Almost everyone knows what the term "achievement gap" means, although the key to closing it remains elusive. Despite efforts spanning a decade or more, the disparity in test scores, graduation rates, and other indicators of academic success separating many students of color from many of their white and Asian peers has not been eliminated. In a…

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…

The political and emotional furor over busing still overrides the real issue: how to provide quality education for all children. (Editor)

Examines the findings of the reanalyses and argues that spending more money on schools is not futile. Also indicates where additional or redistributed resources for schools should be spent. (JF)

Examines research demonstrating that forced busing does not guarantee equal education or raise minority achievement. Advocates a first choice, free transportation system to fulfill the intent of Brown v. Board of Education. (SK)

An analysis of student status and behavior patterns at 12 schools indicates that interracial climates are directly related to the rate of change in their racial compositions and to the social and academic status of Black and White students. Racial stability, gradual change, and the presence of one high status group contribute to a positive…

The Dallas Independent School District (DISD) established an alternative education system to comply with a 1976 desegregation court order. This system was composed of vanguards (grades 4-6), academies (grades 7-8), and magnet high schools (grades 9-12). These schools were expected to attract a student population which would reflect the ethnic mix…

This report is the fifth in a series of studies on 14 elementary magnet schools in the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland. The focus is over a three-year period from 1983 through the 1985-86 school year. Ten of the elementary schools are from the Montgomery Blair High School area and four are in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School area.…

Academic achievement of fifth grade students, statistically controlled for the student's socioeconomic status, was studied in relationship to the racial balance of the student's school. Eleven elementary schools were assigned to three categories in which the percentage of students who were black was either 11 to 15, 22 to 24, or 47 to 51%.…

In 1971, Duval County, Florida, began investigating the effect of court-ordered desegregation on academic achievement. The study investigated achievement differences between desegregated and not-desegregated pupils and variables affecting their achievement. Several statistical techniques were used to investigate differences and the effects of sex,…

The focus of this report is on the utility of desegregation as a method for achieving racial equality. Background information is provided through a discussion of the Brown Decision, a review of related literature and the meaning of racial equality. Comparisons of black and white achievement scores are used to address the question of equality.…

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…

As part of a series of reports dealing with racial distribution in San Francisco schools, this memorandum presents the rationale for adopting patterns of educational reorganization as an accompaniment to efforts to improve racial balance. Reasons are presented for adopting feeder patterns as students progress from the elementary to secondary…

In this decision, Judge W. H. Rice finds the Cincinnati (Ohio) School District (CSD) in compliance with some provisions of a school desegregation consent decree from June 22, 1984, and not in compliance with others. The original decision was historic in allowing the school district charged with promoting or allowing unconstitutional segregation to…

The school superintendent describes the process of integration in the White Plains, New York, schools and reports on some findings of a before and after study of achievement. The racial balance plan, achieved by busing inner city Negro children to formerly all-white schools, has not had an adverse effect on the academic achievement of white…