A Rview Of “Musonius Rufus and Education in the Good Life: A Model of Teaching and Living Virtue”

"I feel like a winner" was the recollection of Mrs. Vivian Scales as she reflected on hearing the Supreme Court's decision in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, case on May 17, 1954. Scales was one of the original plaintiffs who challenged the existence of separate elementary schools for African American and White students in Topeka. Excerpts of interviews conducted with Mrs. Scales and Rev. Oliver Browns' daughters, Linda Brown Thompson and Cheryl Brown Henderson, are referenced in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Brown decision.     

The Case for a Conceptual Base for Minority Mentoring Programs

This essay describes significant legal and policy system changes in America's 50-year crusade to curtail or eliminate racially segregated public school. In hindsight, a more forceful initial policy system stance regarding judicial enforcement might well have resulted in greater desegregation success. However, after 5 decades of judicial and operational compliance trial and error, United States public schools presently appear almost as racially segregated as before the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954, 1955). In effect, over the 50 years since 1954, the nation has ricocheted from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) to Brown and, practically if not constitutionally, back to Plessy. The contemporary cause of school segregation rests more with income and housing patterns than with explicit apartheid policies. Regardless of cause, however, even if there now exists something much closer to equal educational opportunity than was true 50 years ago, there clearly is not anything close, nationally, to racial parity of educational achievement. Mindful of the remaining achievement gap, this article posits that it is time to reconsider past policies built almost exclusively around busing and achieving physical mixes of Black and White students. Instead, it is now time to rely on new strategies involving elevated expectations, explicit learning standards, notions of financial "adequacy," and effective accountability. In effect, it is time to measure racial policy progress by student successes, not by transportation and school resource processes.     

From the editor's desk

This article examines the underrepresentation of African American and Hispanic students in gifted education, proposing that social inequality, deficit thinking, and microaggressions contribute to the inequitable segregated programs. Underrepresentation trends are presented, along with methods for calculating underrepresentation and inequity. Underrepresentation is placed under the larger umbrella of achievement gaps and inequities in school settings with attention to de jure segregation. I argue that underrepresentation is beyond statistical chance and is a function of attitudes and beliefs grounded in deficit paradigms among those with power or social capital. Denying access to gifted education based on race is counterproductive and illegal and is discussed with Brown v. Board of Education as the legal background and a recent court case in gifted education (McFadden v. Board of Education for Illinois School District U-46). Recommendations for desegregating gifted education are provided.     

The Impact of Brown on African American Students: A Critical Race Theoretical Perspective

There is no doubt that the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, Supreme Court decision was instrumental in initiating monumental change in the ways public schools have operated. The central question addressed by the Supreme Court in the Brown cases (1954, 1955) was whether segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race deprives minority children of equal educational opportunities even when all else is equal. The author suggests that the problems faced by African American students are complex and convoluted when contextualized in traditional notions of effective schooling. Such is the case because African American students are filtered into lower educational tracks at such a rapid pace and are often the unfortunate victims of mis-education. The author uses critical race theory to deconstruct the historical as well as contemporary resistance offered to the full implementation of the Brown decision. How we have arrived at the present state of affairs can be understood only by studying the forces effective in the development of Negro education since it was systematically undertaken immediately after emancipation. To point out merely the defects as they appear today will be of little benefit to the present and future generations. These things must be viewed in their historical setting. The conditions of today have been determined by what has taken place in the past, and in a careful study of this history we may see more clearly the great theatre of events in which the Negro has played a part. We may understand better what his role has been and how well he has functioned in it. (Woodson 1933, 9).     

Brown and the politics of equality

Forty years afterBrown v. Topeka Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision declaring de jure segregated schools unconstitutional, we are still seeking the full implementation of that decree. Most Americans accepted limited implementation ofBrown, and the degree of acceptance is split along racial lines. Racial dialogue has changed. White Americans, who control the desegregation process, develop integration plans to their advantage. School integration was not implemented until after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and peaked in 1972. Today, school integration is declining due to a backlash, changing demographics, and declining resources. However,Brown was a success because it rid the country of legalized state segregation by race in education and in other areas of public policy. The Court could merge the equality standards ofPlessy v. Ferguson and the integration standards ofBrown to give us quality integrated education.     

Revisiting the 1990 special issue on minority children: an editorial perspective 15 years later

The 2006 Special Issue on Race, Ethnicity, and Culture in Child Development occurs 15 years after the 1990 Special Issue on Minority Children and marks roughly 50 years since the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. This issue provides an assessment of how researchers have represented development of America's diverse youth. This commentary provides a perspective of the progress and needs inferred from the 1990 special issue. A consistent theme is the necessity to link research and developmental theorizing with the intentions of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, as the relevant integration is often left to legal scholars, Whiteness studies theorists, and a few child-development-focused researchers (e.g., Cross, 1991; Spencer, 2005).     

#Blackwomenatwork: Teaching and Retention in Urban Schools

Black female educators played a vital role in segregated schools prior to the 1954 landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Despite their notable and historic presence in the field of public education, presently they are disproportionately underrepresented in the U.S. teacher workforce. Acknowledging the shortage of Black female teachers in K-12 classrooms, the purpose of this qualitative study is to explore why Black female educators teach in urban schools. By examining Black female educators’ initial draw to urban schools in what I conceptualized as the urban factor, I hope to reframe the implicit biases often surrounding urban schools. Concluding, three themes emerged about Black female teachers’ thoughts on and preferences for urban schools, with additional unexpected findings about their perceptions of student behavior and teacher retention.     

The Southern Manifesto: Massive Resistance,Growth Liberalism,and the Interpretation of Brown II

ABSTRACT

The United States Congress’ Southern Congressional Delegation promulgated the Declaration of Constitutional Principles, popularly known as the Southern Manifesto, on March 12, 1956. The Southern Manifesto was the South’s primary means to effectively delay implementation of public school desegregation as ordered by the United States Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Topeka, Kansas (1954; as cited in Day, 2014). This essay places the desegregation of American public school system within the larger context of the time period in which it transpired, and explains how racial disparity in public education was perpetuated after the Jim Crow caste system was dismantled in the 1960s. Ironically, while de jure desegregation of American public schools was effectively accomplished by the early 1970s under the administration of President Richard M. Nixon, government spending during the era after World War II, perpetuated racial and economic disparity in America’s public schools that prevails up to the present day.     

A Commentary: Calming Brown's Critics,Still Queasy After All these Years

This essay acknowledges some of the disappointing consequences of the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision. It urges, however, that the strategic choices underlying that decision and the principle it articulates are sound and worthy of celebration 50 years later.     

Books received

The Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954 set the stage for addressing problems of educational and social inequities. It challenged prejudicial exclusion and supported nondiscriminatory exclusionary policies in general and special education programs. However, about 50 years later, culturally diverse learners are still excluded in educational programs through misidentification, misassessment, miscategorization, misplacement, and misinstruction-misintervention. It appears that 1 step forward and 2 steps backward have been taken. In this article, the authors examine the Brown case and its impact on the historical contexts of special education as they affect culturally diverse learners with exceptionalities.     

China's Changing Educational System

In light of the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruling, this article focuses on how the majority opinion in Brown set a precedent for the use of social science research in defining and examining inequity in education. This article argues that following Brown, social science research has gained prominence in its social function in shaping the debate in equal educational opportunity. Whereas Brown introduced racial desegregation in the governmental agenda, social science research since the 1960s has sustained the societal concerns on the challenge of inequality. This article examines how the use of social science research in Equality of Educational Opportunity (J. S. Coleman et al., 1966), an extensive study of schools and schooling under the direction of James Coleman of Johns Hopkins University and Ernest Campbell of Vanderbilt University during the mid 1960s, shaped the course of education research and policy toward the notion of equal educational opportunities. Further, this article discusses the more recent work of William Julius Wilson (1987) that shifts the equality of opportunity debate out of the courts and from individual and group opportunities to the equality of life chances.     

Dismantling Segregation Together: Interconnections between the Méndez v. Westminster (1946) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) School Segregation Cases

May 17, 2004 marked the 50th anniversary of the most significant school segregation case: Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al. 1954. 347 U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct. 686, 98 L. Ed. 873  [Google Scholar]. While the Brown decision eliminated the legal theory of “separate but equal,” the success of the Méndez et al. v. Westminster School District et al. (1946) Méndez et al. v. Westminster School Dist. of Orange County et al. 1946. 64 F. Supp. 544 (S.D.Ca.)  [Google Scholar] case helped boost public sentiment against segregation, setting the stage for Brown. Méndez made possible the defeat of school segregation laws by revealing the detrimental effects and moral dangers of segregation; in California, it helped bring about the end of de jure school segregation. In this essay, I analyze the similarities of Méndez and Brown by comparing key legal strategies and rhetoric in each case. I also show that civil rights leaders of the time thought that Méndez had ramifications for black desegregation efforts, even if the basis for Chicano and black discrimination were not the same. Before examining the ties between the two, I discuss important historical works on Méndez written between 1976 and 2001 that this essay builds upon.     

50 Years after Brown: Segregation in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools

Fifty years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawed de jure segregation in American schools, many school districts remain segregated. Despite numerous efforts aimed at desegregation, residential segregation—the primary barrier to significant school desegregation—remains entrenched throughout the United States. The Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the nation's fourth largest school system, provides an excellent example of a segregated metropolitan region that produced a segregated school system and defied numerous efforts at significant school desegregation.     

布朗诉教育委员会案的微观分析

美国联邦最高法院在布朗诉教育委员会(1954)一案中宣告学校中的种族隔离制度违宪。该案重塑了教育平等权的概念,在全世界范围内都产生深远影响。然而这一举世闻名的案件事实上是发生在四个不同州的法律诉讼的集合。借助当年的史料,本文对发生在弗吉尼亚州的案件的缘起、发展、以及在实施中所遇到的重重困难和阻力进行微观分析。该分析显示,布朗案仅是美国教育种族合校的开始,远非胜利。     

School Leadership and Change in East Asia: Building Capacity for Education Reform

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), recent global immigration to the U.S. interior compels local education systems that are relatively inexperienced with immigration to address new integrating and segmenting tendencies expressed by the growing and diversifying number of immigrants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The authors discern 4 patterns of integrating and segmenting tendencies from self-proclaimed education needs expressed in focus groups by African, Asian, and Latin American immigrant residents of Nashville, Tennessee. Integrating tendencies were expressed more frequently than segmenting tendencies by group participants. Results suggest further integration of immigrants into the Nashville education system can be achieved with policies that overcome economic, linguistic, child care, scheduling, and discriminatory barriers to adult and children's education.     

Influence of Callahan's vulnerability thesis on Thought and Practice in Educational Administration, 1962 to 1992

This article, a reconsidering of both the benefits and the consequences of the Brown v. Board of Education (1954; Davis and Graham, 1995) case, posits determinations as to the historical significance of the U.S. Supreme Court justices' decision. Carefully weighing the words of the justices renders a position that the decision of the Court and the intention of the Court do not fall in alignment with one another. And despite the rightness of the decision and all that has been reaped in the way of its benefits, still, the decision's unarticulated language has rendered a greater significance and has placed enduring consequences on the public education system, as well as in the greater context of race as a whole.     

THE COST OF COMPLIANCE WITH THE SPIRIT AND LETTER OF FEDERAL PROGRAMS

The Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education has received considerable attention in this twentieth anniversary year. We are reprinting the decision because we think it deserves as much attention today as in 1954. Reading it over I wondered would it have made any difference if the suit had been brought in behalf of white as well as black children who also suffer the psychological effect of segregated schools.     

布朗案在执行中受到的抵制——以弗吉尼亚州为例

布朗诉教育委员会是美国教育法中里程碑式的案件。本文以弗吉尼亚州为例,分析了布朗案实施过程中抵制力量所使用的三个政策工具——学生派位制度、以"介入权"为标志的源于州权利的对抗、"选择的自由"。资料来自弗吉尼亚州议会和政府的史料、布朗及布朗案后一系列的法院判决、美国地方和国家媒体的报道以及相关的美国历史研究。分析表明,政策的执行并不是一个自上而下的简单过程,而是具有"纵横交错"的互动特点。     

布朗案判决与美国民权运动述评

1954年,美国最高法院在布朗诉托皮卡教育委员会案中判决,公共教育设施中的隔离但平等原则违反美国宪法。不久,蒙哥马利市爆发了抵制公共汽车种族隔离运动,拉开了民权运动的序幕。布朗案判决因此被视之为民权运动史上的分水岭,标志着一个新时代的开始。然而,自1980年代以来,这种在美国占统治地位的学术观点不断遭到宪法史学家的质疑和挑战。     

Turbulence in St. Louis County: School Transfers,Opportunity Hoarding,and the Legacy of Brown

ABSTRACT

In the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregated schools unconstitutional, and the process of school desegregation fell mostly to Black children. For over 35 years, Black families in St. Louis City have been using school transfers to cross boundaries in order to send their children to higher performing, predominately White schools in suburban St. Louis County in search of “a better education.” Relying on turbulence theory and Critical Race Theory (CRT), this study uses a media framing analysis to examine how newspaper articles described school transfers to the broader public between 2007 and 2017. Findings indicate that the articles described Black and White school districts as being affected by varying levels of turbulence and conflict. Findings also outline examples of opportunity hoarding by White schools and districts. The original focus of the Brown case was the lack of equitable resources in Black schools, and this study reignites questions about exclusion, privilege, and the choices made by Black families to receive educational equity.