It was in 1968, when Martin Luther King had been assassinated, and American cities were erupting in flames because of King's violent death and the decades-long smoldering resentments from racism, that the nation's first "magnet" school opened in Tacoma, Washington. The following year, 1969, the country's second magnet school opened--this…

The 1954 "Brown v. Board of Education" decision laid the basis for dismantling "de jure" racial segregation of schools. "Brown" represented a significant shift in the national attitude toward blacks and was an important advance in intergroup relations. However, in the last decade the proportion of black students…

Magnet schools are district-wide, open-enrollment institutions that are thematically organized around such subject areas as science and mathematics, the performing arts, or career areas such as engineering. They are largely non-selective; that is, students who apply are evaluated primarily on the basis of their interests and motivation rather than…

The Project Concern Program, which sought to promote school desegregation through cooperation among schools in Hartford, Connecticut, and its suburbs, is evaluated in this report. The evaluation addresses the following areas: (1) career patterns of project graduates, dropouts, and non-participants in Hartford; (2) issues of attrition; and (3) the…

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 1972 on a case involving changes in boundaries of a county school district in Virginia which had been operated as a dual school system. Two weeks after a federal district Court ordered a school-pairing plan, the Emporia City Council announced that city's intention to operate an independent school system. The…

The purpose of this assessment was to investigate the achievement patterns of black and white students in the Clark County School District since the implementation of the present desegregation plan. For this study, black students who are currently enrolled in the grade levels under study were used for comparison purposes. In addition, a sample of…

The World of Inquiry School (WOIS) derived its impetus from the wish to demonstrate that quality integrated urban education was both feasible and practical. The aim was to create a school in which the ethnic mix of the student body was a microcosm of the ethnic mix of the larger community. In addition, a new organizational school system, modeled…

The requirement to desegregate schools catalyzed changes enhancing educational effectiveness at Norfolk Public Schools (Virginia). Diversification of curriculum, high expectations, and instructional leadership have brought about dramatic improvements in academic achievement and minimal competency, and a significant decrease in racial disparity.…

This description of the accomplishments and shortcomings of one school desegregation plan provides insights into much broader dialogue on the role of race in America. St. Louis (Missouri) and its suburbs demographically resemble many midsized contemporary metropolitan areas in the United States. What makes St. Louis unique is an urban-suburban…

The thrust of this research exploration is aimed at one of the most pressing social problems facing America today: segregation in the public schools. The school system is only one of a complex set of systems, all interrelated, that comprise the entity that we call a city. The geography of the school system--the location of facilities and the…

The Youth and Development Study represents a major investigation pertaining to the attitudes of students, their parents and teachers. A major question being asked is how and to what extent do a student's parents, teachers, and peers influence the student's attitudes about politics, integration, career aspirations and expectations, as well as a…

The Philadelphia experience very strongly indicates that at least in Philadelphia, and very probably in most large cities in the northeastern U.S., several factors--notably the geographic separation of the races within the city and the existence of a sizable non-public school system (Usually (Usually parochial)--preclude the effective…

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…

The purpose of the study reported here was to design a model for the development of a human relations program in selected racially mixed public schools. The following efforts were undertaken: (1) an examination of the literature to obtain the rationale for school desegregation, (2) an identification of a national sample of desegregated school…

This ninth annual study of the status of desegregation in the Dade County Public Schools shows the racial and ethnic composition of student and employee groups throughout the school system and has tables with selected data from prior years for ease in noting changes which might have occurred. This report contains data to assist school officials in…