Reflecting on his own experiences attending integrated schools in the 1960s and 70s, scholar Pedro Noguera argues that, despite the challenges involved, school integration remains essential for providing better educational opportunities for students. At a time when our nation is becoming irreversibly more diverse, Noguera writes, the country's…

The curricular programs which characterize our schools at every level tended to remain mono-cultural, mono-racial, and mono-ethnic. (Author)

Summarizes one expert's structural approach to cooperative learning, including its positive effects on social behavior and race relations. Structural techniques such as "numbered heads together" help foster both positive interdependence and individual accountability. The conventional individualistic orientation can be very adaptive, but is also…

Author is New York State's Commissioner of Education. (CB)

Concentrates on discussion of a new wave of educational equity litigation involving state lawsuits in the late 1980s and the 1990s seeking the integration of economically segregated schools. Earlier waves include federal racial desegregation decisions beginning with "Brown v. Board of Education" in 1954 and financial equity decisions…

Article illustrates the inferior image the black child produces in our elementary schools and the victimization suffered by the parents of black children. Stresses the crucial parent-child-teacher relationship and the need to return to basic skills in the classroom. (RK)

Good school helps children recognize their worth as individual human beings. Schools' most important responsibility is to affirm children. African-American and other parents are advised to experience school before choosing it. Is diversity celebrated? Are friendliness and racial diversity present among professional staff? Do African-American and…

Multicultural education tries to create equal educational opportunities by ensuring that the total school environment reflects the diversity of groups in classrooms, schools, and society. Five dimensions can help educators implement and assess programs addressing student diversity: content integration, knowledge construction, prejudice reduction,…

An advocate of cultural pluralism underscores the need for racial and ethnic diversity in predominantly white suburban schools. (Author)

As the United States grows more ethnically diverse, traditional school-integration tools are becoming less potent. Restoration of Horace Mann's common school represents the single best way to promote equal educational opportunity. Controlled public-school choice (via specialty schools) is the best way to achieve socioeconomic integration.…