Many urban public schools are often perceived as inclusive due to the demographics of their diverse student populations. This myth of inclusivity reifies notions of equity in both education and broader society. However, upon closer inspection, this myth of inclusion crumbles once immersed within an urban high school. In this article, I present the concept of the inclusion mirage. Through the utilization of critical ethnographic methods, I uncovered how schools that may appear diverse and integrated on the surface are vastly segregated for those that learn and work within their walls.
AlmaguerT. (1994). Racial fault lines: The historic origins of white supremacy in California. University of California Press.
2.
AndersonG. L. (1989). Critical ethnography in education: Origins, current status, and new directions. Review of Educational Research, 59(3), 249–270. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543059003249
3.
AnyonY.LechugaC.OrtegaD.DowningB.GreerE.SimmonsJ. (2018). An exploration of the relationships between student racial background and the school sub-context of office discipline referrals: A critical race theory analysis. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 21(3), 390–406. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2017.1328594
4.
BeadieN.Williamson-LottJ.BowmanM.FrizellT.GuzmanG.HyunJ.JohnsonJ.NicholasK.PhillipsL.WellingtonR.YoshidaL. A. (2017). Gateways to the west, part II: Education and the making of race, place, and culture in the west. History of Education Quarterly, 57(1), 94–126. https://doi.org/10.1017/heq.2016.5
5.
BellD. (2004). Silent covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the unfulfilled hopes for racial reform. Oxford University Press.
6.
BellD. A. (1980). Brown v. Board of Education and the interest-convergence dilemma. Harvard Law Review, 518–533. https://doi.org/10.2307/1340546
7.
BellD. A. (1992). Racial realism. Connecticut Law Review, 24(2), 363–376.
8.
BerreyE. (2005). Divided over diversity: Political discourse in a Chicago neighborhood. City & Community, 4(2), 143–170.
BourdieuP. (1986). The forms of capital. In RichardsonJ. G. (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 214–258). Greenwood.
11.
Brown v. Topeka Board of Education I (1954). 347 U.S. 483.
12.
BuendiaE.AresN.JaurezB. G.PeercyM. (2004). The geographies of difference: The production of the east side, west side, and central city school. American Educational Research Journal, 42(4), 833–863. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312041004833
13.
CarspeckenF. P. (2013). Critical ethnography in educational research: A theoretical and practical guide. Routledge.
14.
CastroE. L. (2013). Racialized readiness for college and career: Toward an equity-grounded social science of intervention programming. Community College Review, 41(4), 292–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091552113504291
15.
CharlesC. Z. (2006). Won’t you be my neighbor? Race, class, and residence in Los Angeles. Russell Sage.
CrenshawK. (1990). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43, 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
18.
DelgadoR. (1995). Critical race theory: The cutting edge. Temple University Press.
19.
DriverJ. (2013). Supremacies and the southern manifesto. Texas Law Rev, 92(5), 1053-1135.
20.
Epps-RobertsonC. (2016). The race to erase Brown v. Board of education: The Virginia way and the rhetoric of massive resistance. Rhetoric Review, 35(2), 108–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198.2016.1142812
21.
GarrowD. J. (1994). Hopelessly hollow history: Revisionist devaluing of Brown v. Board of education. Virginia Law Review, 80, 151. https://doi.org/10.2307/1073593
22.
GillbornD. (2005). Education policy as an act of white supremacy: Whiteness, critical race theory and education reform. Journal of Education Policy, 20(4), 485–505. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930500132346
23.
GlennW. J. (2011). A quantitative analysis of the increase in public school segregation in delaware. Urban Education, 46(4), 719–740. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085911400321
24.
Government Accountability Office (2022). Student population has significantly diversified, but many schools remain divided along racial, ethnic, and economic lines. A Report to the Chairman, Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives, GAO-22–104737.
25.
HaneyJ. E. (1978). The effects of the brown decision on black educators. The Journal of Negro Education, 47(1), 88–95. https://doi.org/10.2307/2967104
HoneyN.SmrekarC. (2020). The legacy of Busing and Brown: How school desegregation experiences shape public perceptions and communities’ school diversity priorities in the resegregation era. Urban Education, 57(4), 600–629. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085920979699
KannoY.KangasS. E. N. (2014). “I’m not going to be, like for the AP”: English language learners’ limited access to advanced college-preparatory courses in high school. American Educational Research Journal, 51(5), 848–878. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831214544716
KimelbergS. M.BillinghamC. M. (2013). Attitudes toward diversity and the school choice process: Middle-class parents in a segregated urban public school district. Urban Education, 48(2), 198–231. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085912449629
32.
KolluriS. (2018). Advanced placement: The dual challenge of equal access and effectiveness. Review of Educational Research, 88(5), 671–711. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654318787268
33.
KolluriS. (2019). Reconsidering organizational habitus in schools: One neighborhood, two distinct approaches to advanced placement. Harvard Educational Review, 89(1), 109–131. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-89.1.109
34.
KolluriS. (2020). Patchwork capital and postsecondary success: Latinx students from high school to college. Race Ethnicity and Education, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2020.1798389
LeongN. (2012). Racial capitalism. Harvard Law Review, 126, 2151–2225.
37.
LoftonR.DavisJ. E. (2015). Toward a Black habitus: African Americans navigating systemic inequalities within home, school, and community. The Journal of Negro Education, 84(3), 214–230. https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.84.3.0214
38.
LoganJ. R.OakleyD.StowellJ. (2008). School segregation in metropolitan regions, 1970–2000: The impacts of policy choices on public education. American Journal of Sociology, 113, 1611–1644. https://doi.org/10.1086/587150
39.
MadisonD. S. (2011). Critical ethnography: Method, ethics, and performance. Sage publications.
NgoF. J.VelasquezD. (2020). Inside the math trap: Chronic math tracking from high school to community college. Urban Education, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085920908912
46.
OakesJ. (1985). Keeping track. Yale University Press.
47.
OakesJ. (1995). Two cities’ tracking and within-school segregation. Teachers College Record, 96(4), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146819509600418
48.
ParkerL.McKinneyA. E. (2015). Social justice leadership and critical race theory in the Mormon culture region. Urban Education, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085915618715
RogersR. (2011). The sounds of silence in educational tracking: A longitudinal, ethnographic case study. Critical Discourse Studies, 8(4), 239–252. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2011.601632
51.
RosiekJ. (2019). Critical race theory meets posthumanism: Lessons from a study of racial resegregation in public schools. Race Ethnicity and Education, 22(1), 73–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2018.1468746
52.
RossellC. H. (1976). School desegregation and White flight. Political Science Quarterly, 90, 675–695. https://doi.org/10.2307/2148750
53.
SaddlerC. A. (2005). The impact of brown on African American students: A critical race theoretical perspective. Educational Studies, 37(1), 41–55. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326993es3701_5
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg School (1971). 401 U.S. 1, 15.
56.
TateW. F. (1997). Critical race theory and education: History, theory, and implications. Review of Research in Higher Education, 22, 195–247. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X022001195
57.
TooleyP.AtwoodE. (2022). The search for racially diverse schools: Understanding how a diverse state lacks diverse campuses. Urban Education, 57(3), 494–532. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085921998423
58.
UmanskyI. M. (2016). Leveled and exclusionary tracking: English learners’ access to academic content in middle school. American Educational Research Journal, 53(6), 1792–1833. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831216675404
WaldJ.LosenD. J. (2003). Defining and redirecting a school–to–prison pipeline. New Directions for Youth Development, 2003(99), 9–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.51
WelnerK.OakesJ. (1996). (Li) ability grouping: The new susceptibility of school tracking systems to legal challenges. Harvard Educational Review, 66(3), 451–471. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.3.p92775298646n342
64.
WelnerK. G. (2001). Tracking in an era of standards: Low-expectation classes meet high-expectation laws. Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, 28(3), 699–738.
65.
WhiteF. R. (1994). Brown revisited. Phi Delta Kappa, 76(1), 12–20.
66.
YossoT. J.ParkerL.SolórzanoD. G.LynnM. (2004). Chapter 1: From jim crow to affirmative action and back again: A critical race discussion of racialized rationales and access to higher education. Review of Research in Education, 28(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X028001001