All Together Now

Creating Middle-Class Schools through Public School Choice

Richard D. Kahlenberg

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9780815748106
• eBook ISBN: 9780815798606
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Educational Policy

This provocative book asks a simple question: since we know that middle class schools tend to work best, why not give every child in America the opportunity to attend a public school in which the majority of students come from middle class households? Economically integrated schools, the author argues, will do far more to promote achievement and equal opportunity than vouchers, standards, class size reduction, or any of the other leading education proposals on the left and right that seek to make ""separate but equal"" schools work. Building on two recent education trends—the decline in racial desegregation as a legal tool and the movement toward greater public school choice—All Together Now provides a blueprint for creating schools that educate children from various backgrounds under one roof. Concurring with the concerns of voucher proponents about the unfairness of trapping poor kids in failing schools, the book provides a practical, viable, and legally sound plan for promoting economic and racial integration among public schools.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Information
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface to the Paperback Edition
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• American Schools Today: Falling Short of Our Goals
• The Case for Economic School Desegregation
• The Significance of the Socioeconomic Makeup of Schools
• The Difficulty with Alternatives to Socioeconomic Integration
• How Socioeconomic Integration Can Be Achieved in Practice
• Political and Legal Strategies
• Rebutting the Case against Socioeconomic Integration
• Practical Experience with Socioeconomic Integration
• Notes
• Index
• Back Cover