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This paper examines the findings of the Multi-Ethnic School Environments Project, which examined the special training needs of teachers in newly desegregated classrooms. Ethnographic research investigated how teachers' instructional and management strategies and features of the school context that impact the classroom can promote both learning and social integration. Five hundred hours of classroom observations, interviews, and teachers' daily reports provided the data for a multidisciplinary analysis that considered a broad range of issues, from student-teacher interactions to district policy. The findings identified policy salients for desegregation planning. Recommendations are made for inservice training needs in pluralistic classrooms. (Author/MK)

The Multi-Ethnic School Environments Study evolved in response to the need for a research base for identifying teacher training needs in newly desegregated school districts. The ultimate goal of this five year project is to generate teacher training processes and materials to aid teachers in coping with the realities of desegregation. The first phase (1978-1979) was a year of ethnographic research which examined teachers' efforts to organize their classrooms and to encourage the integration of students in newly desegregated classes. This volume of the research report presents analyses of data derived from a series of classroom observations. Analysts examined four themes related to schooling in desegregated settings: (1) the socioemotional development of students, (2) teacher decision making in instructional organization, (3) student socialization and preparation for future work roles and, (4) administrative practices and policies that have an impact upon school integration. Each of the four analyses includes a description of the analysis design, discussion of the classroom case study data, comparative conclusions and recommendations or implications. (Author/MK)

The Multi-Ethnic School Environments Study evolved in response to the need for a research base for identifying special teacher training needs in newly desegregated school districts. The ultimate goal of this five year project is to generate teacher training processes and materials to aid teachers in coping with the realities of desegregation. The first phase (1978-1979) was a year of ethnographic research which examined teachers' efforts to organize their classrooms and to encourage the integration of students in newly desegregated classes. This volume of the research report presents case studies of the four classrooms which were observed for the project. Each study is introduced by background information on the community, school district, and the desegregation plans. The school and classroom; teachers and students; teachers' beliefs, expectations and instructional practices; and the social order of the classroom are also described. (Author/MK)

The Multi-Ethnic School Environments Study evolved in response to the need for a research base for identifying special teacher training needs in newly desegregated school districts. The ultimate goal of this five year project is to generate teacher training processes and materials to aid teachers in coping with the realities of desegregation. The first phase (1978-1979) was a year of ethnographic research which examined teachers' efforts to organize their classrooms and to encourage the integration of students in newly desegregated classes. This volume of the research report begins with a discussion of critical concerns related to school desegregation. The next section addresses the issues surrounding methodology: the appropriateness of applying educational ethnography to research on desegregation. After noting the problems faced in establishing a site for the research, the next section describes data collection procedures. The final section describes the format, scope, and strategies of data analysis procedures. (Author/MK)

Classroom practices of selected teachers in two school districts were studied to provide a research base for the development of inservice training in newly desegregated or multiethnic schools. This report discusses the second study, which tested the validity of implications drawn from the first study. Schools in the second study had initiated magnet programs with two formats: an extended learning program for gifted children; and a back to basics program. Seven teachers from two elementary schools participated in the study. Ethnographic observers, film, and self-report by the teachers were used to collect data. Following a description of the characteristics of the teachers and classrooms, observations on findings in six areas are presented: (1) instructional practices; (2) classroom management; (3) encouraging social interaction; (4) inculcation of values; (5) involvement with the community; and (6) followup discussions with the teachers. A comparison of the findings in the two studies showed the low priority of inservice training in school districts, the noninvolvement of the principals, and difficulties faced by teachers in achieving their needs in multicultural education methods. It is concluded that, since the proportion of minority students is increasing, schools must examine the components of successful multiethnic school environments and must address questions that have, in many cases, been avoided. (FG)

Through a reexamination of the information collected by two previous studies, this study looked at the role of administrators in desegregating the two school districts observed. Information came from inschool observations and interviews with teachers, principals, and district officials. The findings of the study consist of summaries of the district administrators' perceptions of problems relating to desegregation and a list of conclusions about the shortcomings of administrative decision-making. Problems that administrators perceived when desegregating schools were related to lack of school funds, community relations, planning, communication within the school district, superintendent leadership, and inservice training. Failures of administrative decision-making to truly eliminate racial isolation arose from lack of sufficient planning, emphasis on legal rather than true compliance, magnet programs that offered no real innovations, lack of cultural pluralism in the curriculum, and lack of leadership from principals. (Author/JM)

The school desegregation movement grew out of a concern for educational equity, which has a basis in constitutional/judicial principles, psychological concerns (the belief that racial isolation is psychologically damaging to the disadvantaged), and black nationalism (manifested in a concern for developing students' self-esteem). Cultural pluralism, humanistic education, and compensatory education emerged as responses to the interest in providing equal education. In the early seventies, emphasis on academic achievement due to the accountability movement swept aside interest in the more idealistic goals of social integration and cultural pluralism. The current disparity in economic status among minorities and whites and discouraging developments in school desegregation programs indicate a bleak picture for desegregation and suggest a future drift away from concern with social integration. Past and current developments in desegregation point to the following possible future directions: 1) less mandatory action for racial integration; 2) continued use of magnet programs; 3) divisiveness resulting from block grants; 4) education increasingly oriented to a class segmented world of work; 5) increased use of computer technology in education; 6) increased private sector responsibility for vocational education; and 7) a possible return to the 1954 desegregation agenda where educational equity meant equal access to facilities and resources rather than social integration. (Author/MJL)