This Week in CQ Researcher

Racial Diversity in Public Schools by Kenneth Jost, September 14, 2007
Has the Supreme Court dealt a blow to integration?

Fifty years after the Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation in public schools, a new ruling has raised doubts about how far local school boards can go to integrate classrooms. The court's 5-4 ruling in cases from Seattle and Louisville bars school districts from using race as a factor in individual pupil assignments.

Meanwhile, some experts argue that socioeconomic integration – bringing low-income and middle-class students together – is a more effective way to pursue educational equity.

• Should school systems promote racial diversity in individual schools?
  
• Should school systems seek to promote socioeconomic integration in individual schools?
  
• Is the focus on diversity interfering with efforts to improve education in all schools?

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