EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY ACT (20 USC Sec. 1703)

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TITLE 20 - EDUCATION
CHAPTER 39 - EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
SUBCHAPTER I - EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
Part 2 - Unlawful Practices

§ 1703. Denial of equal educational opportunity prohibited

No State shall deny equal educational opportunity to an individual on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, by -

• (a) the deliberate segregation by an educational agency of students on the basis of race, color, or national origin among or within schools;

• (b) the failure of an educational agency which has formerly practiced such deliberate segregation to take affirmative steps, consistent with part 4 of this subchapter, to remove the vestiges of a dual school system;

• (c) the assignment by an educational agency of a student to a school, other than the one closest to his or her place of residence within the school district in which he or she resides, if the assignment results in a greater degree of segregation of students on the basis of race, color, sex, or national origin among the schools of such agency than would result if such student were assigned to the school closest to his or her place of residence within the school district of such agency providing the appropriate grade level and type of education for such student;

• (d) discrimination by an educational agency on the basis of race, color, or national origin in the employment, employment conditions, or assignment to schools of its faculty or staff, except to fulfill the purposes of subsection (f) below;

• (e) the transfer by an educational agency, whether voluntary or otherwise, of a student from one school to another if the purpose and effect of such transfer is to increase segregation of students on the basis of race, color, or national origin among the schools of such agency; or

• (f) the failure by an educational agency to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation by its students in its instructional programs.

Kenneth R. Howe, PhD

Professor of Education
School of Education, Room 245
University of Colorado at Boulder
249 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0249
Phone: 303-492-7229
Fax: 303-492-7090
E-mail: ken.howe@colorado.edu

Kenneth R. Howe is professor in the Educational Foundations, Policy, and Practice program area, and director of the Education and the Public Interest Center. Professor Howe specializes in education policy, professional ethics, and philosophy of education. He has conducted research on a variety of topics, ranging from the quantitative/qualitative debate to a philosophical examination of constructivism to a defense of multicultural education. His current research is focused on education policy analysis, particularly school choice. His books include the Ethics of Special Education (with Ofelia Miramontes), Understanding Equal Education: Social Justice, Democracy and Schooling, Values in Evaluation and Social Research (with Ernest House), and Closing Methodological Divides: Toward Democratic Educational Research. Professor Howe teaches courses in the social foundations of education, the philosophy of education, and philosophical issues in educational research.

teaching prof.

Understanding Equal Educational Opportunity

reviewed by Nicholas C. Burbules

Title: Understanding Equal Educational Opportunity
Author(s): Kenneth R. Howe
Publisher: Teachers College Press, New York
ISBN: 080773599X, Pages: , Year: 1997
Search for book at Amazon.com

One must admire the courage of a project like Kenneth Howe's in Understanding Equal Educational Opportunity. At a time when the United States has seen a series of compromises and erosions in the redistributive policies of the liberal welfare state, and a widespread abandonment of the social ideal of economic, political, and educational equality, Professor Howe has given us a well-argued reconception of the ideal of equal educational opportunity and has given this conception its strongest defense as requiring substantive equalization of certain educational outcomes. This emphasis flies in the face of a society that has become complacent about the profound inequalities of educational resources and facilities that exist between poor and wealthy, inner city and suburban, black and white, and rural and metropolitan school systems. Professor Howe's refusal to join in the chorus of "realistic" (read fatalistic) reformers, who have implicitly accepted that many school children will either drop out or leave school with barely adequate skills, must be admired. Professor Howe's book is a call...