Louisville District Unveils New Student-Assignment Plan

Seven months after its student-assignment plan was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Jefferson County, Ky., school district has proposed a new system that it hopes will maintain racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity in its schools without running afoul of the law.

District leaders, who spent months studying other districts’ student-assignment systems and consulting with experts, unveiled their proposal at a Jan. 29 school board meeting. Now they will gather public feedback on the proposal through community forums and surveys. They intend to present a final proposal to the school board by May, and implement it in 2009-10.

The changes in the school district, which includes Louisville, were prompted by the high court ruling last June in Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education , which barred districts from using race as the primary factor in assigning individual students to schools. The Seattle school district was the defendant in a companion case. ( "Use of Race Uncertain for Schools," ...