Equality in Education Law and Policy, 1954–2010

Educational equality has long been a vital concept in US law and policy. Since Brown v. Board of Education, the concept of educational equality has remained markedly durable and animated major school reform efforts, including desegregation, school finance reform, the education of students with disabilities and English language learners, charter schools, voucher policies, the various iterations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (including No Child Left Behind) and the 'Stimulus'. Despite such attention, students' educational opportunities have remained persistently unequal as understandings of the goals underlying schooling, fundamental changes in educational governance, and the definition of an equal education have continually shifted. Drawing from law, education policy, history and political science, this book examines how the concept of equality in education law and policy has transformed from Brown through the Stimulus, the major factors influencing this transformation, and the significant problems that school reforms accordingly continue to face.

1. Introduction; 2. Government, equality, and school reform; 3. Brown and the foundations of educational equality; 4. The maturation of educational equality; 5. The turn to adequacy, outcomes, and systemic change; 6. Developments in local control; 7. The continuing expansion of the federal role; 8. Conclusion.

Benjamin M. Superfine is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC). Superfine received his JD and PhD in Education Foundations and Policy from the University of Michigan. Before joining UIC, Superfine practised law at Dow Lohnes PLLC in Washington, DC. His work has been published in leading educational and legal journals, including the American Educational Research Journal, the American Journal of Education, the Cardozo Law Review, Educational Policy, the Kentucky Law Journal, the Missouri Law Review, the Review of Educational Research, and Teachers College Record. Superfine was awarded the Steven S. Goldberg Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Education Law from the Education Law Association for his first book, The Courts and Standards-Based Education Reform. He was a States' Involvement in Federal Education Policy Fellow and is currently the Director of the UIC Research on Urban Education Policy Initiative.