This paper provides background information on school desegregation in Springfield, Massachusetts, and describes a study that compared the academic achievement of two groups of black elementary school students: one group who was mandatorily bused to a previously white school, and the other who walked to their neighborhood school which was…

In a desegregating school district in Springfield, Massachusetts, Black students who walked to a predominantly Black elementary school that they had attended for at least two years (and to which Whites were being bused) had higher achievement scores than Black students who were being bused to a predominantly White school. (MJL)