Student Assignment Plans

Equity & Diversity Target Demographics
In Seattle, the student-assignment policy seeks to keep the racial and ethnic makeup of high schools within the range of district averages.
Andrew Trotter, October 3, 2006
7 min read
Law & Courts U.S. Opposes Race-Conscious Assignment Plans In K-12
The Bush administration last week urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down plans that use race to help determine where to assign students to public schools.
Andrew Trotter, August 29, 2006
3 min read
Law & Courts Bush Administration Opposes Voluntary Use of Race in K-12 Schools
The Bush administration has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down school assignment plans that use race to help determine which students may enroll in specific public schools.
Andrew Trotter, August 23, 2006
4 min read
Law & Courts Supreme Court to Consider Use of Race in K-12 School Assignments
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed today to consider the constitutionality of weighing race as a factor in assigning students to public schools, combining appeals from two cases involving voluntary desegregation plans in urban school districts.
Andrew Trotter, June 5, 2006
2 min read
Education A National Roundup N.C. District’s Assignment Plan Seen Threatened by Board Election
School board elections held last week in Wake County, N.C., could determine the fate of the 120,000-student district’s nationally watched student-assignment policy, which seeks to limit the concentration of poor students attending any one school.
Jeff Archer, October 18, 2005
1 min read
Education A National Roundup Boston School Board Defers Overhaul of Student-Assignment Policy
The Boston school board is unlikely to make any dramatic changes to the district’s student-assignment plan until the 2006-07 school year, a decision that comes after months of heated community meetings that explored ways to retool the policy.
John Gehring, November 2, 2004
1 min read
Equity & Diversity Court Rejects Seattle Policy Weighing Race
Legal experts see a federal appeals court decision striking down Seattle’s system for assigning students to high school as a significant development in the debate over what districts can voluntarily do to promote demographic diversity in the post-desegregation era.
Caroline Hendrie, August 11, 2004
5 min read
Equity & Diversity Race-Based Assignment Challenged
White parents in Boston and black parents in Louisville, Ky., are turning to the federal courts this summer in pursuit of a similar goal: eliminating race as a factor in assigning students to their local schools.
Caroline Hendrie, July 14, 1999
5 min read
Equity & Diversity Seattle Board To Vote on New Student-Assignment Proposal
A new student-assignment policy that would effectively end the Seattle public schools' 20-year-old desegregation plan could get approval from the school board next month.
Cheryl Gamble, October 9, 1996
3 min read
Education Cleveland Student-Assignment Plan Focus on Reform, Race Balance
The Cleveland board of education is expected this week to consider whether to drastically scale back the school district's 17-year-old mandatory-desegregation program in favor of a voluntary system that its supporters say is geared more toward improving educational quality.
Peter Schmidt, May 12, 1993
3 min read
Education Judge Approves Boston Student-Assignment Plan
The Boston school system may proceed with its transition from mandatory busing to a new "controlled choice" student-assignment plan, a federal judge ruled last week.

Minority plaintiffs in the district's long-running desegregation case had urged the court to delay implementation of the plan for one year, arguing that it did not adequately safeguard the interests of minority students.

June 7, 1989
1 min read