As a social scientist and education expert, you're interested in how groups of people behave and the choices they make. Your role is not to judge what people think, but to analyze it and learn from it.

Specifically, you want to understand the various perspectives or viewpoints people have on desegregation and ways to achieve it. Your task will be to compare and contrast the various opinions so that you can group people's opinions by how they are similar or different. This way your group doesn't have dozens of viewpoints to consider, but maybe two or three.

Your expertise could guide your group to a better solution, one that doesn't ignore main opinions about desegregation. So crack the books, click the Net and switch on your brain.

1. Read the Web pages linked below. If you print out the files, underline the passages that you feel are the most important. If you look at the pages on the computer, copy sections you feel are important by dragging the mouse across the passage and copying / pasting it into a word processor or other writing software.

2. Note: Remember to write down or copy/paste the URL of the file you take the passage from so you can quickly go back to it if you need to prove your point.

3. Be prepared to focus what you've learned into an explanation answering:

   What are the main perspectives or viewpoints people have about desegregating schools? How are they similar and different?

   As with all social scientists, you will have to read between the lines to come to your interpretation.

Internet Resources

Use the Internet information linked below and these questions to guide your analysis of desegregation strategies:

1. What are some of the problems that have arisen from desegregation?
2. Why is desegregation still important to some people?
3. What arguments do people have against desegregation strategies?
4. What are the main opinions in favor of desegregation?
5. What are the main opinions against desegregation?
6. Create two lists, showing all the reasons you can find for why people like and don't like desegregation.

• The Peril Posed by Minnesota's New Desegregation Plan, 1995
• The Tracking and Ability Grouping Debate, by Tom Loveless
• Are Schools Failing Black Boys?
• Separate and Unequal, about Gary Orfield, Ph.D., 1994
• Desegregation: Diversity Index, personal page by Arthur Hu
• Segregation now? Some still see racial divide on campus, from CNN
• A look at the political divide among African-Americans, from PBS Online NewsHour

Go to the Comparison / Contrast scaffold page to sharpen your ideas.