Brown v. Board of Education Moving Forword: Educational Policy to Ensure Equitable Outcomes

Children of today live in an increasingly diverse society and in a world that has grown small. A successful future for them portends a competent education characterized by high standards, high expectations and high levels of academic achievement. The Brown decision held great promise that students would receive equal education as stated by Thurgood Marshall, "Equal means getting the same thing at the same time and in the same place." Yet, 50 years after the landmark Brown V. Board of Education, our nation's schools have returned to substantially higher levels of segregation than was the case prior to the Civil Rights Movement. Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, informs us in a recent report that southern schools reached a peak of integration in the late 1980s when over 43% of its students attended integrated schools. By 2001,just over 30% of the stu4ents in the south attended integrated schools. Similar statistics exist for students attending school in the Northeast, where more than half of African American students attend schools that are 90-100 percent nonwhite. In other instances, schools never really desegregated, with overwhelmingly large numbers of Caucasians leaving public schools in order to continue their education in preferred segregated private schools. In a sense, for school systems that ever attempted to desegregate, what we now find are some unintended consequences of resegregation. In both instances, we find separate and unequal achievement outcomes for children. Our nation's children of color and poverty have not received the same thing at the same time and .all too often, not in the san1e place.

This is not to imply that the Brown decision has in any way failed our nation's children. To the contrary, Brown has altered the structural context that previously supported segregation. Certainly, Brown bolstered the Civil Rights Movement and, most assuredly, focused the attention of the nation upon the need to continue defining and redefminghow we would operationalize the intent of Brown in an ever changing society, particularly as it relates to the education of our. children. We continue to fac~ this moral imperative, the intent of Brown, and the challenge of how to achieve the educational outcomes demanded by that imperative

In Illinois, the most recent data on the Illinois State Assessment Test indicate disturbing results.Percent of Aftican American and Caucasian Students Meeting andlor Exceeding Illinois State Test Standards in Reading and Math for Students in Grades 3 and 11 for School Year 2002-2003

	Readinl!		Math
	Caucasian	Aftican	Caucasian	African
	American		American
	%	%	%	%
Grade 3	62.0	34.8	75.7.	49.0
Grade II	56.4	31.2	53.3	20.5

Also, in Illinois, the dropout statistics for high school graduation reflect .a similar disparity v.'ben Caucasian and African American students are comparerl:,' The percentage of Caucasian students dropping out of high school in 2003 was 4.9% compared to an 8.0% for African American students.

If we are to achieve equity in outcomes for all children in an effort to ensure their safe passage into a world of success, we must require that they be able to "manage complexity, find and use resources, and continually learn new technologies, approaches and occupations." Ensuring equal outcomes for all children, especially for children of color and children of poverty, will require significant policy reforms at the national, state and local levels in order to close the racial gap in academic achievement. Onesuch policy initiative, although insufficient, is the No Child Left Behind legislation that minimally calls for achievement at competent levels for all children. Policy changes necessary to close the achievement gap will need to focus on the research fmdings on what works in educating urban and minority students. This area of research on effective schooling has been extensively researched and refined over the years by some of the nation's most noted scholars to include Ron Edmonds, Barbara Sizemore, Asa Hilliard, Linda Darling-Hammond, Jeanne Oakes, among others. It is past time that we place into policy and practice the findings of this body of research on effective schooling. These findings include the following, which need to be considered for implementation as policy at the national, state and local levels:

Strong leadership on the part of school administrators, which includes mobilizing resources to support the acquisition of basic skills by all students.

Teachers who believe they are responsible for students learning and capable of teaching them effectively

High expectations for student learning and behavior on the part of administrators and teachers, and active communication of these expectations to students. Safe, orderly, well-disciplined-but not rigid-school and classroom environments.

Teachers whom are adept at modifying instructional materials and strategies in response to students' differing learning styles and needs.

The provision of incentives, reinforcement, and rewards to enhance student learning styles and needs. Regular, frequent monitoring of student progress and provision of feedback.

Programs of staff development which are focuses on school improvement and influenced by teachers themselves. Use of time, personnel, money, materials, and other resources in support of the school's priority goaJs.

Active involvement and use of parents for instructional support, classroom help, and input into governance decisions.

Coordination among staff of different programs serving the same children.

Computer assisted instructional activities which supplement and complement traditional, teacher-directed instruction.

The use of small learning units within lagre schools, e.g., school-within-a-school, and other alternative learning programs.

Promotion policies that allow accelerated remedial instruction and/or transition classrooms as alternatives to retention.

Provision of support targeted to the learning needs of those students who are retained in grade.

Coordination between school and community resources as needed to support children in need of services outside of school.

Multicultural programming, which is integrated into the overall school curriculum.

Personnel, material and activities to meet the needs of language minority students.

Our children cannot afford this continuation of disparate and dismal achievement results that will do little more than to consign them to a future of hopelessness. It is only through the implementation of policies, supported by appropriate funding that we can ensure that our children will realize the legacy of an equitable, meaningful and appropriate education asth~. intent of Brown.