Educational Equality: The Role of Law

During the last century, many great barriers to equality -- and important efforts to overcome such barriers -- have involved the law.

Applying perspectives from law, policy, research, and education practice, students in this interdisciplinary survey course will examine important law-based efforts to promote educational equality and will consider how experience to date can inform future policy and practice.

Topics include: evidence of past and present discrimination in the U.S.; segregation, desegregation, and resegregation of schools and communities by race, national origin, and socioeconomic status; permissible uses of race and ethnicity in student and staff recruitment, admission, and assignment (affirmative action); discrimination in high-stakes testing for student admission, tracking, promotion, graduation; teacher and school accountability; discrimination in student discipline and the school-to-prison pipeline; bias in education-related sectors such as housing, credit, and employment; law and policy affecting immigration, immigrants, and English-language learners; school-finance reform and the right to an adequate education; sex discrimination and related issues; harassment, cyberbullying, and violence based on race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability; and how law and policy can help identify and address the needs of students with disabilities.

Class meets in Teachers College, Horace Mann Hall, Rm 138.