A conference on the courts, social science, and school desegregation attempted to clarify how social science research has been used and possibly misused in school desegregation litigation. The symposium issue addressed in this book is a product of that conference. First, the judicial evolution of the law of school desegregation from Brown V. the Board of Education to Miliken V. Bradley is traced. This is followed by an article that attempts to set out the legal issues with which courts are concerned today in dealing with school desegregation cases and the extent to which social science has been brought to bear on the resolution of these issues. The views held by various federal judges regarding the role that social science plays in the judicial decision-making process are also presented. The relationship of residential segregation and the use of a neighborhood schools policy to school segregation is also analyzed. Another article studies the use of busing when it is used to counteract the results of residential segregation, and the degree to which the social cost of busing ought to be weighed against the constitutional injury it purports to remedy. Several other articles focus on the following: (1) the impact of desegregation on achievement, on racial attitudes, and on aspirations, self-concept and other aspects of the personality, (2) on effective integration, (3) on alternatives to desegregation, (4) on mainstreaming mentally handicapped children, (5) on bilingual education, and (6) on the role of courts in the context of suspension and expulsion decisions. (Author/AM)