Cost-effectiveness analysis provides a useful tool for choosing between alternative desegregation plans or justifying one particular plan. Previous analyses of school desegregation effects on white enrollment, which focus only upon costs, have had limited use for policy. Traditional cost-benefit analysis poses problems because of the difficulty of…

The desegregation effectiveness of voluntary plans with magnet schools was compared to that of mandatory reassignment plans with magnet schools using a sample of 20 school districts. Results show that a voluntary magnet plan will provide more long-term interracial exposure than a mandatory plan with magnet components. (SLD)

This paper outlines an alternative desegregation plan that would replace the one implemented in the East Baton Rouge Parish (Louisiana) School District in 1981. Known as the Incentives Desegregation Plan, the alternative plan was designed to produce interracial contact comparable to the earlier plan, without incurring the attendant costs of…

This report assesses the relative effectiveness of primarily voluntary and primarily mandatory desegregation plans in a sub-sample of 20 school districts, 9 of which are magnet-voluntary plans and 11 of which are magnet-mandatory plans. The major conclusions of this report are the following: (1) voluntary desegregation plans work; (2) dismantling…

This report attempts to provide a standardized evaluative measure for both school desegregation initiated by administrative action and the result of that action or lack of action. The latter measure, the measurement of school integration, involves two techniques--a uniform standard index which sets the same goals for all school districts, and one…

This article reviews the central issues during the remedy stage of school desegregation court cases and it presents the concept of net benefit analysis as an alternative to white flight studies and racial balance measures that have been used in the past. (LMO)

Analyzes the history and outcomes of parent choice and magnet schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Finds that parent choice has resulted in greater interracial exposure than the prior mandatory reassignment plan, and that student achievement has increased. (FMW)