Briefly describes report by Gary Orfield, codirector of Harvard University's Civil Rights Project, that finds American public schools have become much less desegregated than they were 10 years ago. (PKP)

Interviews with Ruby Bridges Hall, Ronald Deskins, and Carlotta Walls LaNier, who were among those charged with integrating public schools after the Supreme Court's "Brown" decision. Thirty-some years later, they reflect on how far they think desegregation and American's attitudes toward racism have come in the ensuing years. (MLF)

A board member describes the school desegregation background and present circumstances in St. Louis, Missouri. Students are entering the seventh year of a controversial voluntary desegregation plan in which some 12,000 students are bused to predominantly White schools in the suburbs. (MLF)

A board member describes the school desegregation background and present circumstances in Seattle, Washington. A new controlled-choice plan that went into effect last fall replaces a 10-year-old mandatory desegregation plan. (MLF)

In a recent series of decisions, the Supreme Court has set the standard for returning control of vital school affairs to local school officials. Discusses the legal bases school officials and their legal counsel might use in showing that their school district has attained so-called unitary status, the condition for lifting federal desegregation…

One way to address the issues involved in seeking partial or complete unitary status is for school districts to conduct a unitary-status study of the district's progress on student performance, discipline, special-education placement, and principal and teacher assignment by race, as well as data on any other areas cited in the court's liability…