Course Section | Columbia Law School

Section Description Provided by Instructor

During the last century, many of the greatest barriers to equality and many of the most important efforts to overcome such barriers have involved the law. This interdisciplinary survey course examines important law-based efforts to promote educational equality and considers how experience to date can inform future policy and practice. Topics include: addressing segregation and concentrated poverty; testing and classification, including the standards movement, high-stakes testing for student tracking, promotion, and graduation, and system accountability; the needs and rights of English-language learners; school-finance reform and the right to an adequate education; gender and sex discrimination and related issues; harassment and verbal abuse based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and disability; and special education.

This course is also offered through Teachers College as ORLA 5016, and the class will include education, public policy, social-work, and journalism students along with CLS students. The course is different from many CLS courses in that it explores not just the law but also multidisciplinary perspectives grounded in policy, social-science research, theory, and education practice. It is therefore best suited to students who wish to take an interdisciplinary approach to the subject matter.