File:Orfield METCO Study.pdf

This report explores the continued and intense interest in the nation's largest transfer of inner-city students to suburban high schools, that of the Boston (Massachusetts) metropolitan area. The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunities (METCO) was established by black educators and parents in 1963 to offer students the opportunity to attend suburban schools. Participation in METCO, which soon began to receive state funds, is voluntary. Families of minority children in Boston can place their children on a waiting list for this program, which enrolls 3bout 3,200 students in districts that have chosen to participate. The Harvard Project on School Desegregation studied the METCO program through surveys of the approximately 3,200 families participating in the 1995-96 school year. Research shows that these families are not social planners, but that their goals are very much like those of suburban parents. Academic goals overwhelm all other concerns. Neither parents nor students rank goals of interracial experience near the top of their objectives, but many do share these goals and think that they are being realized. Most families reported considerable satisfaction with METCO and the transfer experience, although many participants call for more diversity among teachers and curriculum. This report suggests that when superior educational opportunities are open, there is a strong demand for them among urban minority families.