Of course, there’s a lot to explore about an issue that has such a long and contentious history. My very short, preliminary list of sources and topics includes –

• Books like “All Deliberate Speed” (Charles Ogletree) and “Justice, Justice” (Daniel Perlstein);
• Reporting on: the recent desegregation order for Cleveland, MS public schools and on any of desegregation orders still open and monitored by a court or branch of the federal government (though, it’s hard to get an accurate count of these);
• The fantastic and heartbreaking Segregation Now series at ProPublica, and this New York Times piece written by Nikole Hannah-Jones
• Research on: benefits of school integration for white and non-white students alike, challenges to various school integration efforts, the prevalence of racial segregation over and above economic segregation, the role that charter expansion and voucher programs play in school segregation;
• Documentaries like “Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later” (HBO) and “Separate and Unequal” (Frontline/PBS) or more recent reviews on “This American Life” and on John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight”;
• Changes regarding school integration under Jeff Sessions’ Department of Justice or Betsy DeVos’ Department of Education;
• The many Supreme Court decisions following Brown that have constrained school integration efforts and the basis for school integration in the US constitution.

Since I am writing from the Boston area, I plan to pay special attention to the city’s very tense history with school integration and to the area’s  Metco program, a voluntary inter-district busing program. I encourage any blog readers to make suggestions for additional resources in the comments. I know there’s a lot that isn’t listed here.

I’ll monitor current research, reporting, etc on school (de)segregation, and when I’ve pulled together enough sources, I’ll post short summaries and links of the best that I could find. There was a lot this week, especially related to the Betsy DeVos Senate hearing. Meanwhile, in other posts, I’ll look more closely at one source and try to make sense of it in light of current events, related educational research or reporting, or my own experiences in education. I’ll start these with “All Deliberate Speed,” and then I’ll use the list above to choose what to read next. If you’re interested, please follow along (see options on the sidebar) and add your perspective in the comments.