This article examines the contemporary implications of the Milliken v. Bradley (1974) decision for educational inequality between school districts in U.S. metropolitan areas.

This article explores the dilemmas created by between-district segregation and school district fragmentation in terms of efforts to diversify schools. We first review existing research to examine what is known empirically about between-district segregation, and the role of school district fragmentation as a contributing factor. We then examine policy efforts to address problems caused by fragmentation in other (non-educational) domains, and we consider whether such efforts could serve as a potential solution to school district fragmentation. We conclude with educational policy lessons based upon our examination of these prior efforts both within and outside of education to inform the current policy debate around school segregation.

This article examines high schools’ responses to exit testing policies through in-depth case studies of five low-performing high-poverty high schools across five school districts in Texas.

The 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling, Brown v. Board of Education, caused many in the United States to contemplate the value of public policies that flowed from that decision, especially the desegregation of public schools. Over the last half-century we have received mixed messages about whether such efforts were worth the trouble.