On the U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Race in Schools

A nice Op Ed in the SF Chronicle about the Supreme Court decision that correcty focuses attention on the REAL issue: the 50-point achievement gap.  It also calls for more charter schools (with a nice mention of KIPP Bayview Academy).

One hopes that  the Supreme Court's decision will put an end to the disagreements and  courtroom tactics because, while the policymakers bicker over who sits next to  whom in the classroom, the real segregation in San Francisco's schools is  going largely unnoticed.


The data tell the story. Seventy-two percent of San Francisco  Unified School District white students scored "at or above proficient" on  state tests in reading. But only 23 percent of black students did. In math, 69  percent of white students hit the proficient mark; 21 percent of black  students did. Thus is revealed the achievement gap, the most dangerous form of  segregation. It's also the form of segregation which, especially lately, has  garnered relatively few headlines. But 50-point achievement gaps should garner  headlines.

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On the U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Race in Schools
PRO: Integration through innovation
Liam Julian

Friday, June 29, 2007

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/29/EDGNNQ4TAG1.DTL sfgate_get_fprefs();  

In 1983, a federal court ordered San Francisco to integrate its schools. Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled just the opposite. Instead of mandating that public school districts consider race when assigning students to classrooms, the court decided that race can be considered only rarely, if at all -- even voluntarily.