78207: America's Most Radical School Integration Experiment


In just three years, San Antonio superintendent Pedro Martinez has raised the bar for school integration efforts nationwide - in this time, the district, where 93 percent of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, has opened 31 schools of choice that are "diverse-by-design." The curriculum, which ranges from talented and gifted to dual language programs, is intended to attract more affluent students from surrounding areas to fill 25 percent of the classroom spots. Journalist Beth Hawkins says, "In 20 years of writing about failed integration efforts, I’ve never seen anything like this."

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