Sheneka Williams
Chairperson and Professor, Department of Educational Administration | Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, UNITED STATES
Sheneka Williams's research focuses on rural education and school desegregation.
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Biography
Sheneka Williams is professor and chair of the Department of Educational Administration. Williams's research focuses in two main areas: rural education and school desegregation. Her research specifically examines educational opportunity for African American students in rural contexts, and the resulting effects of (de)segregated schools on students of color. Her research has been published in journals such as Educational Policy, Teachers College Record, Urban Education, and the Peabody Journal of Education. Aspects of her research have been presented at The National Press Club, American Enterprise Institute, and on CNN and NPR.
Industry Expertise (1)
Education/Learning
Areas of Expertise (3)
Educational Administration
Rural Education
School Desegregation
Education (3)
Vanderbilt University: Ed.D., K-12 Educational Leadership and Policy 2007
The University of Alabama: M.Ed., Educational Leadership and Administration, General 2001
The University of Alabama: B.S., Secondary Education and Teaching 1996
Links (2)
News (4)
Michigan State students have thoughts on whether class Monday is too soon
Bridge Michigan online
2023-02-17
School of Education Department Chair and Professor Sheneka Williams said she thinks some students have qualms about returning to night classes since the shooting happened at night. For example, she said, students who have night classes wonder if there will be people to escort them if they need it.
Commentary: Times Article on Rural School Misses Half the Story – Educational Success
The Daily Yonder online
2021-10-06
Despite lack of funding, rural schools can serve as sites of learning, community, and excellence. We need to understand both the problems and opportunities to make good education policy.
Desegregation remains an issue in many US schools
New York Post
2019-07-11
Districts released from court orders have tended to relax their integration efforts, a major factor in the resegregation of many schools nationwide, according to Sheneka Williams, an associate professor at the University of Georgia.
Evenness vs. Isolation in Schools
U.S. News & World Report online
2018-06-25
"Schools alone can't fix this," says Sheneka Williams, an expert in school desegregation history at the University of Georgia. "Housing is a place to start. There has to be a federal incentive with housing. If the nation is interested in integrating schools, you have to incentivize people to live together."
Journal Articles (3)
School System Responses to Racial Injustice. Technical Report.
National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice2023 Over the past two years, there have been calls for racial justice in nearly every sphere of social and political life, including the field of education. As much of the nation reeled at yet another life violently taken at the hands of a police officer, education workers faced the challenge of responding to local and national demands for policy change at the school and district levels in order to better meet the academic, social emotional, and other personal needs of racially minoritized students. In this report, the researchers share data from our 2020-21 study of how schools in eight districts across the United States responded to racial injustice, as well as parents' satisfaction with these responses.
A Year That Forced Change: Examining How Schools and School Systems Adapted to the Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Calls for Racial Justice in 2020. Policy Brief.
National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice2023 In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 virus shuttered schools across the country and world and calls for racial justice expanded into nearly every sphere of social and political life as the nation reeled at another life violently taken at the hands of a police officer. School system leaders faced difficult decisions about delivering instruction while maintaining the safety and well-being of students, families, faculty, and staff. Moreover, the spotlight on racial injustice also drew attention to the need for educational reform to better serve historically marginalized students with academic, social, emotional, and other special needs.
Conceptualization and challenges: examining district and school leadership and schools as learning organizations
The Learning Organization2021 Purpose Conceptualizing schools as learning organizations provides a potential avenue to meet the pressing challenges of school improvement in the USA. District and school leaders play an important role in creating and sustaining the conditions for a learning organization, yet little is known about how leadership responds to learning-resistant contexts in their mission to improve schools. This study aims to examine the relationship between the district and school leadership and schools as learning organizations. The focus is on the conceptualization of schools as learning organizations and the challenges involved in creating and sustaining conditions and processes in which to improve schools.
