Description
Book SynopsisYesterday, Today, and Tomorrow provides a compelling analysis of the forces and choices that have shaped the trend toward the resegregation of public schools. By assembling a wide range of contributors - historians, sociologists, economists, and education scholars - the editors provide a comprehensive view of a community’s experience with desegregation and economic development. Here we see resegregation through the lens of Charlotte, North Carolina, once a national model of successfuldesegregation, and home of the landmark Swann desegregation case, which gave rise to school busing.
This book recounts the last forty years of Charlotte’sdesegregation and resegregation, putting education reform in a political and economic context. Within a decade of the Swann case, the district had developed one of the nation’s most successful desegregation plans, measured by racial balance and improved academic outcomes for both black and white students. However, beginning in the 1990s, this plan was gradually dismantled. Today, the level of resegregation in Charlotte has almost returned to what it was prior to 1971. At the core of Charlotte’s story is the relationship between social structure and human agency, with an emphasis on how yesterday’s decisions and actions define today’s choices.
Table of ContentsContents
Map of Mecklenburg County vii
Preface ix
CHAPTER 1
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Structure and Agency in the Resegregation of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools 1
Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, Stephen Samuel Smith, and Amy Hawn Nelson
CHAPTER 2
The Price of Success
The Political Economy of Education, Desegregation, and Development in Charlotte 17
Stephen Samuel Smith
CHAPTER 3
A Spirit of Togetherness
Desegregation and Community at West Charlotte High School 39
Pamela Grundy
CHAPTER 4
“Academic Genocide” on the West Side
West Charlotte High School in the Post-Swann Era 53
Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, Stephen Samuel Smith, Stephanie Southworth, and S. Lore´n Trull
CHAPTER 5
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in Context
Racial and Economic Imbalance at the District and State Level, 1994–2012 69
Charles T. Clotfelter, Helen F. Ladd, and Jacob L. Vigdor
CHAPTER 6
A Study in Contrasts
Race, Politics, and School Assignment Policies in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Wake County, North Carolina 85
Toby L. Parcel, Joshua A. Hendrix, and Andrew J. Taylor
CHAPTER 7
Residential Choice as School Choice
The Impact of Unitary Status in Charlotte-Mecklenburg 101
David Liebowitz and Lindsay C. Page
CHAPTER 8
From Black and White to Technicolor
Demographic Change in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools 119
Michelle Plaisance, Elizabeth Morrell, and Paul McDaniel
CHAPTER 9
A Long Path to Success
Integration and Community Engagement at Shamrock Gardens Elementary School 137
Amy Hawn Nelson
CHAPTER 10
The Law’s Delay
Pursuing School Diversity and Equity in Leandro’s Shadow 157
Mark Dorosin and Luke Largess
CHAPTER 11
Obligation and Opportunity
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Face the Future 173
Stephen Samuel Smith, Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, and Amy Hawn Nelson
APPENDIX A
Terminology 203
APPENDIX b
List of Supplementary Materials 207
Notes 209
Acknowledgments 241
About the Editors 243
About the Contributors 245
Index 249
