Medidas no arancelarias

The Voluntary Interdistrict Plan Underway & Year One

The initial participation from city parents was high, but citizens of the city and county were skeptical of the overall plan’s impact. The state of Missouri still questioned its role in funding the plan. At the time of the plan’s inception sixteen county school districts were participating. The other seven county school districts already held a minority population of 25 percent or higher and did not need to fulfill the requirements of the settlement agreement or make an effort to repair past discriminatory practices. Under the court-approved

settlement agreement, black city families chose which of the sixteen county school districts they would have liked to attend.

In the first year of the transfer program’s implementation 2,847 students participated in the interdistrict program: 77 percent were black students from the city, 12 percent were

white students from the county, and 11 percent were black students who transferred from county schools to other county schools. Of the 4,489 applicants, only two-thirds were accepted (Willie and Grady, 1985, 2). The U.S. Court of Appeals, under its stay

requirements, controlled the scope of the program (VICC, 1984, 1-3). Growth for transfers were determined after the initial recruitment process was assessed through a court hearing.

In their 1985 report on the first year’s implementation, Charles V. Willie and Michael K. Grady interviewed several focus groups of students, parents, teachers, and community leaders and composed an overall feeling on the program and its effects. They found 93 percent of transfer students experienced no major disciplinary programs, 90 percent were promoted to the next grade level, 88 percent had regular attendance, and 59 percent were involved in extracurricular activities. However, perspectives highly differed about these results and their outcomes (Willie and Grady, 1985. 4).

Black parents chose to enroll their children in the program because they were

pursuing the better quality education county schools offered. Usually blacks found out about the program through news reports, following the litigation results, and from city teachers who enrolled their children in the program (Willie and Grady, 1985, 30-31). Black city parents were concerned with the faltering instruction, poor conditions of schools, class size, and class room discipline. In comparison to the city teachers, black parents involved in the program found the county teachers to be highly talented and helpful to their child’s learning (Willie and Grady, 1985, 32-33). Many students needed remedial attention in addition to daily instruction because they were behind their grade level. Most of all, black parents openly expressed appreciation for the personal communication on the status of their child’s

learning experiences Because of the amount of homework and communication from schools, black parents became more involved in their child’s studies (Willie and Grady, 1985, 35-36). Black families were most concerned with the issue of transportation and the duration of long distances it took to get to county schools (Willie and Grady, 1985, 36). Safety was a concern when weighing options. Non-participants rode their bikes to neighborhood schools and did not have to do so in the darkness of the early morning. Also, black city students and parents were initially apprehensive about the racial context the presence of black city

students invoked by having them in county schools. They found the connections made between black and white students occurred, especially with the aid of different tactics like racial awareness workshops and multicultural talks (Willie and Grady, 1985, 37). Multi-year participants interviewed by Willie and Grady recognized the easing of reluctance by whites in the county and racial tension as the years progressed and more blacks were enrolled. Their feelings were contrary to those of school administrators who found the decrease in racial stresses was resolved by lessening the amount of city transfers in county schools (Willie and Grady, 1985, 38).

White families who chose to participate in the program were attracted for two reasons. One, those participating white students needed a more challenging classroom instruction. White students attending the magnet schools chose enrollment due to being bored in their normal instruction of their neighborhood school. The magnet schools catered to this challenge. Two, white families recognized that the black presence in the county was deficient (Willie and Grady, 1985). Some parents did not approve of the racial balance of their suburban school district and enrolled in the program to expose their child to a more

ethnically diverse educational setting. In comparison to the black transfers, the white transfers had substantially less dissatisfaction with their residential district.

White transfer parents approved of the instructional talent of the teachers in the magnet schools, but were dismayed by the poor conditions of the schools themselves (Willie and Grady, 1985, 62). Initially, the reluctance of the black and white students to intermingle occurred in the magnet schools. As with the county schools, the progression of the school year eased anguish and increased their relationships. Unfortunately, the magnet school attendees had to confine their interracial relationships behind the schoolhouse door because inner city safety was perceived too dangerous for white students to visit their new black classmates (Willie and Grady, 1985, 65). Even more, white students suffered losses. Due to the racial and separatist hostility surrounding the feeling of integrated schooling in their home district in the county, white transfer students lost friends at home.

The black and white perspectives of the interdistrict program were not solely confined to the program participants; the black and white community leaders also held perspectives that overwhelmingly shaped beliefs and opinions in the metropolitan area about integration, education, and most important, the transfer program and its effects. Both blacks and whites perceived there was something that needed to be done about the quality of education

provided by the St. Louis Public Schools, but differences existed on how the remedial process should have handled those problems (Willie and Grady, 1985, 102). Whites agreed with containing the black students in the city for fear that the black city students’ deficiencies would have tainted and widened their achievement gap by leveling their racial composition (102). Neither blacks nor whites wanted a quick and speedy implementation process. They

wanted to find a solution with speed, but felt implementation should occur at a steady pace (103).