Follow nine young people as they move from racially isolated elementary and middle schools to a diverse – yet internally segregated – neighborhood high school.

In this illustrative book, author Rebecca Alexander draws from the lived experiences of the young residents of “Glenwood”, a historically Black suburb, and “Parkside”, the historically white, wealthy community just across the freeway. Focusing on an anonymised location in California during the sub-prime crisis, the book explores issues of segregation and gentrification in US schools and communities, while looking at how youth and families work to produce, contest, question, resist, and engage racialized space in and beyond schools.

Reframing (de)segregation work through the lens of dispossession, displacement, borders and frontiers to highlight the historic and ongoing labor of young people, families, and communities in the context of persistent dispossession, the author contextualises experience with theory to demonstrate how concepts in social and educational structures impact real lives.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Abstract
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
  • Dolores Huerta Middle School
  • Valley Vista Middle School
  • The transition to high school
  • This book
  • Some notes on my frames and language
  • Context of the work
  • Positionality
  • The students
  • Learning objective: Displacement
• 1 Memo: This school is for the white kids
  • Mr Howard’s deficit narrative
  • This school is for the white kids
  • Whiteness in the classroom
  • Language in the classroom
  • Afterward
• 2 Jaqueline: It’s nice but not for us
  • University Path
  • Layers of displacement: Gentrification and education
  • Jaqueline’s afterward
  • Learning objective: Frontiers and borders
• 3 Cam: Because she was taking care of me
  • The construct of the high achieving white kid
  • Mrs A’s room
  • The tutoring class
  • The Grass
  • Because she was taking care of me.
  • Geometry class: Sketchpad
  • Cam’s afterward
• 4 Amy: The real world
  • Amy’s afterward
  • Learning Objective 3: (De)segregation
• 5 Khalil: They played me
  • Khalil’s afterward
• 6 Talli: You stay with your own kind
  • Talli’s afterward
  • Learning objective 4: Dispossession
• 7 Rahul: Fuck this school
  • They never work with me: Group work and micro-segregations
  • Fuck Geometry! I’ve never got an F in math!
  • Layers of violence
  • I’m a hot spot
  • Rahul’s afterward
• 8 Jonathan: I know everybody
  • Jonathan’s afterward
• 9 Elijah: The sky’s not the limit
• Conclusions: Education, abolition, segregation, dispossession, decoloniality
• Notes
• References
• Recommended projects, assignments, and discussion questions
• Suggested further reading
• Index

Rebecca Alexander PhD is an Associate Professor and Chair of Education Studies at DePauw University, Indiana. Her work specializes in education and borders, and segregated schools and communities.