Resegregating American Education: The Patterns, Old Issues, New Twists

The Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture: William T. Trent

American Education has been resegregating continuously since the post-BROWN era and particularly over the past two-decades. Segregation in the nation’s schools is considerable in both our urban centers and suburbs.  Following a brief highlighting of  changes in the legal context the presentation turns to examples of the trends in resegregation using national data and selected examples from five school districts with a long history of school desegregation effort. The discussion that follows examines selected costs and consequences –threats—generated by resegregation. The presentation then turns to an exploration of the underpinings of this resegregation.

The issues discussed include the role of the courts, the role of choice, charters and vouchers, the changing demographics of the student populations, the intensifying role of class in school resegregation and the implications for the Nation’s professed aspirations regarding social and economic justice. I close with a discussion of  the conflation of the challenge of integration beginning with the problem of conflating integration to mean no more than desegregation.

Time: Saturday, April 14, 2:15 p.m.–3:45 p.m.  

Building/Room: Vancouver Convention Centre, First Level - West Ballroom C

Session Participants:

Chair: Arnetha F. Ball (Stanford University) 

William T. Trent (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)