Desegregation of Mexican-American students in Southwest School District.

Abstract

This research provides a descriptive account of the desegregation case Adams-Celaya v. Southwest School District (1978) in a large urban public school district in the southwestern United States. Arias (1990) conceptual framework was utilized along with a chronological account of the events that occurred in the case. Research questions included: (1) Was bilingual education implemented along with desegregation after the Adams-Celaya v. Southwest School District lawsuit?; and (2) Did the district deal primarily with linguistic or descriptive needs of Mexican-American students? This work constituted a detailed case study of the school district. Method included analysis of data gathered through board minutes, newspaper and district publications, historical data, and semi-structured interviews with individuals who played key roles in the district desegregation process. Findings indicate that the court-ordered desegregation remedy occurred in three stages known as Phases I, II, and III. In Phase I mandatory busing occurred (minority students bore the burden). In Phase II, some inner-city elementary schools were designated as magnets with majority (white) students bused in after being offered and taking advantage of incentives such as extended day, small classes, and teacher aides. In Phase III, the focus of this study, four inner-city schools (three elementary and one middle school) were designated as magnets with bilingual curricula offered at each school along with incentives to attract east-side majority students to the inner-city minority populated schools. With regard to impact, findings of this study generally support Arias (1990) that: (1) desegregation remedies must go beyond student reassignment strategies to include appropriate instructional components such as bilingual education, (2) demographic considerations, and (3) "controlled choice system" which is a form of the magnet school approach such as those offered by Southwest School District after the lawsuit. Further findings suggest some of the Phase III schools may be resegregating as racial isolation may be recurring and student enrollment at these schools is declining.