Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1980. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-165).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-56).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1970. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 321-332).

Early studies of school integration are limited to examining the impact of court-ordered integration on student outcomes. As districts are released from their court orders, the context within which integration operates has changed. As such, this study tests whether voluntary integration is a useful intervention for equalizing students' access to post-secondary education. I utilize data from the graduating class of 1997 from Jefferson County Public School District in Kentucky. Results indicate that student GPA is the largest and most influential predictor of both college attendance and prestige. Furthermore, results indicate that school diversity influences GPA differentially depending on students' race and economic background. Implications concerning the future of race-based integration policies are discussed.

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This dissertation focused on citizen advocacy groups as an intervention strategy for affecting change in the policy process. The analysis is of a specific intervention in school desegregation policy by a citizen advocacy group. The purpose of this research was to identify the conditions under which a citizen advocacy group can intervene; the constraints to a successful intervention; and the attributes of a successful intervention. The case study was of the Community Coalition for School Integration, a citizen advocacy group which existed in Portland, Oregon between 1977 and 1980. A multi-method approach was used. It involved fifty interviews with members of the Coalition, school administration, school board and the media. In addition, historical and document analysis of secondary data and extensive literature review was done. The theoretical framework guiding this research was Iannaccone's dissatisfaction theory of governance, DIS/ID/STO/OS. DIS is evidence of community changed dissatisfaction reflected in voting behavior leading next to incumbent school board member defeat (ID) followed within two years by involuntary superintendent turnover (STO) and outside succession (OS). Rothman's (1968) models of community organization practice were used to analyze the intervention of the Coalition. The findings do confirm the DIS/ID/STO/OS theory of governance, but also suggest that community intervention is an intervening variable between the stage of dissatisfaction and incumbent defeat. The analysis of the intervention identifies six conditions necessary for community intervention: timeliness of the issue, financial resources, leadership, organizational support, staff, and media coverage. The major constraints were the lack of trust between the policy-making body and the citizen advocacy groups, and the political environment of the community. Attributes of successful intervention were: focused advocacy, multiple intervention strategies, and permanency of the organization. The impact of the citizen advocacy group's intervention is discussed, as are recommendations for future research.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether, in public education, separate is inherently unequal and concomitantly, whether desegregation confers educational benefits upon all groups of students. The study investigated student achievement in schools which were placed under a court order to desegregate beginning in 1978. A mixed design, repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was utilized to investigate whether significant differences existed among various groups within the fifth-grade cohort of 212 subjects assigned to three desegregated schools. Conducted as an ex post facto investigation, the study utilized reading test scores of 1977, 1981 and 1983 extracted from the district's computerized data base. There are cautions and limitations inherent in any ex post facto research, as well as in reliance upon standardized test results as the solitary measure of student achievement, which should be kept in mind in accepting conclusions of this study. Significant differences were found among (1) racial/ethnic groups, (2) schools, (3) desegregation durations, (4) local and extended neighborhood students (LNS, ENS) and (5) school test profiles. Specific findings are that: (1) Slightly higher gains were recorded for minority students. (2) Phase III students showed significantly higher gains. (3) Highest performance was recorded for Phase I students and was attributed to the benefits of longer desegregation treatment. (4) Overall, LNS performed lower than ENS, yet in Phase III, LNS had nearly twice the gains of ENS. (5) The individual school's test profile showed a decrease during the first years of desegregation, then increased to a level which was comparable or higher than pre-desegregation levels. Keeping the aforementioned cautions in mind, the study concluded that desegregation conferred educational benefits upon all groups of students and continued to support the premise of Brown (1954) that, in public education, separate education is inherently unequal education.