Institute Research
The institute has published reports and videos on remedying funding gaps and harassment in schools, as well as complying with federal requirements that prohibit race, color or national origin discrimination.
Racial Harassment and Hostile Environments in Schools
The Education Rights Institute’s newest report aims to help school district and education stakeholders prevent and remedy racial harassment and hostile environments.
Read the report
Video: RACIAL harassment and hostile environments
VIDEO: PREVENTion
School Funding Gaps
Two new reports from the Education Rights Institute explore the impact of school funding gaps and which reforms can help.
Opportunity Gaps and How They Harm Our Students presents research on school funding gaps, including a brief review of school funding litigation and current challenges facing the field.
Reforms and Partnerships in Pursuit of a High-Quality Education examines key policy considerations for closing those funding gaps, including three state profiles of promising reforms.
Understanding Title VI
A new primer from the Education Rights Institute explains schools’ obligations to prevent and remedy discrimination on race, color and national origin under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The primer describes the origins of Title VI and explains how Title VI applies to public and private schools receiving federal funding today, the types of prohibited discrimination and the enforcement process.
Read the Primer Watch the Video on Title VI
Video: Disparate Treatment vs. Disparate Impact
Toward a High-Quality Education
A new report from the Education Rights Institute offers a primer on why reducing opportunity gaps — rather than achievement gaps — is the key to a high-quality education. It also introduces two important components of a high-quality education: college and career readiness and civic engagement.
Kimberly Jenkins Robinson, “Rodriguez at 50: Lessons Learned on the Road to a Right to a High-Quality Education for All Students,” 55 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 344 (2023).
Scholarship by Affiliated Faculty
Kimberly Jenkins Robinson
Forthcoming
Education and the 100-Year Life: The Linchpin for Enjoyment, in Law and the Hundred-Year Life (2023).
Books
A Federal Right to Education: Fundamental Questions for Our Democracy, NYU Press (2019).
The Enduring Legacy of Rodriguez: Creating New Pathways to Equal Educational Opportunity (edited with Charles J. Ogletree), Harvard Education Press (2015).
Book Chapters
Education Federalism: Why It Matters and How the United States Should Restructure It, in The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Education Law, Oxford University Press, 115–134 (2021).
A Congressional Right to Education: Promises, Pitfalls, and Politics, in A Federal Right to Education: Fundamental Questions for Our Democracy, NYU Press, 186–207 (2019).
An American Dream Deferred: A Federal Right to Education, in A Federal Right to Education: Fundamental Questions for Our Democracy, NYU Press, 327–338 (2019).
The Essential Questions Regarding a Federal Right to Education, in A Federal Right to Education: Fundamental Questions for Our Democracy, NYU Press, 1–32 (2019).
A Proposal for Collaborative Enforcement of a Federal Right to Education, in What Is Right for Children? The Competing Paradigms of Religion and Human Rights, Ashgate, 205–228 (2009).
Education, Discrimination in: Overview, in The Child: An Encyclopedic Companion, University of Chicago Press, 295 (2009).
Articles & Reviews
We Have Only Begun to Fight, 109 Virginia Law Review Online 1 (2023).
Strengthening Educational Equity through the Federal Response to the Pandemic, 59 Harvard Journal on Legislation 35–100 (2022).
Designing the Legal Architecture to Protect Education As a Civil Right, 96 Indiana Law Journal 51–103 (2020).
Restructuring the Elementary and Secondary Education Act's Approach to Equity, 103 Minnesota Law Review 915–998 (2018).
Fisher's Cautionary Tale and the Urgent Need for Equal Access to an Excellent Education, 130 Harvard Law Review 185–240 (2016).
No Quick Fix for Equity and Excellence: The Virtues of Incremental Shifts in Education Federalism, 27 Stanford Law Review 201–250 (2016).
Disrupting Education Federalism, 92 Washington University Law Review 959–1019 (2015).
The High Cost of Education Federalism, 48 Wake Forest Law Review 287–332 (2013).
The Past, Present and Future of Equal Educational Opportunity: A Call for a New Theory of Education Federalism (reviewing Ryan, James E, Five Miles Away, A World Apart: One City, Two Schools, and the Story of Educational Opportunity in Modern America) 79 University of Chicago Law Review 427–466 (2012).
Resurrecting the Promise of Brown: Understanding and Remedying How the Supreme Court Reconstitutionalized Segregated Schools, 88 North Carolina Law Review 787–876 (2010).
The Constitutional Future of Race-Neutral Efforts to Achieve Diversity and Avoid Racial Isolation in Elementary and Secondary Schools, 50 Boston College Law Review 277–362 (2009).
The Case for a Collaborative Enforcement Model for a Federal Right to Education, 40 UC Davis Law Review 1653–1746 (2007).
Constitutional Lessons for the Next Generation of Public Single-Sex Elementary and Secondary Schools, 47 William & Mary Law Review 1953–2044 (2006).
An Evidentiary Framework for Diversity as a Compelling Interest in Higher Education, 109 Harvard Law Review 1357 (1996).
Recent Cases, Fourth Circuit Finds University of Maryland Minority Scholarship Program Unconstitutional, Podberesky v. Kirwan, 108 Harvard Law Review 1773 (1995).
James E. Ryan
Books
Educational Policy and the Law (with Kristi L. Bowman et al.), Wadsworth Cengage Learning (5 ed. 2011).
Five Miles Away, a World Apart: One City, Two Schools, and the Story of Educational Opportunity in Modern America, Oxford University Press (2010).
Book Chapters
Legal Perspective on Teacher Compensation Reform, in Performance Incentives: Their Growing Impact on American K-12 Education, Brookings Institution Press, 43–66 (2009).
The Real Lessons of School Desegregation, in From Schoolhouse to Courthouse: The Judiciary’s Role in American Education, Brookings Institution Press, 73–95 (2009).
The Tenth Amendment and Other Paper Tigers: The Legal Boundaries of Education Governance, in Who’s in Charge Here: The Tangled Web of School Governance and Policy, Brookings Institution Press, 42–74 (2004).
Articles & Reviews
Poverty as Disability and the Future of Special Education Law, 101 Georgia Law Review 1455–1503 (2013).
Race and Response-to-Intervention in Special Education (with Angela A. Ciolfi), 54 Howard Law Journal 303–341 (2011).
Charter Schools and Public Education, 4 Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties 393–410 (2008).
Standards, Testing, and School Finance Litigation, 86 Texas Law Review 1223–1262 (2008).
The Supreme Court and Voluntary Integration, 121 Harvard Law Review 131–157 (2007).
A Constitutional Right to Preschool?, 94 California Law Review 49–99 (2006).
Does it Take a Theory?: Originalism, Active Liberty, and Minimalism, 58 Stanford Law Review 1623–1660 (2006).
Voluntary Integration: Asking the Right Questions, 67 Ohio State Law Journal 327–345 (2006).
Brown, School Choice, and the Suburban Veto, 90 Virginia Law Review 1635–1647 (2004).
Foreword to Symposium on School Finance Litigation: Emerging Trends or New Dead Ends? (with Thomas Saunders), 22 Yale Law & Policy Review 463–480 (2004).
The Perverse Incentives of the No Child Left Behind Act, 79 NYU Law Review 932–989 (2004).
Race Discrimination in Education: A Legal Perspective, 105 Teachers College Record 1087–1118 (2003).
The Limited Influence of Social Science Evidence in Modern Desegregation Cases, 81 North Carolina Law Review 1659–1702 (2003).
The Political Economy of School Choice (with Michael Heise), 111 Yale Law Journal 2043–2136 (2002).
A Political History of the Establishment Clause (with John C. Jeffries Jr.), 100 Michigan Law Review 279–370 (2001).
The Supreme Court and Public Schools, 86 Virginia Law Review 1335–1433 (2000).
Schools, Race, and Money, 109 Yale Law Journal 249–316 (1999).
Sheff, Segregation, and School Finance Litigation, 74 NYU Law Review 529–573 (1999).
The Influence of Race in School Finance Reform, 98 Michigan Law Review 432–481 (1999).
School Choice and the Suburbs, 14 Journal of Law & Politics 459–468 (1998).
Smith and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act: An Iconoclastic Assessment Notes, 78 Virginia Law Review 1407–1462 (1992).
Andrew Block
Textbooks
Juvenile Law and Practice in Virginia (edited with Angela A. Ciolfi), Virginia CLE (4 ed. 2014).
Juvenile Law and Practice in Virginia (edited with Angela A. Ciolfi), Virginia CLE (3 ed. 2009).
Book Chapters
An Introduction to the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court (with Angela A. Ciolfi), in Juvenile Law and Practice in Virginia, Virginia CLE Publications, 1–23 (3 ed. 2009).
The Comprehensive Services Act, Petitions for Services, and Other Proceedings (with Angela A. Ciolfi), in Juvenile Law and Practice in Virginia, Virginia CLE Publications, 693–735 (3 ed. 2009).
Using Educational Law to Create Better Outcomes in Juvenile Cases (with Angela A. Ciolfi & William B. Reichhardt), in Juvenile Law and Practice in Virginia, Virginia CLE Publications, 665–691 (3 ed. 2009).
Articles & Reviews
A Look Back and a Look Forward: Legislative and Regulatory Highlights for 2008 and 2009 and a Discussion of Juvenile Transfer, 44 University of Richmond Law Review 53–80 (2009).
Joy Milligan
Articles & Reviews
Animus and Its Distortion of the Past, 74 Alabama Law Review 725–753 (2023).
Remembering: The Constitution and Federally Funded Apartheid, 89 University of Chicago Law Review 65–155 (2022).
Subsidizing Segregation, 104 Virginia Law Review 847–932 (2018).
The Ph.D. Rises in American Law Schools, 1960-2011: What Does It Mean for Legal Education? (with Justin McCrary & James Phillips), 65 Journal of Legal Education 543–579 (2016).
Gerard Robinson
Book
Education for Liberation: The Politics of Promise and Reform Inside and Beyond America’s Prisons (edited with Elizabeth English Smith) (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2018).
Articles
Addressing the School-to-Prison Pipeline Through Three Nontraditional Pathways, 109 Virginia Law Review Online 49–72 (2023).
From “Undeserving Criminals” to “Second Chance Students”: Pell Grant Eligibility and Incarcerated Students, Journal of Law and Social Change Online (April 1, 2022).
A Federal Role in Education: Encouragement as a Guiding Philosophy for the Advancement of Learning in America, 50 University of Richmond Law Review 919-949 (2016).
Richard C. Schragger
Books
City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age, Oxford University Press (2016).
Book Chapters
San Antonio v. Rodriguez and the Legal Geography of School Finance Reform, in Civil Rights Stories, Foundation Press, 85–109 (2008).
Articles & Reviews
The Failure of Home Rule Reform in Virginia: Race, Localism, and the Constitution of 1971 (with C. Alex Retzloff), 37 Journal of Law and Politics 183–216 (2022).
Localism All the Way Up: Federalism, State-City Conflict, and the Urban-Rural Divide, 2021 Wisconsin Law Review 1283–1313 (2021).
Crystal Shin
Books
Education Law and Advocacy, Legal Aid Justice Center (7 ed. 2015).
Juvenile Law and Practice in Virginia (edited with Julie E. McConnell), Virginia CLE Publications (6 ed. 2021).
Book Chapters
Basic Educational Law, in Juvenile Law and Practice in Virginia, Virginia CLE Publications, 885–941 (6 ed. 2021).
The Children’s Services Act, Petitions for Services, and Other Proceedings, in Juvenile Law and Practice in Virginia, Virginia CLE Publications, 985–1037 (6 ed. 2021).
Using Educational Law to Create Better Outcomes in Juvenile Cases, in Juvenile Law and Practice in Virginia, Virginia CLE Publications, 943–983 (6 ed. 2021).
Reports & Datasets
Prevention v. Punishment: Threat Assessment, School Suspensions, and Racial Disparities (with Angela A. Ciolfi & Dewey G. Cornell), Legal Aid Justice Center & University of Virginia Curry School of Education (2013).
Educate Every Child: Promoting Positive Solutions to School Discipline in Virginia (with Angela A. Ciolfi & Jeree Harris), Legal Aid Justice Center JustChildren (2011).
