College of Education

About Us Admissions & Academics Research & Engagement Departments & Faculty Current Students

Christopher Span

Key Professional Appointments

  • Professor, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Awards, Honors, Associations

Charles H. Hochman Lifetime Achievement Award, Transportation Research Board, 2018

Publications

Span, C. M. (2022). Sam's Cottonfield Blues. History of Education Quarterly, 62(1), 1-15.  link >

Pak, Y. K., Span, C. M., Anderson, J. D., & Trent, W. T. (2018). Where do we go from here? Reflections on building institutional diversity for lasting change. Teachers College Record, 120(14).

Span, C. M. (2017). Review: H. Green's Educational Reconstruction: African American Schools in the Urban South, 1865–1890. History of Education Quarterly, 57(4), 631-634.  link >

Anderson, J. D., & Span, C. M. (2016). History of Education in the News: The Legacy of Slavery, Racism, and Contemporary Black Activism on Campus. History of Education Quarterly, 56(4), 646-656.  link >

Danns, D., Purdy, M. A., & Span, C. (2015). Introduction: Towards a New History of African American Education. In D. Danns, M. A. Purdy, & C. M. Span (Eds.), Using Past as Prologue: Contemporary Perspectives on African American Educational History (pp. 1-14). (Research on African American Education). Information Age Publishing Inc..

Danns, D., Purdy, M. A., & Span, C. (Eds.) (2015). Using Past as Prologue: Contemporary Perspectives on African American Educational History. (Research on African American Education). Information Age Publishing Inc.

Pak, Y. K., Span, C. M., & Anderson, J. D. (2015). Reflections from Within: Ten Years of Service to HEQ. History of Education Quarterly, 55(4), 407-412.  link >

Span, C. M. (2015). Post-Slavery? Post-Segregation? Post-Racial? A History of the Impact of Slavery, Segregation, and Racism on the Education of African Americans. Teachers College Record, 117(14), 53-74.

Span, C. (2015). Why the Nineteenth Century Still Matters. In D. Danns, M. A. Purdy, & C. M. Span (Eds.), Using Past as Prologue: Contemporary Perspectives on African American Educational History (pp. 17-32). (Research on African American Education). Information Age Publishing Inc..

Span, C., & Rivers, I. D. (2012). Reassessing the Achievement Gap: An Intergenerational Comparison of African American Student Achievement before and after Compensatory Education and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Teachers College Record, 114(6), 1-17.

Span, C. M. (2009). From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse: African American Education in Mississippi, 1862-1875. University of North Carolina Press.

Danns, D., & Span, C. M. (2008). History of Schooling. In T. L. Good (Ed.), 21st Century Education: A Reference Handbook (Vol. 2, pp. I-265-I-273). SAGE Publishing.  link >

Span, C. M. (2005). Learning in Spite of Opposition: African Americans and their History of Educational Exclusion in Antebellum America. Counterpoints, 131, 26-53.

Span, C. M., & Anderson, J. D. (2005). The Quest for "Book Learning": African American Education in Slavery and Freedom. In A. Hornsby Jr (Ed.), A Companion to African American History (pp. 295-311). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd..  link >

Span, C. (2003). "Knowledge is Light, Knowledge is Power": African American Education in Antebellum America. In C. C. Yeakey, & R. D. Henderson (Eds.), Surmounting all Odds: Equalizing Education Opportunities in the New Millennium (Vol. 1&2). (Research on African American Education). Information Age Publishing Inc..

Johnson, L., & Span, C. M. (2002). Urban Education: Guest editorial. Urban Education, 37(5), 563-565+656-657.  link >

Span, C. M. (2002). Alternative pedagogy: The rise of the Private Black Academy in Early Postbellum Mississippi, 1862-1870. In N. Beadie, & K. Tolley (Eds.), Chartered Schools: Two Hundred Years of Independent Academies in the United States, 1727-1925 (pp. 211-227). (Studies in the History of Education). Routledge.

Span, C. M. (2002). Black Milwaukee's challenge to the cycle of urban miseducation: Milwaukee's African American Immersion schools. Urban Education, 37(5), 610-630+657.  link >

Span, C. M. (2002). Educational and Social Reforms for African American Juvenile Delinquents in 19th Century New York City and Philadelphia. The Journal of Negro Education, 71(3), 108-117.  link >

Span, C. M. (2002). "I Must Learn Now or Not at All": Social and Cultural Capital in the Educational Initiatives of Formerly Enslaved African Americans in Mississippi, 1862-1869. Journal of African American History, 87(2), 196-205.  link >

Span, C. M. (2002). New and Important Contributions to the Educational History of African Americans, Latino/as, and Native Americans. Educational Researcher, 31(3), 33-36.  link >

Span, C. M. (2000). "Black Schools for Black Children": Black Males, Milwaukee, and Immersion Schools. Counterpoints, 107, 135-153.

Courses

EPOL 199: Undergraduate Open Seminar (EPOL 199) Various special topics. See class schedule for offerings.

EPOL 395: Independent Study (EPOL 395) Designed for students who wish to do advanced readings and research in greater depth and to investigate further ideas and themes that have been explored in EPOL 199 and EPOL 201.

EPS 391: Thesis (EPS 391) Prerequisite: Senior standing.