The Complex Web of Inequality in North American Schools: Investigating Educational Policies for Social Justice(Routledge Research in Education)

The Complex Web of Inequality in North American Schools analyzes and challenges the critical gaps and inequalities that persist in the American school system. Showing how historical biases have been inherited in current polices relating to non-dominant youth, the text calls for educational reforms that perform in the name of social justice. This edited collection carefully interrogates how technocratic educational policies and reforms are often unequipped to address the interplay of political, social, economic, ideological factors that are at the roots of educational injustice. Considering the most vulnerable student populations, original case studies explore how inadequate structures, practices, and beliefs have increased marginalization, and highlight those instances in which policy has proved effective in reducing opportunity gaps between economically rich and poor students; between white, Asian, Black and Latino youth; between native English speakers and second language learners; highlighting racial integration and unequal American Indian education; and for students with special educational needs. The insights into such policies shed light on the complex web of historically embedded inequities that continue to shape the construction, roll-out, and consequences of education policy for the most marginalized youth populations today. This volume will be of interest to graduate, and postgraduate students, researchers and academics in the fields of education policy, sociology of education, economics of education, and history of education, and well as policy evaluation.

Table of Contents:
List of contributors Chapter 1: Ambitious Imaginations and Education Policy: Swimming Upstream and Unsettling Neoliberal Enclosures PART I: "False Choices" Chapter 2. "How long do we have to wait?: Examining school choice, selective enrollment schools, and the reproduction of racial inequality in a southern community by Sophia Rodriguez, David Bonezzi, and Kyra Koehler Chapter 3. Education for what and whom?: The paradoxical nature of an Upward Bound program by Kevin Clay Chapter 4. Turnaround, Mayoral Control, Minoritized Communities and Dirty Water: School Reform in an Urban District in Connecticut by James Wright Chapter 5. The Influence of School Turnaround Leadership : An American Indian School District Case Study by Jameson D. Lopez, Evelyn C. Baca PART II: Technical Solutions for Justice Issues Chapter 6. (Dis)connected: Youth peer culture during a racial/ethnic integration reform by Ana Lilia Campos-Manzo, Grace Hall, Luis Enrique Ramos and Christina Ignatiadis Chapter 7: Chapter 6. Unfinished Bridges Over the Digital Divide: Engagement and Equity in 1:1 Technology by Stacy Gherardi Chapter 8. Policy Goes to School: How free market approach to charter schools has failed the minority students who were intended to benefit the most by Brittany Larkin and Carlee Escue Simon Chapter 9. When Achievement Gaps are Acceptable: School-Level Data Practices and Subgroup Accountability Pressure in Economically and Racially Segregated Schools by Rachel Garver PART III: The Legacy and Futures of Special Education Chapter 10. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: The Further Marginalization of Racially and Ethnically Diverse Students for More Than 40 Years by Jennifer M. McKenzie and Ambra L. Green Chapter 11. Civil Rights Remedies and Persistent Inequities: The Case of Racial Disproportionality in Special Education Catherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides Chapter 12. "PAAP Season": A New Rationale for Segregating Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities by Maria Timberlake Chapter 13: Theories from Below: Imagining Policy-Making and Policy-Analysis Beyond "Achievement" Paradigms by Socorro Cambero, Miguel N. Abad, Briana M. Hinga, and Gilberto Q. Conchas

About the Author :
Gilberto Q. Conchas is Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of California, Irvine, USA. Briana M. Hinga is Assistant Professor of Clinical Education at the University of Southern California, USA. Miguel N. Abad is Doctoral Candidate in Educational Policy and Social Context at the University of California, Irvine, USA. Kris D. Guiterrez is Professor of learning sciences, research methodology, policy, and literacy at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.