creates New Challenges for California Schools

With the news that Latinos, for the first time ever, have become the majority in California’s public schools, researchers and educators called on the state to do more to help these students get an education that prepares them for the 21st century. Rupe Dev, New America Media, Nov. 21, 2010

Proficiency of Black Students Is Found to Be Far Lower Than Expected

An achievement gap separating black from white students has long been documented — a social divide extremely vexing to policy makers and the target of one blast of school reform after another. But a new report focusing on black males suggests that the picture is even bleaker than generally known. Trip Gabriel, The New York Times, Nov. 9, 2010

More districts use income, not race, as basis for busing
Struggling to improve schools that have large populations of poor and minority students and under legal pressure to avoid racial busing, a small but growing group of school districts are integrating schools by income. Jordan Schrader, USA Today, Nov. 4, 2009

Multiracial Pupils to Be Counted in A New Way

Washington region and elsewhere are abandoning their check-one-box approach to gathering information about race and ethnicity in an effort to develop a more accurate portrait of classrooms transformed by immigration and interracial marriage. Next year, they will begin a separate count of students who are of more than one race. Michael Alison Chandler and Maria Glod, The Washington Post, 3/23/2009

The Smokestack Effect- Toxic Air and America's Schools by Blake Morrison and Brad Heath Read USA Today's special report examining industrial pollution and toxic chemicals and their effect on public schools. USA Today, 12/8/2008

Twin Cities-area schools more segregated than ever by Beth Hawkins and Cynthia Boyd A generation ago, segregation was a strictly urban problem. Now it affects more than 40,000 of the Twin Cities metro area's 200,000 elementary school pupils in dozens of suburban communities stretching from Robbinsdale to Roseville. And it brings far-ranging consequences because most often accompanying racial segregation is its twin sister, poverty, which brings enormous challenges to students and those who teach them. Read this story a first in a five-part series. The Minnesota Post.com, 11/17/2008

Twin Cities-area schools more segregated than ever by Beth Hawkins and Cynthia Boyd A generation ago, segregation was a strictly urban problem. Now it affects more than 40,000 of the Twin Cities metro area's 200,000 elementary school pupils in dozens of suburban communities stretching from Robbinsdale to Roseville. And it brings far-ranging consequences because most often accompanying racial segregation is its twin sister, poverty, which brings enormous challenges to students and those who teach them. Read this story a first in a five-part series. The Minnesota Post.com, 11/17/2008

Fighting Massive Resistance by Denise Watson Batts The Virginia Pilot and PilotOnline.com created a comprehensive six-part series examining a pivotal time in the lives of the students who lived through the desegregation of Norfolk's public schools 50 years ago. Though Norfolk has changed, some experts say the legacy from 1958 still affects the school system. The Virginia Pilot, 9/28/2008

At Magnet School, An Asian Plurality by Michael Alison Chandler Asian American students will outnumber white classmates for the first time in the freshman class at Northern Virginia's most prestigious public magnet school this fall. The rising concentration of Asian Americans at T.J. mirrors demographic trends in other elite math and science magnet schools across the country. The Washington Post, 7/7/2008

Integration is no longer Seattle school district's top priority
by Linda Shaw
When it came to voluntary school-integration efforts in the late 1970s, Seattle Public Schools was at the forefront. In 1978, Seattle, Wash. became the first large urban district in the nation to undertake a desegregation plan without a court order to do so. Today, however, Seattle district leaders appear resigned to living with the resegregation that's occurred over the past three decades. Resegregation, they say, is a societal problem too big for the district alone to solve.
The Seattle Times, 6/3/2008

Saving Nashville schools
by Jaime Sarrio
Nestled between a country club and rows of million-dollar homes sits Hillwood High, a school named after the West Nashville community that shuns it. The bulk of Hillwood students come from the poorest areas in the school's 90-square-mile attendance zone. And because Hillwood is now an island populated by students from other places, the people living in the upscale neighborhood surrounding it have no stake in the school and don't want one. It wasn't always that way.
The Tennessean, 5/11/2008

Smart vs. cool -Culture, race and ethnicity in Silicon Valley schools
by Sharon Noguchi, Ken McLaughlin, Jessie Mangaliman
Check out this series on the achievement gap as reported by Sharon Noguchi, Ken McLaughlin and Jessie Mangaliman of the San Jose Mercury News. In addition to stories, the education team created a database to help students and families in a five county area learn about the academic difference between ethnic groups. This is the first project to be published as a part of EWA's 2008 Research and Statistics bootcamp.
San Jose Mercury News, 4/6/2008

State Eyes A New Tack
by Rachel Gottlieb Frank
In an acknowledgment that attracting white students to Hartford, Conn. has been a tough sell, the focus of court-ordered desegregation efforts in Greater Hartford may soon be shifting to the suburbs.State education officials are talking about channeling more than $100 million toward building new magnet schools in Hartford-area towns and increasing the number of slots for city students in suburban schools through the Open Choice program.
The Hartford Courant, 3/3/2008

Ute reservation school first in state to fall victim to 'No Child Left Behind' standards
by Julia Lyon
If the goal of No Child Left Behind is to shut down the worst schools in America, then the federal government has scored its first success in Utah. After seven years of failing to meet testing and attendance requirements West Middle School in Fort Duchesne is shutting its doors. The roughly 120 students will leave a school almost entirely populated by members of the Northern Ute tribe to attend schools that are nearly exclusively white.
The Salt Lake Tribune, 12/18/2007

A lesson in diversity by Mitchell Lansdberg Along with getting a top-notch education, Itanza and many of her classmates say, they have learned to appreciate diversity and become comfortable with people of all races and nationalities. The district won that battle this week when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge rejected a lawsuit by the Pacific Legal Foundation, which claimed that the use of race in magnet assignments violated California's Proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action initiative passed by voters in 1996. Why does this school work? The Los Angeles Times, 12/13/2007

Falling between two worlds
by Kristin Collins
The debate over immigration often dwells on keeping illegal immigrants from slipping into the country, but when it comes to Hispanic youths who are already here, an opposite concern arises -- too many are slipping away.
The News and Observer, 11/26/2007

Eden Prairie school board drops plan to balance racial mix
by Patrice Relerford
Eden Prairie school board members have reversed a decision to redraw the district's elementary school boundaries to better balance racial diversity, in large part because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, 11/8/2007

South's schools swell with poor kids
by Halimah Abdullah, McClatchy Newspapers
For the first time in more than 40 years, the majority of children in public schools in the South are poor, according to a report released today. In 11 Southern states, a significant increase in the number of poor children attending public school has pushed their numbers to more than half of the student body.
The Charlotte News and Observer, 10/30/2007

Puzzling Racial Gap
by Robert A. Frahm
A generation ago, Bloomfield was heralded as the all-American community. Blacks and whites lived side by side, chasing the American dream of middle-class stability without regard to skin color. Now, Bloomfield operates one of the most racially segregated school systems in the state. And when results were released recently on the state's annual 10th-grade achievement test, this quiet, middle-class suburb found itself confronting a question more often associated with the nation's poorest urban school systems.
Hartford Courant, 10/8/2007

Deseg order's end is a step closer
by Josh Brodesky
The Tucson Unified School District has taken another step toward ending its decades-old desegregation order, filing a report in federal court outlining its efforts to bring racial balance to its schools.
Arizona Daily Star, 10/6/2007

A critical gap
by Liz Bowie
Across Maryland and the nation-- in middle-class communities and poor-- a stubborn gap separates achievement test results of white and black students. Some educators here believe African-American parents need to do more to rescue their children from an educational dead end.
The Baltimore Sun, 9/24/2007

Mexican lesson plans crossing the border
by Esmeralda Bermudez
Some Oregon schools are using curricula from Mexico to help Spanish speakers.
The Oregonian, 9/19/2007

Alabama Plan Brings Out Cry of Resegregation
by Sam Dillon
Tuscaloosa parents are using the No Child Left Behind law to counter plans to zone out black students from predominantly white schools.
The New York Times, 9/17/2007

Little Rock Split as Historic Date Nears
by Christina A. Samuels
Little Rock school leaders say integration struggles continue over leadership and direction over the public school system as it nears the 50th anniversary of integration.
Education Week, 9/17/2007