Antoine M. Garibaldi, National Institute of Education The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or policies of the National Institute of Education. No of. fieial endorsement should be inferred. A little more than a quarter-century ago when the landmark Brown v. Topeka Board o f Education decision outlawed school segregation, many citizens, teachers, administrators, and students anticipated broad and almost instantaneous changes in the types and quality of public education in America. There was, however, relatively little consensus as to what the outcomes of these educational changes would be. For most nonwhites who had legally been required to attend segregated schools for nearly a century, a sense of optimism and exhilaration pervaded their neighborhoods and communities. But for many whites who had rarely questioned the existence or constitutionality of dual public school systems, feelings of fear and apprehension were widespread, primarily as a result of their belief that the quality of public education would be considerably diminished. Obviously, both blacks and whites had different expectations of what school integration could achieve. Blacks, since they represented the most populous group of minorities, anticipated better school facilities, better textbooks, more Financial resources for education, heterogeneous student bodies and teaching staffs and,most of all, access to many more educational institutions. Most whites, on the other hand, were extremely pessimistic in their outlook. They foresaw a devaluation of academic standards, less quality teaching, less orderly classrooms, and a watered-down curriculum with fewer electives and honors-type courses that would help their children gain admission to prestigious postsecondary institutions. These perceptions were based largely on what whites considered nonwhites to be like and their conceptions of the quality of minority educational institutions. Nonetheless, these are hardly exaggerations of how many Americans perceived the benefits and disadvantages of desegregation. The previous statements are important insofar as they depict a mood and impression that many individuals have harbored since desegregation efforts began; that is, that desegregation is of little advantage to white students and exclusively yields unitary benefits to nonwhite students. Few people ever assumed that whites would gain anything from the experience, and so they reacted quickly and removed their children from metropolitan schools and enrolled them in private academies and suburban schools without really giving integregation a chance. However, it is too easy to blame a good deal of this