In several rarely discussed decisions, including one as recent as June 1995, the Supreme Court has opened the door for wide-scale abandonment of desegregation. With stinging profiles of school disctricts nationwide, the authors analyze this devastating trend, offering evidence and solutions guaranteed to stimulate national debate about the state of our schools today.

Gary Orfield, director of the Harvard Project on School Desegregation, is a professor of education and social policy at Harvard University. He has also served as a scholar in residence at the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

Susan E. Eaton, formerly assistant director of the Harvard Project on School Desegregation, has covered education for daily newspapers in Massachusetts and Connecticut.