Book Description

This report of an advisory panel to the Chicago Board of Education deals with desegregation of the public schools, and offers a plan ""by which any educational, psychological, and emotional problems or inequities in the school system"" can be removed. The introduction deals with historical and legal background and the problem of integration in a pluralistic society; a summary of the Panel's findings, recommendations with their rationale; and a general discussion of implementation. The panel's findings on de facto segregation are discussed in relation to racial composition of student body (schools are defined as integrated when they are at least 10% Negro and 10% white), and the racial distribution of teachers. Quality of Education in white, integrated, and Negro schools is discussed in terms of overcrowding; class size; student-staff ratio; teaching staff; attendances; dropouts and mobility; achievement; curriculum and teaching methods; and physical facilities. Recommendations, based on the currently accepted premises about the value of desegregation, stress that the principle of the neighborhood school must be modified to achieve the ""higher priority"" of expanding ""the freedom of individual choice."" Appendices include policy statements, social-psychological material on segregation, and tables of data on which recommendations were based. A study guide for the report is included. (Nh).