Still Failing: The Continuing Paradox of School Desegregation

Still Failing: The Continuing Paradox of School Desegregation is a significantly updated and revised version of Caldas and Bankston’s previous book Forced to Fail: The Paradox of School Desegregation. The book includes an analysis of the most significant Supreme Court cases that have been decided in the ten years since the first edition of the book appeared. The authors consider the important implications of these recent rulings for the future of school desegregation in America’s schools. Social capital theory is used to explain why schools and communities continue to be segregated along racial and ethnic lines. Still Failing also provides the most recent U.S. census and Department of Education statistics documenting the continuing segregation of American schools and districts. The book also continues to track the persistent racial achievement gap, using the newest ACT, SAT, and NAEP testing figures. Finally, the book considers what present segregation trends portend for future efforts to racially and ethnically integrate schools, and close achievement gaps. Additional key features of this book include:

• Historical antecedents showing how and why American schooling became racially segregated
• Social capital theory to explain school and community segregation
• The legal history of all important supreme court cases, congressional laws and presidential executive orders related to school segregation and desegregation
• Easy-to-read and interpret graphs and figures
• The most up-to-date school population and census information