A major debate in school desegregation policy is whether voluntary, market-based mechanisms (such as magnet schools) result in more school desegregation than command-and-control approaches (such as mandatory reassignment). Using data obtained from a national probability sample of 600 school districts, we explore the effects of different types of desegregation plans on White flight, racial imbalance, and interracial exposure from 1968 to 1991 Based on the results of multiple regression analyses, we find that (a) voluntary plans result in lower levels of White flight and higher levels of change in interracial exposure than mandatory-reassignment or controlled-choice plans (which fall between the two approaches) and (b) voluntary plans are not disadvantaged in comparison to mandatory-reassignment or controlled-choice plans in the achievement of racial balance. School desegregation, particularly the court-ordered forced busing that began in the 1970s, has easily been the most controversial issue in public education in this century. Although it no longer receives the national headlines that it did in the 1970s, school desegregation remains an issue that will not go away. Hundreds of school systems, particularly larger ones, maintain active desegregation policies, and many are still under court orders that are over 20 years old. Local controversy flares periodically over such issues as seeking an end to

A lthough much has been written generally about the achievment and choice requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), little has been written about the provisions of the bill that pertain to Limited English Proficient children. The purpose of this paper is to do that. 1 Both Title I and Title III of NCLB speak to the education of limited English proficient (LEP) children, also known as English language learners (ELLs). 2 The most important, and perhaps the most controversial, part of NCLB is the requirement in Title I that all students, including the economically disadvantaged, those from major racial and ethnic groups, those with disabilities, and those with limited English proficiency, must achieve the state's proficient level on "challenging" academic standards by 2013/14. 3 However, the test score goals for LEP children are not merely unrealistic-the most common criticism of NCLB-they are illogical. Unlike the black-white achievement gap and the poor-affluent achievement gap, which can at least theoretically be eliminated, the achievement gap between the category of children designated limited English proficient and the category of children designated fluent English proficient (FEP) can never be eliminated. That is because an LEP child is not just a child from an immigrant or non-English-speaking family. An LEP child is a child from an immigrant or non-Englishspeaking family who scores low in English. If you define a group by their low test scores, that group must have low test scores or someone has made a mistake.Thus, the original NCLB legislation, and virtually all of the analyses of NCLB, incorrectly treat limited English proficiency as if it

Magnet schools are an attempt to introduce market incentives into school desegregation policy. The analyses presented here assess the extent to which they have improved the effectiveness of desegregation plans in a 600-school-district national sample from 1968 to 1991. I find that adding magnet schools to a voluntary plan does not seem to produce any more interracial exposure than does a voluntary plan without magnets. Moreover, there are diminishing marginal returns to magnets. The greater the percentage of magnets in a voluntary desegregation plan, the greater the white flight and the less the gain in interracial exposure. The effectiveness of magnets also varies by structure.

The relevance of the public-choice model of decision making for school desegregation is tested by comparing the desegregation effectiveness of voluntary plans, which depend on parents choosing magnet schools, to mandatory reassignment plans, which "force" parents to send their children to desegregated schools. A desegregation plan based primarily on voluntary transfers to magnet schools will produce greater long-term interracial exposure than a mandatory reassignment plan with magnet components, in part because of the greater white flight from the mandatory plans. In short, the public-choice model of decision making is more successful in producing interracial exposure than the command-and-control model.

No abstract