Why read Five Miles Away, A World Apart?

Book cover of Five Miles Away, A World Apart: One City, Two Schools, and the Story of Educational Opportunity in Modern America

Book description

How is it that half a century after Brown v. Board of Education--and in spite of increased funding for urban schools and programs like No Child Left Behind--educational opportunities for blacks and whites in America still remain so unequal?
In Five Miles Away, A World Apart, James Ryan provides a…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Five Miles Away, A World Apart as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Tracy L. Steffes

Author

I love how this book shows us how we can’t understand the failures of recent education reforms to fix educational inequality without putting them into a longer and wider context, namely the history of school desegregation.

This book explores how the failure of courts and policymakers to go far enough in school desegregation—especially to challenge the city-suburban boundary as a primary axis of racial and socioeconomic inequality—has doomed all subsequent reforms, including school finance reform, school choice, and standards and accountability.

This book has shaped my thinking about educational reform and inequality today, especially the importance of boundaries and funding.…

From Tracy's list on understanding the history of educational inequality.