Examples of training programs in the past year included human relations training for teachers. Elementary teachers without at least 2 years' experience in a minority school were slated for 32-hour workshops, and 195 of 219 elementary teachers participated in the training last spring. In August 1978 the same 32-hour human relations workshops were conducted for all bus drivers enrolled in the district pupil transfer program.

Total student suspensions in 1977-78 were 8,069, including 49.6 percent Anglos, 37.9 percent blacks, 4.8 percent Hispanics, 4.5 percent Asian Americans, and 3.2 percent American Indians. Total student suspensions in 1973-74 were 2,026, including 57.1 percent Anglos, 35.9 percent blacks, 3.4 percent Asian Americans, and 2.6 percent American Indians. (The total figure for 1973-74 is not wholly compatible with current data because the racial categories were defined differently and suspensions of 1 to 3 days were not recorded. In 1973-74 Hispanics were included in the Anglo category.)

Longtime observers think that last year's faculty desegregation, which placed minority teachers in some schools for the first time, was an important factor in facilitating the smooth beginning for desegregation in fall 1978.

Solen, North Dakota

Profile

Solen is a small, predominantly white community of 172 people. As a school district, it functions as a desegregated, paired system with Cannonball, North Dakota, whose population of 400 on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation is predominantly American Indian. The district serves a total population of 2,580.

During the 1977-78 school year, 285 (or 84 percent) of the district's 338 students were American Indians. In 1974-75, 260 (79 percent) of the 340 pupils were American Indian. Of 26 teachers in the district, only 2 are American Indians. Four years ago, only 1 of 24 teachers was an American Indian. All three school administrators are white. The sevenmember school board has included one American Indian during recent years.

Although the district sponsored no faculty or student desegregation training programs during 1977-78, it has applied for a program to provide teachers with 21 hours of mandatory cultural awareness training. In addition, Solen has received

$56,000 in Federal funds to hire a multicultural counselor for students and to provide home visitations for the first time during the 1978-79 school year.

Of a total school budget of $560,000, Federal funds account for $244,000, most of which is Johnson-O'Malley and Impact Aid money.

Desegregation Status

School desegregation began in Solen School District No. 3 in August 1977 following pressure by HEW's regional Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in Denver. OCR threatened to cut off Federal funding for the district if its two schools were not desegregated.

As noted, Cannonball, on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, and Solen, the adjacent white community, operate as a desegregated, paired school system. Grades four through six use the Cannonball school, and grades one through three and all junior and senior high school students attend school in Solen. All white students in grades four through six are transported to Cannonball, and Indian students in grades one through three and in junior and senior high school are transported to Solen. The Solen school board prepared the plan with assistance from local Indian groups and regional OCR staff. After a period of resistance from both the white community and Indian parents, the courts in North Dakota ruled against a suit filed by white parents challenging the legality of the plan.

Although there is no organized resistance at present, Federal and school officials report continuing dissatisfaction with the desegregation plan among white parents. Several parents have placed their children in private schools. The Solen school board is considering suing the State for approving the transfer of a white student to a public school outside the district. Apart from the president of the school board and the school superintendent, the white community has made no effort to make a success of the program. The school superintendent believes that local media reports have exacerbated these negative feelings.

Data on pupil suspensions were not available for this survey.

Springfield, Massachusetts

Profile

Springfield's total public school enrollment was 28,032 in October 1977. Of that total, 56.5 percent were white, 26.2 percent were black, and 15.8 percent were Hispanic students. In October 1970, total enrollment was 32,216. White student population was 71.7 percent of that total; blacks were 22.5 percent and Hispanics 5.8 percent.

In 1977 faculty and administrative staff were 87.4 percent white, 9.3 percent black, and 3.4 percent Hispanic. In 1970 the faculty and administrative staff was 92.3 percent white, 7.3 percent black, and 4 percent Hispanic.

As of October 1978 the school district had received approximately $5 million in Federal aid, and an additional $159,000 in ESAA funds.

Training programs connected with desegregation were last held in 1976. One of those programs involved instruction of 30 teachers on how to integrate bilingual students into regular classes.

Desegregation Status

Springfield desegregated its public schools in several phases. The city's four high schools have been integrated for years under an open enrollment plan. Junior high schools were desegregated in 1968 when a predominantly black school was closed and its students were assigned to six other schools in the city. In September 1974, in response to a Massachusetts board of education order, the city desegregated 30 to 36 elementary schools by redistricting the schools, reassigning students, and mandatory pupil transportation. The remaining six schools were desegregated a year later under a State board order.

Although the local school district has improved its performance in correcting Hispanic student isolation, in 1977 a Puerto Rican community group filed a complaint with HEW charging discrimination against Hispanic students and alleging that the bilingual program fails to meet the requirements of the Lau decision. HEW found aspects of the program in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and in the summer of 1978, the school board began to design a plan to resolve the problem. Other problems in the district include the underrepresentation of minority teachers and the community's allegation that black students receive unequal treatment.

During the 1976–77 school year, whites were 42.1 percent of all long-term pupil suspensions, blacks

were 43.9 percent, and Hispanics were 13.4 percent. Data on pupil suspensions for the 1969-70 school year were unavailable.

Tacoma, Washington

Profile

Total pupil enrollment in Tacoma's public schools in 1977-78 was 31,026, including 81.1 percent Anglos, 13.1 percent blacks, 2.8 percent Asian Americans, 2.1 percent American Indians, and 1.5 percent Hispanics. Total enrollment in 1970-71 was 36,886, including 85.7 percent Anglos, 10.3 percent blacks, 1.6 percent American Indians, 1.3 percent Asian Americans, and 1 percent Hispanics. Faculty and administrative staff in 1978-79 totaled 3,535, including 86.3 percent Anglos, 10.1 percent blacks, 1.9 percent Asian Americans, 1 percent Hispanics, and 0.7 percent American Indians. Faculty and administrative staff in 1970-71 totaled 2,164, including 95.9 percent Anglos, 2.8 percent blacks, 0.6 percent Asian Americans, 0.4 percent Hispanics, and 0.3 percent American Indians.

Federal aid to Tacoma schools during fiscal year 1977 amounted to $7,495,353. That total included $1,353,101 under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), of which $171,555 was for Title I (Migrant) programs and $43,315 for Summer Special Food Programs; and $124,925 for ESEA Title IV Indian Education. Other fund sources and the amounts involved were ESEA Title VII Bilingual Education, $121,000; Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA), $590,124; and Indo-Chinese Refugee Assistance, $50,400.

Desegregation Status

After more than 10 years of voluntary, gradual changes, desegregation of Tacoma's school system was accomplished by 1972, without a court order, through a combination of optional enrollment policies and the creation of magnet schools. An active summer counseling program to encourage student transfers and to smooth the adjustment of students to their new schools is credited with making Tacoma's largely voluntary desegregation program

successful.

The previous neighborhood school system was altered by implementing a districtwide access system. Under this system students could choose to attend any school in the district. Desegregation entailed minimal additional pupil transportation.

The districtwide access system was 95 percent voluntary. The only exceptions to this voluntary attendance plan were McCarver and Stanley Elementary schools. Children moving into the McCarver and Stanley neighborhoods could not choose to attend those schools, but were required to select any other school in the district. Procedurally, a student was required to submit an application to the district for the school he or she chose to attend, and waiting lists were used to determine priority.

In 1963 the school board set up a "Subcommittee to Study Defacto Segregation," whose seven members included two minorities. The subcommittee recommended to the board various desegregating activities. These activities as well as subsequent citizen involvement, official and unofficial, are described in a staff report to be published soon. In the past 2 years, student participation in school decisionmaking has been invited on an ad hoc, informal basis. The district has conducted extensive inservice training for some 1,500 teachers over a period of 13 years to sensitize them to the needs of minority students as Tacoma desegregated:

According to HEW/OCR regional staff, no racial imbalance currently exists in Tacoma's schools. Acceptance of desegregation by both white and black communities has been high and is generally attributed to the leadership of school officials and civic leaders who worked together to ease the city into the present situation. Since the passage of an open housing ordinance in 1975, previously all-white neighborhoods are being integrated by minority families.

Pupil suspensions for 1977-78 totaled 581, including 77.1 percent Anglos, 19.3 percent blacks, 2.4 percent American Indians, 0.9 percent Hispanics, and 0.3 percent Asian Americans. Suspensions for 1974-75 totaled 944, of whom 73.6 percent were Anglos, 21.7 percent blacks, 2.4 percent American Indians, 1.3 percent Hispanics, and 1 percent Asian Americans.

There have been no reports from minority students of disparities in disciplinary treatment. The minority dropout rate continues to decrease in the district, and the percentage of black youths pursuing their education beyond high school is rising.

Recently, minority administrators pointed to some problems in the school district's hiring and promotion system, and Tacoma school district leaders have met with them to seek out solutions. Solutions to these problems have not yet been determined.

Tucson, Arizona

Profile

Total public school enrollment in Tucson in 1977 was 57,346, including 26 percent Hispanics, 5.4 percent blacks, 1.1 percent American Indians, and 0.6 percent Asian Americans. Total enrollment in 1970 was 58,506, including 28.1 percent Hispanics, 5.3 percent blacks, 1.7 percent American Indians, and 1.2 percent Asian Americans. District records indicate that black and Hispanic classroom teachers numbered 65 and 129, respectively, in 1970, compared to 96 and 277 in 1978. In 1978 the five-member school board included one Asian American and one Hispanic, compared to one Asian American member

In 1975 Tuscon School District No. 1, with the assistance of the Mexican American Steering Committee and the Black Council on Education, developed a plan that detailed the school district's responsibility toward “equal access to quality education." In 1977 a group of black and Mexican American parents, unhappy with the rate of desegregation progress, filed suit in the Federal district court charging that the schools were segregated. In June 1978 the court ordered the school district to devise a

desegregation plan specifically for 9 of 102 schools, to become effective with the opening of schools in fall 1978. A district plan that included the transportation of 350 additional K-12th grade students was implemented in September 1978.

The district has hired full-time staff to provide inservice training for classroom personnel in cultural awareness, and for 4 years school officials have worked with STRIDE (Service, Training, Research in Desegregated Education). A school board member believes that success in carrying out the court order will depend on how information is now provided to the community. He added that the two local newspapers have covered the desegregation issue in an objective manner. Community leaders indicate a

positive feeling about desegregation, and the district superintendent has promoted desegregation among the school board and staff.

Some local civil rightts leaders, however, are skeptical about the eventual outcome of the plan. They believe that, in the past, school boundaries were designed to maintain segregation. One said, "They have been busing minority kids right past white schools for years to segregated schools." He also said, "The better teachers are at the eastside [white] schools, while the probationary teachers are sent to minority schools." A local academician said he believes that most people "do not want any change that would affect their families, such as busing or the closing of schools." The only known group formed in opposition to desegregation is the "Tucson Unified Education Committee," which is made up primarily of Anglos. Two other community organizations involved in desegregation are the local NAACP and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund; both of which assisted black and Mexican American parents in their lawsuit in 1977.

In 1977 there were 841 student suspensions that included 24 percent Hispanics, 15 percent blacks, 8 percent Asian Americans, and 3 percent American Indians. In 1972 suspensions totaled 325, including 17.8 percent Hispanics, 12.6 percent blacks, 0.9 percent Asian Americans, and 0.6 percent American Indians.

Uvalde, Texas

Profile

In 1977 total public school enrollment in Uvalde was 4,627, including 68.6 percent Hispanic and less than 1 percent black. Total enrollment in 1970 was 3,618, including 62 percent Hispanic and less than 1 percent black. The school district's faculty totaled 192 in 1970, 8.3 percent of whom were Hispanic. By 1977 the proportion of Hispanic teachers had nearly doubled, to 15.4 percent of the district's 273 faculty members. Only 1 of 11 administrators was Hispanic in 1970, compared with 5 of 19 by 1978. Although one Mexican American served on the school board from 1970 to 1974, there are no minorities on the board now.

Federal aid to Uvalde schools is currently $1,017,084. That total includes $260,000 for Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I programs and $230,000 for migrant education programs.

Desegregation Status

The 1970 suit to desegregate the Uvalde schools is unique, for it charged that Mexican American rather than black students were being segregated. In 1975 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed, and the case (Morales v. Shannon) was remanded to the Federal district court for further action.

A pairing plan to desegregate four elementary schools, each of which had a Mexican American enrollment exceeding 66 percent, went into effect in 1976. Under the plan, only those students living outside a 2-mile radius of the school are provided transportation at public expense. According to the superintendent, the plan is working well.

Community leaders and a local attorney, however, claim that there have been numerous allegations that children are being segregated within schools through the misuse of ability grouping. "Ability groupings have the effect of separating children by race, despite the educational justifications that may be raised," stated a local leader. As their parents see it, Mexican American students are not motivated by school counselors to seek higher education, are not given adequate recognition as athletes, and are disproportionately suspended for disciplinary problems. According to student suspension data provided by the school district, there were 20 suspensions, 11 of which were Hispanic students, in 1974-75. Of 26 suspensions in the 1977-78 school year, 18 (69.2 percent) were Hispanic students.

Community leaders agreed that it is too soon to tell whether desegregation has resulted in educational improvements for Chicano students, although some schools have undergone physical improvements. A parent said, "We fought for the improvement of our schools, but it wasn't until the white community sent their children to our schools that the schools were improved." According to community leaders, there has been little or no white outmigration as a result of school desegregation.

Chapter 5

Conclusion

This report has examined school desegregation developments during the past 2 years at two levels: first, the Federal level, including desegregation-related activities of all three branches, the judicial, the executive, and the legislative; and second, at State and local levels, through brief reviews by the Commission's nine regional offices of the status of school desegregation in 47 school districts.

The picture that emerges from this review of the status of school desegregation in 1978 is far from clearcut. On the one hand, there are communities throughout the land where desegregation is working. Communities that have been divided over the issue are emerging as stronger communities as leaders from all walks of life work out constructive solutions to difficult educational problems. Children and young persons are being provided with genuine opportunities to obtain an education that will help prepare them to live in a pluralistic society. Equality of educational opportunity is beginning to take on real meaning. Some examples of communities that fall into this category out of the 47 on which we have reports are: Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina; Denver, Colorado; Providence, Rhode Island; Tampa, Florida; and Tacoma, Washington. It may be noted that among this group of 47, Seattle, Washington, instituted a compulsory program for desegregation of its schools without being ordered to do so either by a court or by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

On the other hand, there are communities that have employed a variety of devices to prevent, obstruct, or slow down desegregation. Some of these communities have started or will start the desegregation process this school year. Examples of such communities out of our sample of 47 include 1 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

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Cleveland, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Los Angeles, California; and New Castle County (Wilmington), Delaware. The years of litigation should not deter these communities from meeting their constitutional obligations. The experience of other cities indicates that the goals are achievable.

In other cities, the obstructionist tactics of the last 10 to 15 years continue to block any meaningful school desegregation progress. Examples of such communities in our sample include Buffalo, New York; East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Each year of delay, of course, is another year of denial of equal educational opportunities to many children and young people.

As we have noted, Congress has aided and abetted the obstructionists in the field of desegregation by attempting to make it increasingly difficult to enforce desegregation policies. Furthermore, although there are some encourgaging signs on the horizon, the executive branch has yet to mount the kind of all-out enforcement effort that will make clear that the Nation is firmly committed to the goal of ensuring equal educational opportunities. The planned strengthening of enforcement staff at HEW, if accompanied by a determination to cut off funds in case of violations of equal opportunity rights, will markedly change this picture.

Some public doubt has arisen as to whether recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States reflect a retreat from earlier principles set forth in Brown 1 and other decisions that followed that landmark ruling. In the Commission's view, Brown remains the law of the land, and the law must be vigorously enforced.

Concern has also been registered by Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Island Americans and by Ameri