Five Miles Away, A World Apart: One City, Two Schools, and the Story of Educational Opportunity in Modern America 1st Edition

The author presents a well-documented history of school desegration in Richmond. As a resident of Virginia during this time, the author presents the issues you might not have been aware of when you were only in elementary school. The author also is informative as to his insights into the courts, the judges, and the parties on both sides of the argument. The author's analysis of Detroit and Charlotte-Mecklenburg cases helped me to draw my own conclusions of how history played out over the past 50+ years and in hindsight how some ideas may have had flaws. While there was some controversy in my rural area of Virginia at this time, I was vaguely aware of the issues in the capital city. This book helped to fill in some of the gaps of not being there as well as explain the chain of events leading up to this point - many of which were before I was even born.If you are from the right, you may not like this book. If you are middle-class and white, you might not like what you read. While the white middle-class played a major role in the transformation of Richmond, it was interesting to learn of the division within the class between "metropolitan whites" and their rural counterparts. For those that know the area, you would have to admit that Richmond has become a kind of urban "suburb" to the surrounding counties - especially Henrico County. Except for state government, law firms, and banking offices, most large retailers and shopping areas are located in the suburbs. (Department stores long abandoned downtown.) That form of economic segregation may be a subject for another author.

I read this as a textbook for an Education class, and it is really eye opening. "Fixing" schools is a concept that gets thrown around a lot, after reading this you will have much more context about why some schools fail, and some of the few ways we could possibly fix them. Whether those fixes are popular enough that they could be implemented is another story.

Use for pleasure reading. Enjoying the historic aspect

I liked reading this book! It is great especially for someone interested in educational law and general knowledge about education

Every tax payer should read this book. It's an excellent explanation of the history of our nation's public school system. it's an easy read and very informative. It's not just for parents and teachers. Anyone can educate themselves on how our taxes are (or aren't) at work and take a stand for things to go differently.

The book was very factual and boring. It chronicled the educational system from the 50's to the present. The author did not spend much time talking about Freeman or T.J. I really wanted to hear about those schools and not the history of segregation in our educational system.

Wish ebooks had page numbers but the cost was great

This is a great book that takes apart the issues impacting the opportunity gap.