Suburban Education

Education news, analysis, and opinion about suburban education and suburban schools
Memphis school board members Tomeka Hart and Martavius Jones get excited by early results from the merger vote, while City Council member Shea Flinn, right, checks his mobile device.
Memphis school board members Tomeka Hart and Martavius Jones get excited by early results from the merger vote, while City Council member Shea Flinn, right, checks his mobile device.
Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal/Landov
School & District Management Memphis Votes to Merge City and Suburban Schools
Now haggling begins over when to form a new school board and what its composition should be.
Christina A. Samuels & Mary Ann Zehr, March 15, 2011
3 min read
Education Study: Diversity in Suburban Schools Has Grown
Suburban schools have become more diverse overall since the 1993-94 school year, according to a study released yesterday by the Pew Hispanic Center. But the exposure of the average white student in individual schools to other students who are of a different ethnic or racial background has increased only slightly. For example, the study found that the average white suburban student attended a school in which 75 percent of students were white in the 2006-07 school year; in the 1993-94 school year, the student body would have been 83 percent white on average. See the Associated Press story and USA Today story on the report.
Mary Ann Zehr, April 1, 2009
1 min read
Education Suburbs or Urbs?
He sends his own daughter to a suburban public school, but NYC educator continues to be amazed at why city kids can’t get what his daughter gets—luxuries like well-kept facilities, windows, real classrooms, and computers in every classroom. What’s the solution?
Rachel Gang, June 20, 2008
1 min read
Education Letter to the Editor A Tale of ‘Urbanization of Suburban Schools’
Having lived in the Newark, N.J., area during the period of 1950 to 1970, I can attest to the accuracy of the story Joy Dryfoos tells of a declining city and school district ("A Tale of One City," Commentary, March 30, 2005).
April 12, 2005
1 min read
Equity & Diversity Hartford Sweetens Deal to Draw Suburban Students to City
Under legal pressure to better integrate its schools, the Hartford, Conn., school district is making neighboring suburbs an offer it hopes they can't refuse: Send your children to our magnet schools, and we will foot the bill.
Catherine Gewertz, March 6, 2002
5 min read
Equity & Diversity Remodeling Suburbia
Changing Face Sure as the sun rises on every shopping mall and soccer field, America's suburbs will continue to grow and evolve, just as they have since someone paved the first cul de sac.
Alan Richard, October 18, 2000
6 min read
Education Remodeling Suburbia
Suburban educators be warned: Your communities and schools are likely to change significantly in the coming years. Part 2 of Education Week's series on how public education will evolve in this new century focuses on the suburbs, home to the majority of Americans, by examining two communities in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
October 18, 2000
1 min read
Education Funding Suburbs Challenge School Funding Formula in R.I.
For the second time this decade, Rhode Island has been called to court to defend the way it dispenses school aid. But this time around, the challenge has come from a very different set of litigants.
Jeff Archer, November 10, 1999
3 min read
English Learners Bilingual Battle Divides Suburban Calif. District

Language-minority students in a Southern California community have been caught in the middle of a legal tug of war over how they should be taught.

Lynn Schnaiberg, September 24, 1997
2 min read
Education Six Suburban Schools in Md. To Be 'Reconstituted'

The superintendent of a suburban Maryland school system will dramatically reorganize six schools and strip them of their staffs this summer in hopes of jump-starting their flagging academic performance.

Jessica Portner, June 11, 1997
1 min read
Education Study Charts Dramatic Rise in Suburban Child Poverty
Child poverty is increasing dramatically in the suburbs, and, if the trend continues, schools and children's agencies will face "overwhelming" demands to provide social, health, and other services, a new report predicts.
Deborah L. Cohen, October 5, 1994
3 min read
Education Imperiled Awards Program Said To Favor Suburban Schools
As lawmakers and Bush Administration officials last week began discussing how to finance the Blue Ribbon Schools program this year, a House Democrat released statistics that he said show that the program "is fixated on success stories in the suburbs."
Julie A. Miller, January 22, 1992
2 min read
Education Newly Diverse Suburbs Facing City-Style Woes
When Karmel Shields, executive director of the Bellevue (Wash.) Schools Foundation, approaches residents of the largely affluent suburban district for donations to support programs for disadvantaged students, she is frequently met with puzzled glances.
Ann Bradley, May 15, 1991
24 min read
Education Va. School-Funding Proposal Irks Suburban Educators
A Virginia panel's recommendations aimed at closing the funding gap between wealthy and poor school districts in the state have touched off a politically explosive battle pitting legislators and school officials from affluent Washington suburbs against their rural downstate colleagues.
Lonnie Harp, December 5, 1990
4 min read