ABSTRACT
St. Louis has been described as having a Southern segregation legacy with a Northern political geography of separate city and county (Heaney & Uchitelle, 2004; Stuart-Wells & Crain, 1999). The city has been characterized as maintaining the status quo with regard to inequities along education, housing, and employment lines despite progressive reform attempts such as school desegregation (Morris, 2001; Stuart-Wells & Crain, 1999). The history of race and public education in St. Louis is interwoven with the history of residential segregation. Cited as the nation’s fourth most segregated city, St. Louis has been described by Portz, Stein, and Jones (1999) as having a “legacy of systemic racism” (p. 108). St. Louisans make close links between a school and social class, beliefs, and values. The St. Louis public school district has a tumultuous history of struggling to meet the educational needs of students who live in the city (Ayres-Salamon, 2006; Heaney & Uchitelle; Portz et al.). Missouri is forty-third in the country in terms of per pupil funding. The most economically disadvantaged schools exist in the city of St. Louis.
