In a context that privileges neighborhood zoning and school choice over within-district busing, we examine urban residents' perceptions of the benefits of racial diversity. We analyze public opinion trends by race and residents' experience as a student in a district under court-ordered desegregation--Nashville, TN. We find racial differences…

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…

Studies of when youth classify academic achievement in racial terms have focused on the racial classification of behaviors and individuals. However, institutions--including schools--may also be racially classified. Drawing on a comparative interview study, we examine the school contexts that prompt urban black students to classify schools in…

This report misrepresents and then criticizes recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Education, a think tank and two independent study groups, each of which recently encouraged particular voluntary efforts to reduce concentrated poverty and achieve racial and socioeconomic integration in schools and housing in Minnesota. In building its…

This report presents data from a 2001 telephone survey of registered voters that examined community attitudes and expectations regarding public education in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg public school system (CMS). Respondents were committed to improving public schools and willing to increase taxes to achieve that goal. They expressed ambivalence…

A study of the effects of gender, race, and participation in the Chapter 1 program on the achievement gap between students in grade 3 (mandated busing year) and grade 4 (after termination of busing) for 434 students in Norfolk (Virginia) indicates declines in achievement test score for both African-American and white students. (SLD)

Effects of the policy of mandated busing for integration on overall achievement test scores of African-American children were studied with 434 elementary school students in Norfolk (Virginia). Achievement test scores declined after the elimination of mandated busing. School characteristics explained 9% of the variance in scores for all students.…

Summarizes the history of education in a rural, primarily African-American town in North Carolina as one of denial used as a coping mechanism for disappointment. Denial of real problems by blacks and whites has contributed to the town's weakened sense of community and its lack of a local school. (SLD)

Reviews research on the impact of efforts to achieve school desegregation. Argues that increased interracial exposure in schools and neighborhoods triggers racial and ethnic conflict. Reviews recent research and asserts that school desegregation significantly raised rates of protests against busing. (CFR)

The Forum's 16th annual report on public schooling in Southeastern Wisconsin reveals that spending increased 4% in Southeastern Wisconsin school districts to $2.8 billion last year, although the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) experienced a significantly smaller increase (2.7%). Part of this relatively small increase can be attributed to the…