School assignment policies are a key lever to increase access to high performing schools and to promote racial and socioeconomic integration. For over 50 years, the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) has bussed students of color from Boston, Massachusetts to relatively wealthier and predominantly White suburbs. Using a…

School assignment in Boston and New York City came to national attention in the 1970s as courts across the country tried to integrate schools. Today, district-wide choice allows Boston and New York students to enroll far from home, perhaps enhancing integration. Urban school transportation is increasingly costly, however, and has unclear…

School assignment in Boston and New York City came to national attention in the 1970s as courts across the country tried to integrate schools. Today, district-wide choice allows Boston and New York students to enroll far from home. Although 1970s desegregation efforts likely benefited minority students, urban school transportation is increasingly…

Over sixty years following Brown vs. Board of Education, racial and socioeconomic segregation and lack of equal access to educational opportunities persist. Across the country, voluntary desegregation busing programs aim to ameliorate these imbalances and disparities. A longstanding Massachusetts program, METCO, buses K-12 students of color from…

This is the policy brief for the discussion paper, "Still Worth the Trip? School Busing Effects in Boston and New York." While choice systems offer students in segregated neighborhoods access to schools that may be more integrated and of higher quality, does busing lead to improved academic performance as measured by higher test scores…

Over sixty years following Brown vs. Board of Education, racial and socioeconomic segregation and lack of equal access to educational opportunities persist. Across the country, voluntary desegregation busing programs aim to ameliorate these imbalances and disparities. A longstanding Massachusetts program, METCO, buses K-12 students of color from…

A common problem in contemporary western societies is segregation, which is also reflected in schools. The point of departure for this study is a political initiative in Sweden, where pupils are being transported by bus from a suburb to different schools in the city with the aim of promoting integration and improved performance results. The study…

We evaluate the integrating and segregating effects of three distinct school choice programs in San Diego. We go beyond the traditional question of racial integration and examine the integration of students by test scores, parental education levels, and language status. In addition to measuring the net integrative effects of school choice, we also…

Examined post-high school occupational attainment of 45 students who participated in an experiment in voluntary urban-suburban school busing. Results supported the hypothesis that busing inner-city students to suburban schools positively affects their career development and maturity and supported arguments for desegregation. (WAS)

In 1994 the city of Tel Aviv replaced its existing school integration program based on inter-district busing, with a new program that allowed students to choose freely between schools in and out of district. This paper explores the impact of this program on high school outcomes while distinguishing the effect of choice on individual students from…

Magnet schools may prematurely limit academic choices and neglect the needs of poor children. (JM)

This is one part of an evaluation of the Los Angeles Unified School District's Predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Other Non-Anglo (PHBAO) student integration programs. The analysis is based on data collected from staff, students, and parents during 1982-83 at schools that are at least 70% non-Anglo. This volume, in eight sections, discusses…

The Los Angeles Unified School District's Permit with Transportation (PWT) Program allows volunteering students to be bused to attend schools other than those to which they would normally be assigned on the basis of residential location. Described are aspects of student participants' experiences, and of PWT Program activities at four receiving…

A statewide study was conducted to identify and describe successful voluntary school desegregation programs funded under Chapter 636, a 1974 amendment to Massachussets' Racial Imbalance Law. Programs selected were of four types: (1) school-based (elementary, middle, and high); (2) school system- or district-wide; (3) part-time and full-time…

This study reviews the state-financed program of racial integration in metropolitan Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Public Schools. The integration program rested on the basic assumption that with enough time, state financial assistance, and new spending, racial integration would significantly improve academic achievement and close the gap between minority…