ABSTRACT
In June 2007 a conservative majority of the Supreme Court declared in a 5 to 4 decision that school district policies intended to integrate school districts are unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his opinion that the Seattle, Washington and Louisville, Kentucky school districts could no longer assign students to schools based on their race. The Court’s decision in Meredith v. Jefferson County School Board (2007), and its companion case, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (2007), forced the school districts to rethink student assignment policies and confront challenging questions to genuine school integration. Is school integration simply to mix students of different colors to ensure equity or to promote familiarity among the races? Does integration produce concrete gains like greater academic achievement for all students? If so, is student assignment by race the most effective mechanism for attaining it?
