Racial Isolation, Educational Equity, and the Rightto Equal Access

The study examined the effects of school integrationin SDUSDduring 1978 to 1998. The question was: What was theimpact ofschool integration for ethnically and linguisticallydiverse students?Five areas were examined: student achievement,cross-culturalinteraction, integration programs, students' andcommunity leaders'perceptions on integration. The findings indicatethat: (1)integration was ineffective in closing theachievement gap in the 23racially isolated schools; (2) students perceivedintegration as afavorable program that allowed for integration butfailed to providethem with a rich culturally diverse curriculum; (3)the districtprovided magnet school programs that were academicallychallenging, while VEEP programs provided lowacademic rigor; (4)administrator leaders perceived the implementation ofintegration asa compliance issue as opposed to a social commitment,and lastly;(5) community leaders perceived the integrationexperiment withsome social benefits but generally labeled theintegration efforts ofthe school district as symbolic and lacking thesocial commitment toequal educational opportunity.