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School vote marked by The Supreme Court and School Diversity

intense discord
Has the future of racial diversity in US public schools been changed forever? A dra-
By Joan Biskupic matic Supreme Court decision curtailing the use of race in making school assign-
.....................................................................................3 ments was announced in the summer of 2007. The strongly divided court ruled that
race cannot be a factor when making such assignments. More than fifty years after
the landmark ruling in Brown v. the Board of Education, which outlawed segrega-
Today’s Debate: tion in public schools, the narrow decision is generating debate in the education
Race and schools community and beyond about the best way to guarantee a high quality education
for all students. This case study examines not only the ruling and the makeup of the
Our view: Setback for equal education
court, but includes viewpoints from both sides of the issue as well as a look inside
.....................................................................................4 a racially diverse high school.
Opposing view: Ruling sends clear message
.....................................................................................5

School diversity programs in doubt

School diversity: A world of its
own Ruling limits use of Brown v. Board of Education was at risk.
That 1954 case set the nation on the
By Patrick Welsh
........................................................................................7-9 races as a factor path of desegregation.

By Joan Biskupic The nation's schools use race in

USA TODAY countless ways, from set percentages of
whites and blacks in school
Justice Thomas carries the day WASHINGTON — A Supreme Court assignments, as did districts from Seattle
By Tony Mauro decision striking down programs that and Louisville before the court ruling
consider race in students' school Thursday, to more subtle methods that
...................................................................................10-11
assignments to build district diversity steer minority students into special
reverberated nationwide Thursday as programs. It will be left to lower courts
education analysts said it could threaten to determine what policies meet the
an array of public school programs. standard set by Justice Anthony
Kennedy, who provided the key fifth
USA TODAY Snapshots® vote for the majority and whose opinion
The dramatic 5-4 decision throws into
Presidents with most court picks legal doubt programs that factor in race, dictates the new rule of the case.
Presidents with the most including magnet schools that use race
Supreme Court appointments:
to draw students from different "There are a lot of districts who will
neighborhoods. The ruling is likely to say, 'We don't want to run the risk of
11 lawsuits,' and will simply move away
George spawn litigation nationwide.
Washington 9 from magnet school programs," said
Franklin
6 The decision came on the last day of Spelman College president Beverly
Roosevelt
William the court's 2006-07 session — a term Daniel Tatum.
Howard 5 5 5
Taft Andrew Abraham Dwight marked by deep ideological divisions
Jackson Lincoln Eisenhower
and heated rhetoric. Chief Justice John National School Boards Association
Rober ts announced the decision executive director Anne Bryant said she
decrying racial balancing in schools. hoped schools would continue with
Stephen Breyer, speaking for the liberal "careful race-conscious policies,"
Source: The Associated Press dissenters, declared that the legacy of including magnet programs.
By Karl Gelles, USA TODAY

© Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reser ved.
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION, JUNE 29, 2007

Kennedy wrote separately to disagree with Rober ts'

categorical opposition to racial policies and to say that the door
is still open to some district efforts that consider schools' racial
makeup, rather than individual student's skin color. He said
officials could pursue diversity by strategically considering
where to build a school or where to allocate resources.

The voluntary integration policies at issue Thursday were

part of district efforts to counteract racially segregated housing
patterns.

In Louisville, the Jefferson County School Board ensured that

each elementary and secondary school had at least 15% but no
more than 50% African-American students. In Seattle, a student
assignment plan similarly sought a racial balance among high
schools. When a school was oversubscribed, officials used By Tim Dillon, USA TODAY
various tiebreakers, one of them race, to achieve diversity.
The Supreme Court: The justices pose for a “class photo.” From left to right,
front row, Anthony M. Kennedy, John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John G.
Some parents were denied the schools of their choice and Roberts, Antonin Scalia and David Souter; second row, Stephen G. Breyer,
sued, saying the programs violated the Constitution's equality Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Samuel Alito.
guarantee. "Each child's education is more important than their
plan," said Crystal Meredith, who sued on behalf of her son in
Louisville.

"Classifying and assigning schoolchildren according to ... race

is an extreme approach," Roberts wrote. In addition to
Kennedy, he was joined by Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas
and Samuel Alito.

Breyer, who read a 21-minute dissent, was joined by John

Paul Stevens, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION, JUNE 29, 2007
School vote marked by intense discord
Disagreements focus on race's
relevance
By Joan Biskupic
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — More than 50 years after the
Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. the Board of
Education, the justices revealed in a new case
Thursday their profound disagreement about the
value of diversity in schools and the relevance of
racial identity.
The justices' divisions over the use of race in
schools were echoed in reactions from an array of
advocates. Overall, the opinions and response
suggest that however the nation's schools go
forward, it will not be against a backdrop of
consensus or legal clarity.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the
majority, emphasized that the notion of diversity
should be broadly considered and not focused on
a student's race. In one section of his opinion that
fell one vote short of a majority, he said race-
based policies promote attitudes of racial Thompson: Joined majority ruling.
inferiority and insisted it was time to stop
classifying people by race.
Justice John Paul Stevens, the most senior member of the
liberal wing, stressed the difference between government
policies that use race to exclude people — widespread before
civil rights laws — and those that use race to include people. He
said children of all races benefit from integrated classrooms.
Justice Clarence Thomas, the only African-American on the
court, questioned whether racially mixed schools help black
children.
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"What was wrong in 1954 cannot be right today," he said,
referring to the 1954 landmark decision in Brown v. Board of
Education , which struck down the "separate but equal"
doctrine. Thomas said Brown forbids the kind of steps taken in
Louisville and Seattle for racial balance through school-
assignment percentages for whites and blacks.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who cast the key fifth vote, agreed
that considering race "may entrench the very
prejudices we seek to overcome," but he called
Rober ts' position "an all-too-unyielding
insistence that race cannot be a factor" in all
instances.
Kennedy said the racial makeup of a school
could be considered, but individual students
could not be classified by race.
He bristled at the Seattle school plan's
characterization of students as white or non-
white. "Who exactly is white and who is non-
white?" Kennedy asked, decrying the "state-
mandated racial label."
Such competing philosophies come as the
USA TODAY
nation's public schools across the country have
gradually grown more segregated since the late
1980s — especially in the South.
Gary Orfield, of the UCLA Graduate School of Education, said
Kennedy's standard will make it harder for schools to create
valid policies for racially balanced schools. "We've been going
backwards since 1990 in terms of resegregating our schools --
and the net of this is a little push further backwards, but it's not
slamming the door definitively."
Sharon Browne, of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which
opposed the Seattle plan, countered, "Schools across our
country must get the message loud and clear: Our young
people should not be assigned to a school based on the color of
their skin."
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AS SEEN ON USA TODAY’S EDITORIAL PAGE, JUNE 29, 2007
Today’s Debate: Race and schools
Setback for equal education
Our view:
Supreme Court takes away key tool
for promoting equal education
Students, parents and educators have good reason to be
confused about mixed messages from Washington.
The federal No Child Left Behind law demands that schools
reduce learning gaps between racial groups. On Thursday,
however, the Supreme Court took away a key tool for achieving
that goal.
The sharply divided court struck down voluntary school
integration plans in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle that use race as a
factor in making public school assignments. "The way to stop
discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on
the basis of race," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 5-4
majority.
Roberts' words make for snappy rhetoric. But reality, 53 years
after the historic Brown vs. Board of Education decision began
to dismantle segregated school systems, is that children in
many predominately minority schools continue to receive
inferior educations.
If history is any guide, Thursday's ruling means Louisville and
other cities will have more such schools. In 1999, for example, a
judge ordered San Francisco schools to stop using race in
school assignment. Since then, schools there have slowly
resegregated.
About the only solace in Thursday's ruling is that the impact
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may well fall short of dire predictions by civil rights leaders
who spent the day decrying the decision as a tragic step back
from Brown vs. Board.
Ver y few school districts use elaborate race-based
assignment systems of the kind struck down in Louisville.
Moreover, in joining the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy
made it clear that he's not about to overturn all affirmative
action programs in education and the workplace.
Race "may be taken into account" in certain circumstances,
and Roberts' opinion "is too dismissive of the legitimate interest
government has in ensuring all people have equal opportunity
regardless of their race," Kennedy wrote. It's OK, he said, for
districts to site new schools, recruit students or draw
boundaries with diversity in mind.
The biggest damage inflicted by this decision will be if
districts give up trying to prepare students to live in a diverse
society — or trying to educate students in heavily minority
schools.
Although racially isolated schools typically struggle, some
don't. A recent book, Karin Chenoweth's It's Being Done,
documents several success stories. Atlanta's Capital View
Elementary, for example, flourishes in one of that city's most
beleaguered neighborhoods by setting high expectations, a
demanding curriculum and intense professional development
for teachers.
Many charter schools, which are independently run public
schools, do the same. The KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program)
charter school in northwest Baltimore manages to transform
Page 4
AS SEEN ON USA TODAY’S EDITORIAL PAGE, JUNE 29, 2007
Today’s Debate: Race and schools
Setback for equal education
Opposing view:
Race-based assignments have no
place in efforts to improve schools.
By Sharon Browne
When the Supreme Court in 1954 ruled in Brown v. Board of
Education that schools could not be segregated by race, it sent
a clear message that skin color should not be a defining factor
in the education of our children.
While that decision rebuked schools for segregating black
students, rulings this week — 53 years later — send another
clear message: Students shouldn't be assigned by race,
regardless of their race.
The justices, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, rightly sided
with concerned parents in rejecting school board policies in
Seattle and Louisville, Ky., that assigned students to schools
based on their skin color. Very simply, such policies are
unconstitutional, the court ruled.
The school boards that implemented the policies tried to
dress up their skin color assignment of students with talk of
"diversity," but the reality of what they were doing was not lost
on the justices. They were turning children away at the
schoolhouse because of the color of their skin.
Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved.
In Seattle, black students were told they couldn't go to a high
school of their choice because there were too many minorities
there already.
White students were told they couldn't go to a high school of
their choice because there were too many whites there.
Seattle school officials wanted high schools to be about 40%
white and 60% minority. In Jefferson County, Ky., the racial
balancing plan ensured that no school had a black student
population of less than 15% or greater than 50%. Such practices
make no sense.
While these decisions directly apply to these two school
districts, their impact reaches coast to coast to other school
districts that have similar policies or are planning to implement
them.
Instead of trying to "fix" poorly performing schools with
race-based assignments, our school officials should improve
the quality of education at all schools. That will bring real
equality to each child in America.
Sharon L. Browne is a principal attorney for the Pacific Legal
Foundation, a non-profit public interest law firm that helped
represent parents in Seattle and Louisville.
Page 5
AS SEEN ON USA TODAY’S EDITORIAL PAGE, JULY 6, 2007

Letters

Government coercion will not lead to diversity in schools

USA TODAY's recent editorial on equal
education advanced the notion that
racial diversity leads to equal education
("Setback for equal education," Our view,
Race and schools debate, June 29).
But using government coercion to
achieve racial diversity inhibits the
pursuit of equal education — if equal
means the best possible education for
every individual. School in Supreme Court case: A parent whose
child couldn't get into Seattle's Ballard High
Why do we continue to view School (above) because she was white was
education as a zero sum game? Why do among those who sued.
we approach high-quality education as
something that should be rationed
based on race? Why is it preferable to bus some kids to better
schools rather than to bring better schools to all kids?
The best solution to achieve both racial diversity and equal
education is to disentangle one from the other. Allow children
and their parents to freely pursue the best education possible
without the government interfering in that decision. Let
diversity be a criteria parents use to choose a school. It is
unreasonable to expect parents to idly accept sending their
children to an inferior school simply to advance the cause of
diversity.
Brown v. Board of Education opened the schoolhouse doors
to all students regardless of race. It is the government's
responsibility to keep those doors open wide — not to act as
the gatekeeper.
Brian Kaiser
Greensboro, N.C.
Chilled by conservatives
The wind blowing from the Supreme
Court during its rush to summer vacation
made me double-check my calendar; it felt
more like winter's bite ("Supreme Court's
newcomers lead push to the right," News,
June 26; "Roberts steers court right back to
Reagan," News, June 29).
Seattle public schools
The mercilessness of the conservative
takeover of the high cour t has been
shocking and widespread, if not
unexpected.
But what really sent me shivering was
these new justices' — and the political and religious
conservatives responsible for landing these justices their
lifetime appointments — shameless hypocrisy.
In order to get appointed, they spoke of being strict and
steady captains of the constitutional ship.
Now enrobed, they run roughshod through the garden of
legal precedent, ripping out some precedents that were nearly
a century old.
They despise the liberal side of the law and mischaracterize
any decision they don't like as being legislated from the bench.
Yet, give these conservative justices any opportunity to
advance their own political agendas, and they have no problem
ignoring precedent and doing whatever they want to do.
Kenn Marash
Harford Mills, N.Y.

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AS SEEN ON USA TODAY’S FORUM PAGE, MAY 22, 2007

The Forum

School diversity: A world of its own

I teach at a wonderfully diverse high school: T.C. Williams in
Alexandria, Va. The racial, ethnic and socioeconomic mix
provides a rich foundation for our students and faculty. But
when left to their own devices, kids self-segregate. A lost
cause? Hardly. This reality doesn't diminish the life lessons that
take root in this rainbow of learning.
By Patrick Welsh

At a basketball game this spring, the opponents of the T.C.

Williams High School where I teach let loose with a unique
cheer: "Se-gre-ga-ted, Se-gre-ga-ted," they chanted as they
pointed in unison to our cheering section across the court.
What brought on the chant was the fact that about 200 white
T.C. students dressed in white T-shirts were packed together to
one side of the stands and the black students to the other.

That was not exactly the image a school that prides itself on
its diversity wants to project. (T.C. Williams, in Alexandria, Va., is
43% black, 25% Hispanic, 24% white and 7% Asian Pacific
Islander.)

Remember the Titans, the hit movie in 2000 starring Denzel

Washington as the black head coach, was based on the true
story of how our racially divided football squad eventually
came together as a team and won the state championship in
1971, and at the same time helped to integrate our student
body.
But the scene at the basketball game, and others like it, raise a
troubling question: What does integration mean for a school, or
any other institution, if the diverse racial and ethnic groups it
brings together under its roof self-segregate whenever they get
the chance?
My answer is that just bringing students from diverse
backgrounds together in the same school provides them
invaluable lessons that they will carry long after they have left
school. What graduates of T.C. tell me is that going there made
Photo courtesy of Paul Franklin
At T.C. Williams High: Jamel Frazier, front left, and Shep Walker, right, are seniors.
them comfortable with "other" kids. White kids do not fear
blacks the way graduates of all-white schools might, and black
kids realize that white kids can't be stereotyped as a bunch of
snotty, rich preppies.
At a time when the U.S. Supreme Court is considering the
legality of integration plans in Louisville and Seattle, and other
states are considering whether desegregation programs are still
necessar y, the benefits of diverse schools cannot be
overlooked.

For more educational resources,

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permission. All rights reser ved. Page 7
AS SEEN ON USA TODAY’S FORUM PAGE, MAY 22, 2007
Photo courtesy of Kerry Donley
Sports at T.C. Williams: Letichia Epps is third from right on her crew team, and members of the soccer team, left photo, are from nine countries and four continents.
Echoing our society
Idealistic educators who bemoan the self-segregation that
students fall into should ask themselves this: How many
weekend social events that they attend — including church —
have a good mix of individuals from different racial, ethnic and
socioeconomic backgrounds?
The likely answer in most cases: Not a single one.
T.C. senior Shep Walker, who is white, says it doesn't matter
that blacks, whites, Latinos and Asians don't all hang out with
each other during lunchtime or on the weekends — or sit
together at basketball games, for that matter.
"I can't think of any place where kids or adults from totally
different backgrounds socialize (together) on a regular basis,"
says Walker. "Still, at school there are instances of daily
interaction among kids from amazingly different backgrounds.
It's another facet of my education —getting to know people I
would not normally be around. … I would never have gotten
that education had I stayed in private school."
Senior Jamel Frazier, a linebacker on our football team and
one of four black males in my AP English class, says, "I may not
hang out with white guys on the weekends, but when I see
them in the store or at a restaurant there is a connection from
being in classes together or playing sports."
As exaggerated as Remember the Titans was, it did strike the
right chord about diversity. No matter what their backgrounds,
kids in high school, not unlike adults in the workplace, create
bonds of respect and friendship by working together toward a
common goal.
Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved.
Photo courtesy of Asasi Francois-Ashbrook
A 'black girl' sport
When Liz Johnson, a recent graduate of Princeton's
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, was at T.C.,
she starred in two "white girl" sports — field hockey and
soccer. But Johnson, who is white, says her greatest experience
at our school was playing basketball — a "black girl" sport.
"It wasn't like being with all the white girls I grew up playing
soccer with," Johnson says. "It was the first time I had to work
to be accepted, but once I was, there was a natural growth of
friendship, not some phony 'I'm going to find a black friend'
thing."
Johnson learned some things as a teammate of black girls
that she could never have known otherwise. "I was exposed to
the covert racism the black players always faced," she says.
"When we went to play white schools, everyone was afraid of
us because we had so many blacks on the team. It was the 'I'm
not a racist, it's just that these girls are dangerous' kind of
attitude." This understanding of what her black teammates
routinely encountered made her feel especially close to them.
Letichia Epps, who is black, had an experience similar to
Johnson's when she tried out for the crew (rowing team), the
ultimate white sport at T.C. "At first it was difficult. I played
basketball and had always hung around black girls," says Epps,
a senior. "At first I didn't feel accepted, but once the white girls
saw how strong I was (and that) that could make a big
difference in their boat, we became so close I hardly noticed
color anymore."
Students are not the only ones to gain from being in a diverse
school. Over the years, teaching immigrant kids — many of
them on refugee status from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Cambodia
Page 8
AS SEEN ON USA TODAY’S FORUM PAGE, MAY 22, 2007
and other trouble spots — has given me an understanding of
the world that I could never have gotten from even the best
news reports from those countries.
I have had Central American students in class whom many
white adults would see as stereotypical gangbangers, when in
fact they had family values that would shame most Americans.
Some worked eight hours a day after school and sent their
earnings back to relatives in their home countries. I have
witnessed black students born with a load of social
disadvantages excel academically and end up in Ivy League
colleges.
But the more diverse a school is, the more challenges it will
face. Schools in predominantly middle- and upper-class
neighborhoods, whose property values freeze out the poor,
generally have fewer serious discipline problems than ones
with a large number of low-income kids. Furthermore, due to
the national obsession with test scores, diverse schools are
pressured to focus on low-income kids, whose test scores are
most likely to give those schools a bad reputation, while paying
less attention to middle-class students who often breeze
through the tests. The more diverse schools are often more
concerned with the racial and ethnic composition of
classrooms than with the academic needs of students.
Despite those challenges, the value of attending a diverse
school is enormous. For minority kids, learning to feel at ease
with whites is more than a matter of enrichment. It can be
essential to their success or failure in life. America is still a
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white-dominated society, and the way up eventually leads out
into the white world. For whites, the experience has its own
special value.
A 'richer' life
"My life is so much richer through all the black friends I made
playing football at T.C.," says Mike Sharkey, a graduate of
Georgetown University's medical school who is now a surgeon.
"If I hadn't gotten to know those guys, I would be so ignorant
about people, about American society, about life in general. I
know I am a better physician because of all the different types
of people I got to know in high school. Kids who don't get that
kind of experience are really missing something."
High school, unfortunately, is the best and often last chance
for young people from diverse backgrounds to get to know and
understand each other. In college, racial and ethnic groups
often stick to themselves. And however much colleges brag
about their diversity, on the whole, they can't touch the
economic diversity of high schools such as T.C. Williams.
As Shep Walker said, diversity cannot be forced. But when it
is present, kids who embrace it receive an education no
amount of money can buy.
Patrick Welsh is an English teacher at T.C. Williams High
School in Alexandria, Va., and a member of USA TODAY's board
of contributors.
Page 9
AS SEEN ON USA TODAY’S FORUM PAGE, JULY 5, 2007
Justice Thomas
carries the day
The only black high court justice is usually quiet, but as evidenced
recently, his voice on civil rights issues is loud and unmistakable.
By Tony Mauro
Two weeks have passed, yet the
memor y of what transpired at the
Supreme Court on June 28 remains vivid.
Usually a staid and solemn place, the
court produced high drama that morning
as Chief Justice John Roberts announced
a landmark ruling curtailing the use of
race in assigning students to one public
school or another in pursuit of diversity.
There was drama in what could be seen,
and in what was invisible, as well.
As the court announced perhaps the
Reprinted with permission. All rights reser ved.
The Forum
most significant race case in a decade,
Clarence Thomas, the cour t's only
African-American justice, was barely
visible — literally. He sits next to Justice
Stephen Breyer, and the two can often be
seen chatting amiably. But as Breyer read
his angry dissent, accusing the majority
of turning its back on decades of civil
rights precedents, I looked up to see how
Thomas was reacting — and could not
see him.
At first, I thought Thomas had left the
bench. But he was there; he had just
pushed his chair back so far that he was
almost behind Breyer, well out of view.
Thomas' influence
Thomas' invisibility on the bench was
matched in the media coverage that
ensued. We all wrote about the influence
of Roberts and his fellow Bush-appointed
newcomer, Samuel Alito, both in the
majority. We focused also on Justice
Anthony Kennedy, whose middle-ground
concurring opinion could ultimately
dictate the impact of the decision.
But these analyses might miss a larger
point about the court, and about the
influence of Justice Thomas. The court's
decision marks a cultural as well as a
legal turning point on the issue of race,
and conser vative Thomas probably
deserves more credit — or blame — than
anyone has yet recognized. After 16
years on the court — often spent as
invisible as he was last week — Thomas'
disdain for affirmative action, and his
skepticism about the value of integrated
schools, carried the day.
When Thomas' predecessor, the civil
rights titan Thurgood Marshall, died in
1993, his colleagues paid him tribute by
talking about the power of his
stor ytelling within the private
discussions of the justices. Marshall
would inject an anecdote from his youth
or his days as an NAACP litigator, giving
his colleagues a steady and powerful
proof that, as he often said, he never had
to look at his hand to remind himself that
he was black.
Thomas paints a very different picture
in his storytelling and in his opinions. A
new biography of Thomas, called
Supreme Discomfort, concludes that
"Thomas wears his blackness like a heavy
robe that both ennobles and burdens
him." He was raised in Georgia by a stern
grandfather -- whom he worshipped —
in a home where no favors were sought
or accepted, complaining was not
allowed, and food came after hard work.
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AS SEEN ON USA TODAY’S FORUM PAGE, JULY 5, 2007
Thomas went to an all-black Catholic high school, and when
it was later merged with white Catholic schools, Thomas said,
"It broke my heart. … Some people think that the solution to all
the problems of black people is integration. I never worshipped
at the altar (of integration)." His experiences at mixed-race
schools were often negative, and when he meets black
students today, Thomas makes it clear that they don't need to
rub elbows with white kids to get a good education.
An alternative view
Thomas continued that theme last week in his little-noticed
concurring opinion in the race cases. He cited studies indicating
that "black students attending historically black colleges
achieve better academic results than those attending
predominantly white colleges."
In a 1995 decision on affirmative action, Thomas put it more
bluntly: "So-called 'benign' discrimination teaches many that
because of chronic and apparently immutable handicaps,
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minorities cannot compete with them without their
patronizing indulgence."
To Thomas, school is a place for hard work and discipline, not
nurturing, favors or social experimentation. Just a few days
before last week's race ruling, Thomas made this clear in a
decision on student free speech rights. Students have no such
rights, Thomas said, reporting with approval that in early public
schools, "teachers taught, and students listened. Teachers
commanded, and students obeyed."
It is hard to know how much Thomas' private storytelling or
his public opinions influenced his colleagues in the race ruling
last week. But he clearly represents a powerful and — on the
court at least — a more accepted alternative to mainstream civil
rights thinking.
Tony Mauro, Supreme Court correspondent for American
L awyer Media , is a member of USA TODAY's board of
contributors.
Page 11
 1. In small groups of three to four students, discuss Patrick
CRITICAL INQUIRY Welsh’s experience at TC Williams High School. How is
TC Williams similar to or different from the schools you
attended before entering college? Were your schools racially balanced (did they reflect the racial balance of your com-
munity)? Do you believe communities should make an effort to create or maintain racial balance? Why or why not?
After discussing in small groups, choose a leader to summarize your group’s thoughts and share with the class.

2. The school diversity ruling revealed sharp divisions among the Supreme Court justices. As a class create your own
mock Supreme Court and explore this issue from different perspectives. Assign the nine “justices” and then choose
two “attorneys” to argue for and against the ability of schools to make assignments based on race. After hearing the
arguments, the justices should deliberate and then write their own opinion. As a group, the justices will announce
their ruling to the class. Were your justices just as divided? Was the decision unanimous? Discuss how your ruling
was similar to or different from the actual decision.

3. Analyze this case study’s “Opposing Views”: which argument do you think is most compelling? Why? Compose your
own persuasive essay in support of your viewpoint and share with the class.

1. Examine the changes in your community concerning FUTURE IMPLICATIONS

racial diversity in schools. Interview at least three people
in your community from different generations about their
experiences with racial diversity (or lack of) in schools. Based on your interviews, make a prediction as to what attitudes
in your community will be in the next 20 years. Create a 3-5 minute oral presentation for the class.

2. The new Supreme Court ruling brings up several issues about race and equality. Is race a prominent issue in the news?
Should it be? Use USA TODAY and other news sources to track stories based on racial issues over a 2-3 week period.
What conclusions can you draw? Prepare a 2-3-page report for class.

3. How did each of the justices vote on this issue? Was it along conservative and liberal lines? Who cast the deciding vote?
Do you think the makeup of liberal and conservative justices in the Supreme Court reflects the current composition of the
country as a whole? Should it? Compose a 2 minute quick write and describe what changes your foresee in the next five
years regarding the makeup of the Court. Share your paper with a peer and discuss.

4. Assuming the ruling stays in place, how do you think US schools will be affected over the next 20 years? Write a story
describing a day in the life of a high school student 20 years from now within the context of racial diversity in schools.

Additional Resources
v Supreme Court of the United States v Historic Court Decisions
www.supremecourtus.gov www.lectlaw.com/tcas.htm

v The Legal Information Institute’s Supreme v Findlaw’s US Supreme Court Resource Center
Court Collection supreme.lp.findlaw.com
supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/topic.htm

For more information, log on to www.usatodaycollege.com Page 12