Race and Public Education

From at least Brown v. Board of Education, and many would say before that, education has been central to racial justice movements in America. More than fifty years after Brown, most American schools remain segregated by race and class, and many advocates still argue that the struggle for quality education is the key civil rights issue of our time. This course will examine a host of education-related legal and policy issues that intersect with questions of race and class. Topics will include: desegregation and re-segregation, tracking, charter schools, school vouchers, high-stakes testing, the Common Core, school discipline, the "school to prison pipeline," and education in alternative schools, juvenile facilities, and adult prisons. This will be a discussion-oriented course that will operate more like a seminar than a lecture. This class is limited to 30 students, with an effort made to have students from SLS (20 students will be selected by lottery) and students from the School of Education (10 students). Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper.