School Integration-Just a Southern Problem?

Christine Adrian

Summer Fellowship, 2007

Lesson 3: School Integration Plan for Champaign Unit 4

To download this lesson in PDF format, click here.

Abstract:

Was the goal of integration in the public schools achieved? Students will examine the case of Champaign Unit 4 schools in order to come to a conclusion regarding how far (or how little) the schools have come regarding race integration.

Essential questions/enduring understandings:

• Was Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream realized?
• Why do inequities exist?
• Is it possible to wipe out inequity in a society?
• Can societal core belief systems change?

Assessment:

The teacher will gather evidence of understanding through classroom discussion and answers provided on the Compare and Contrast Chart Then and Now.

Setting the Purpose:

Students will listen to a radio documentary and evaluate integration monitoring documents from the initial integration efforts and compare them to the monitoring documents that tell the story of the consent decree (due to racial inequities) Champaign Unit 4 is under today.

Duration: 2-3 class periods

Procedure:

• Starter: How has life changed since 1971? Discuss as a group.
• In order for students to understand the history of desegregation in Champaign, the teacher may have them listen to More than a Bus Ride, a radio comprehensive radio documentary by students in the Champaign School district. The whole documentary is streamed online, and transcripts are available as well. Have students write down 10 important facts while listening to this documentary. Students should look for facts that are important to understanding life in the Champaign School system in the late 60’s.

• Students will now look at the progress of integration in the Champaign School district-at the beginning of integration, and today. If you do not have access to a computer lab, you may wish to print the documents out.

• Divide the class in half. One half will study integration in 1968 using Committee Report - Desegregation Plan, 1968 and 1967-1968 Enrollments by Race. The other half will look at more current documents using Champaign Unit 4 Consent Decree Information, Equity Audit: U.S. District Court For the Central District of Illinois Monitoring Report #1 and Interactive Illinois Report Card for Champaign Unit 4

• After reading the information, students should find a partner that read different information (a person reading 1968 information will find a person who read current information). Students should work together to complete Compare and Contrast Chart Then and Now.
• As a whole group, discuss whether life has changed in the Champaign school district and support their belief statements. After looking at this example, do the students think that integration is better or worse than other parts of the country? Why?

Analysis of local primary sources:

Students will compare and contrast the state of integration in Champaign Unit 4 from 1968 to today, using Compare and Contrast Chart Then and Now.

Ties to national primary source or sources:

By examining the state of the Champaign School district, students will use this as a case study to predict the state of integration across the United States.

Annotated list of materials and resources

Attachments:

Worksheets

• Compare and Contrast Chart Then and Now.

Ties to Illinois State Learning Standards

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