This guide is intended to help public-school educators, policy makers, and others develop a school desegregation plan. The guide presents the basic features of the Controlled Choice Student-Assignment Plan, which was developed to achieve student-body diversity, provide choice regarding one's school of enrollment, and promote school improvement.…

Analysis of the school desegregation experience in Los Angeles, California, suggests that the voluntary methods chosen by the board of education have had very small impacts on the overall pattern of segregation. A mandatory metropolitan plan would be the best way to achieve stable, long-term desegregation in Los Angeles. (Author/MJL)

To investigate positive student biracial contact, this study observed students' choice of seating groups in the lunchrooms of nine Chicago area high schools. The degree of biracial contact was much less than expected for each school, suggesting that race inhibits student friendship patterns and that voluntary segregation exists. (Author/SJL)

Race-conscious employment programs are considered in two contexts: governmental measures designed to remedy governmentally identified past discrimination or underrepresentation of minority employees; and voluntary implementation of remedial, race-conscious measures by private employers. (Author/MC)

Seattle's voluntary desegregation plans have included a voluntary racial transfer program, a plan to improve middle schools in the central area, and a magnet school program. Their ineffectiveness has led civil rights organizations to complain to the federal government. Community sentiment against court-ordered desegregation revolves around the…

Discusses the decline in judicial attempts to mandate racial integration in postsecondary education. Analyzes recent Supreme Court affirmative action rulings to determine the limits of voluntary race-conscious initiatives designed to increase minority access and success in higher education. (FMW)

One of the designers of the "Controlled Choice" student-assignment plan of the Boston (Massachusetts) public schools presents his evaluation of options suggested to replace the plan. The three options under consideration do not accomplish the main goal of any student-assignment plan, that is, to improve education. (SLD)

This document is the third in a series of handbooks designed to help educators who are considering controlled choice as a possible desegregation method. The document describes the educational philosophy, curriculum, teaching methods, school organization, and grading methods of traditionally organized schools. Four schools in the northeastern…

Cites evidence that large Northern cities have resisted integration and in some cases have grown increasingly segregated. (Author/DW)

This monograph describes the magnet school program in Connecticut implemented in five urban areas to solve segregation problems. Each school developed its own emphasis; some use the student centered method developed by Bank Street College of New York City while others center their curriculum around the arts. The origin and emphasis of each magnet…

In many urban areas, educators rely on magnet schools to strike a delicate balance between the need to create opportunities for equity in education and the need for parents to have greater choice among schools. But, are magnet schools successful? This document considers whether they fulfill the promises of high achievement and desegregation in…

A short synopsis of five regional meetings on school choice and follow-up activities is offered in this report. The meetings were held in fall 1989 in East Harlem, New York; Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; Charlotte, North Carolina; Denver, Colorado; and Richmond, California. Three sections of the report provide a review of choice activities that…

America's urban schools have come under pressure for their racial segregation and for a rigid traditionalism which alienates many students. Magnet schools have been established in several cities to attack both of these problems with attractive innovative educational programs which are intended to draw students of different races as volunteers.…

In October 1983, the School District of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission signed a memorandum of understanding that resulted in a Modified Desegregation Plan. The plan itself consisted of three complementary initiatives: (1) an educational improvement component promising systemwide educational reforms, specialized…

The results of computer simulations of each of 17 variations on 4 prototypical desegregation plans applied to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) are reported in this document. The prototypes, each representing a category of proposals offered at one point or another during the litigation of the desegregation issues are: (1) an…