In the early 1990s, nearly forty years after Brown v. the Board of Education, three Supreme Court decisions dramatically altered the legal environment for court-ordered desegregation. Lower courts have released numerous school districts from their desegregation plans as a result. Over the same period racial segregation increased in public…

Presents major portions of U.S. District Court Judge Fox's ruling in the Oliver case against the Kalamazoo School Board and the Michigan State Department of Education, among others; the former had voted on July 6, 1971 to abandon an integration plan adopted May 7, 1971. (JM)

Discusses developments in school integration from the early 1960's to the present, concludes that all that can be done on the national level is to distribute money and establish minimum standards. "Beyond that, Washington can only encourage state and local educators, working within their own political frameworks, to indentify the best way of…

Examines pre-integration conditions in a metropolitan, multiple district school desegregation situation. This case study presents background information, analyzes the politics of desegregation and bussing independent of metropolitan and interdistrict considerations, analyzes the interdistrict and metropolitan aspects of the case, and, analyzes…

The 1992 "United States v. Fordice" case is the judicial precedent for desegregating higher education. Across 19 southern and border states, the desegregation burden has been shifted disproportionately to historically black colleges. This legal and political investigation explores acceptable responses to the desegregation mandate that…

Presents an overview of the federal role in the development of school desegregation policy, emphasizing the interactive nature of judicial, legislative, and executive involvement. Reviews the six articles in the theme issue. (FMW)

The Supreme Court blocked a desegregation plan that would have required a sweeping reorganization of public higher education in Louisiana and the merger of the Southern University and Louisiana State University law schools. The governor wants to create a single higher-education governing board. (MLW)

Black students from St. Louis (Missouri) voluntarily attend White suburban schools. Their rate of suspension is double the rate for White students. Strategies for lowering this rate are offered in the following five categories: (1) communicating standards; (2) instruction and classroom management; (3) human relations and staff development; (4)…

Political efforts to desegregate schools fail when political opposition interacts with an institutional structure that ambiguously divides educational authority. Both factors explain failure of Yonkers, New York, to desegregate its schools during the 1960s and 1970s. This article cautions against abandoning school desegregation efforts and demands…

Discusses the Controlled Choice Student Assignment component of the Comprehensive Remedial Order issued by a federal judge to "cure" discrimination in the Rockford (Illinois) School District. Parents and students choose their public schools subject to a residence-zone requirement for elementary schools only. A parent survey indicates…

Argues that greater caution is required when drawing conclusions from statistical results than the Armor study has done, and describes the "Prospects" study (begun in 1989), the largest longitudinal study of educational outcomes conducted in the United States. "Prospects" provides much data useful in evaluating the school…

This article explores the twisting and complicated history of school desegregation in Kansas City, Missouri, as an example of how illusive meaningful racial integration was and still is in urban America. The goal of desegregation was difficult to achieve from the beginning, when the school district adopted its initial desegregation plan based on…

This article explores the history of school desegregation in Kansas City, Missouri. It examines the development of the school district's initial 1955 desegregation plan based on neighborhood schools, and the impact of that plan. Extensive analysis is devoted to the plan's shortcomings, particularly the provisions allowing students to transfer…