North Carolina School District Grapples With Integration Issue

The New York Times (2/28, Winerip) reports though the Wake County, NC school district has long "been known as a strong academic district committed to integration,...a new conservative majority was elected to the Wake school board" in 2009 "and last spring it voted to dismantle" an integration plan which bused students from impoverished neighborhoods to schools in more well-to-do neighborhoods. However, civic leaders have "unveiled their proposal for a third generation of integration," which would mandate that no school "have an overwhelming number of failing students. Instead a school might have a 70-30 mix -- 70 percent of students who have scored proficient on state tests and 30 percent who are below grade level."