This research investigates forces that shaped the issuance of the 1980 Consent Decree and the factors that led to the Court's determination when Chicago Public School District made the necessary school desegregation changes to be removed from judicial oversight. Using a historical case study design, this research explores the impact of a federal intervention in education on the desegregation of students in one large Midwestern urban school district. It focuses on the impact of the Consent Decree issued to the District in 1980 by the U.S. Department of Justice on the desegregation of students in Chicago Public Schools. It continues by examining the reasons for and results of modifications made to the Decree in 2004 and 2006. The study addressed the research questions: (a) What prevalent local, regional, and national forces defined the course of events that shaped the context and content of the Consent Decree issued in 1980 by the U.S. Department of Justice? (b) What was the context and content of the 1980 Consent Decree? (c) What events led to the issuance of the 2004 and 2006 modifications to the 1980 Decree? (d) What remedies emerged from the decree and its modifications as essential elements that impacted desegregation in the Chicago Public Schools? (e) What desegregation changes were made in Chicago Public Schools and throughout the nation over time after the Decree and its modifications were issued? and (f) What impact has federal intervention through consent decrees had on addressing desegregation challenges in Chicago Public Schools? The researcher found that trends of re-segregation observed in the Chicago Public School District mirror those across the Midwest region and across the country. The movement from desegregation toward re-segregation of schooling experiences for African-American and Latino students in the last two decades of the 20th century, and continuing in the first decade of the 21st, were found to be indicative of the social, and political climate in which desegregation efforts happened. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]