Five Miles Away, A World Apart: One City, Two Schools, and the Story of Educational Opportunity in M

Five Miles Away, A World Apart: One City, Two Schools, and the Story of was educated in, and have now worked in "mixed education" for most of my entire life. This is a great book that takes apart the issues impacting the opportunity gap.
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Board of Education , educational opportunities remain so unequal for black and white students, not to mention poor and wealthy ones? Ryan answers this question by tracing the fortunes of two schools in Richmond, Virginia--one in the city and the other in the suburbs.

BOOK REVIEW: 'Five Miles Away, A World Apart'

Ryan shows how court rulings in the s, limiting the scope of desegregation, laid the groundwork for the sharp disparities between urban and suburban public schools that persist to this day. The Supreme Court, in accord with the wishes of the Nixon administration, allowed the suburbs to lock nonresidents out of their school systems.

City schools, whose student bodies were becoming increasingly poor and black, simply received more funding, a measure that has proven largely ineffective, while the independence and superiority of suburban schools remained sacrosanct. Weaving together court opinions, social science research, and compelling interviews with students, teachers, and principals, Ryan explains why all the major education reforms since the s--including school finance litigation, school choice, and the No Child Left Behind Act--have failed to bridge the gap between urban and suburban schools and have unintentionally entrenched segregation by race and class.

As long as that segregation continues, Ryan forcefully argues, so too will educational inequality. Ryan closes by suggesting innovative ways to promote school integration, which would take advantage of unprecedented demographic shifts and an embrace of diversity among young adults. Exhaustively researched and elegantly written by one of the nation's leading education law scholars, Five Miles Away, A World Apart ties together, like no other book, a half-century's worth of education law and politics into a coherent, if disturbing, whole.

It will be of interest to anyone who has ever wondered why our schools are so unequal and whether there is anything to be done about it. School Desegregations and Middle America 1.

James Ryan lecture: part 3

Save the Cities, Spare the Suburbs 3. Like a Russian Novel: School Finance Litigation in State Courts 5. The Impact of Choice and the Role of Courts 7.


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Demography Is Opportunity 8. Freeman and Tee-Jay Revisited. Ryan is William L. He is a former clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Ryan's book is both sweeping and accessible. We also don't talk or think about it--until a book such as Five Miles Away comes along.

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Jim Ryan has produced just the right mix of case study and rigorous analysis to both help us grapple with an issue that most people would rather ignore, and to prod us into realizing the urgent need to do so. This is the type of book that inspires a cheer on one page and a jeer on the next.


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It raises issues many Americans. Aug 08, Jack rated it really liked it Shelves: Kind of three different books here: Here it's a bit dry, but I'm sure it's thorough, accurate, and best I can tell, fair. A four star book in this regard. He pretty much rips apart all recent "efforts" here and does so ba Amazing at times. He pretty much rips apart all recent "efforts" here and does so based on all the data that is available, and he also notes that much of the data is iffy at best.

Here the book is a phenomenal five star overview. Here the book is a lame one star fantasy. Maybe he's right in that this is the best way forward tying up poor kids' chances in middle class schools, where middle class parents will NOT let their kids' schools fail , but I don't see middle America embracing Ryan's advice. He points out that the country and its suburbs are diversifying, so the opportunity may be there in the future.

But for now, I was wholly unconvinced.


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I have not read many books on education, but I believe that even among those who care about education in America, this has to be a "must-read. Granted, in the end he came out on the side of a few approaches the right prefers, he really only seems to get their by default: Although he clerked for Rehnquist and the book was endorsed by some right-leaning sources, Ryan wrote a book that 20th century conservatives should cringe over and more than a few cringes should be felt by the left. That doesn't make it good, but it was a nice surprise for me. Jul 27, Andrew Owens rated it it was amazing Shelves: A couple basic premises: The former fact has prevented the latter ideal because white, middle class parents moved to suburbs and the courts and legislators subsedquently blocked efforts to combine the suburban and urban districts with busing courts or merger legislature.

His solution, offered in the last chapter, is to embrace emerging trends of increased housing integration in the suburbs and inner-cities; and to open up universal choice within districts, including vouchers.

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If one agrees with his premises, and I do, the book is well worth a read. Hands down, this is one of my favorite books on educational policy. Ryan expertly documents our school districting system by examining all of the factors that contributed to it. Overwhelmingly he demonstrates how segregation shaped our current public school system and how metropolitan whites have done their best to continue segregation 50 years after Brown, whether it be in the form of legal segregation or through the modern school choice movement.

Prior to Brown, school choice wasn't a national Hands down, this is one of my favorite books on educational policy. Prior to Brown, school choice wasn't a national issue at all. It's only since middle-class white families have had to face integration that "school choice" ever became an issue, and the race implications of the movement is still demonstrable today. In the end, Ryan's text reads almost like a race history of the public education system and segregation.

He ends the book by providing suggestions as to how we could attempt to reintegrate schools today.

Five Miles Away, A World Apart - Hardcover - James E. Ryan - Oxford University Press

While segregation has been technically "ended," integration was abandoned with the election of Reagan. Oct 18, Matt rated it really liked it Shelves: A really interesting historical look at school reform, particularly integration. He laid out the main events very clearly, and provided particularly interesting history on how school reform played out in Virginia, where urban and suburban schools came quite close to being united in one district by virtue of a court order.

I'm not sure how compelling his final answers are, though. He wants integration by race and socioeconomic status, and seems to hope for demographic change particularly more minority students moving to the suburbs to bring that about. He has other concepts of increased school choice that he does not flesh out too robustly. The recommendations are interesting, but the framing of the problem and the historical review is invaluable. A book I'll refer to for years, I suspect. Nov 24, Craig rated it really liked it. I graduated from Freeman, so this book has some personal resonance. Freeman is a school filled with college-track, high achieving kids.

This book is dense reading, but worth the time. If only the author could magically give us the answer to how we improve inner-city schools. Feb 08, Abi Olvera rated it it was amazing. This book is shocking, well researched, and a must-read if you are interested in education policy. He focuses on the ciy of Richmond in Virginia, but many of its case studies are applicable in other cities in the US.

Whatever Happened to Integration?

This is a comprehensive study about how segregation continued to affect us today, and why. He offers well thought out solutions, mostly emphasizing diversity, which some may see as radical, but it is more empirically founded than saying that funding correlates with achievement. He touc This book is shocking, well researched, and a must-read if you are interested in education policy.

He touches on the No Child Left Behind Act, political perverse incentives in standardized testing and why middle income America is "saving the urban, sparing the suburban. Aug 22, The Book: In the wake of the Democrats' losses in the recent election, education policy is emerging as a potential issue on which President Obama can find common ground with Republicans. Oct 01, Zahreen rated it liked it Shelves: He also takes a brave stance on intra-district integration city and suburbs as a way to improve education - ultimately because there would be equitable funding and power distribution.

However, it is a dense book, with like 1 pt font, so it took forever to read, which is part of the reason why I didn't give it more stars. Also, I don't know how realistic it is to fight for intra-district integration, given that there is absolutely no political will for it, while students languish in our failing public schools. Oct 19, Diego Flores rated it really liked it. I really enjoyed this book, a very good primer on legal history regarding the continuing de facto segregation of public schools in the States. However, I doubt that someone could easily read this without an existing interest in the subject.

Even with that interest it took my over a month I think to finish. Mar 25, John rated it liked it. Jessica Lander rated it really liked it Jul 10, Hope rated it it was ok Sep 13, Andrew rated it really liked it Nov 25, Nerdie rated it it was amazing Jul 24, Grace Holzer rated it really liked it Feb 05, Lauren Stewart rated it liked it Mar 01, Katrina rated it really liked it Jul 12, Yak rated it really liked it Nov 15, Meg rated it it was amazing Jan 08, David Britten rated it it was amazing Dec 30, Kris rated it really liked it Jul 28, Gordon rated it really liked it Nov 17,