The most recent book I published (with Gary Orfield) examines how to make school choice fairer and more equitable for all. It was published by the University of California Press in 2013.
More about the book:
The first major battle over school choice came out of struggles over equalizing and integrating schools in the civil rights era, when it became apparent that choice could be either a serious barrier or a significant tool for reaching these goals. The second large and continuing movement for choice was part of the very different anti-government, individualistic, market-based movement of a more conservative period in which many of the lessons of that earlier period were forgotten, though choice was once again presented as the answer to racial inequality. This book brings civil rights back into the center of the debate and tries to move from doctrine to empirical research in exploring the many forms of choice and their very different consequences for equity in U.S. schools. Leading researchers conclude that although helping minority children remains a central justification for choice proponents, ignoring the essential civil rights dimensions of choice plans risks compounding rather than remedying racial inequality.
This book focuses on the changing demographics in suburban districts and how districts and schools are responding to that change. The book was edited by myself and Gary Orfield and was published by the Harvard Education Press in fall 2012. The research for this book was supported by the Spencer Foundation.
Here is the book’s description:
A book, edited by myself and Elizabeth DeBray, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in Fall 2011 (Paperback version released in 2013):
Here’s the description of the book:
As a result of tremendous social, legal, and political movements after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the South led the nation in school desegregation from the late 1960s through the beginning of the twenty-first century. However, following a series of court cases in the past two decades–including a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that raised potentially strong barriers for districts wishing to pursue integration–public schools in the South and across the nation are now resegregating faster than ever.
In this comprehensive volume, a roster of leading scholars in educational policy and related fields offer eighteen essays seeking to illuminate new ways for American public education to counter persistent racial and socioeconomic inequality in our society. Drawing on extensive research, the contributors reinforce the key benefits of racially integrated schools, examine remaining options to pursue multiracial integration, and discuss case examples that suggest how to build support for those efforts. Framed by the editors’ introduction and a conclusion by Gary Orfield, these essays engage the heated debates over school reform and advance new arguments about the dangers of resegregation while offering practical, research-grounded solutions to one of the most pressing issues in American education.
Lessons in integration: Realizing the promise of racial diversity in American schools (2007)
Information on a book I edited with Gary Orfield:
This research, produced with the support of the Southern Poverty Law Center, provides new evidence on the benefits of integration, and points out that a majority of schools – particularly segregated white schools in suburban America – will inevitably become multiracial, and experience dramatic racial change as a demographic transformation of America proceeds. Lessons in Integration shows ways in which teachers, administrators, and district officials can more effectively teach in diverse classrooms and equitably structure welcoming schooling environments for students from all backgrounds.
More information and to order: http://www.upress.virginia.edu/books/frankenberg.HTM
