ASYSTEMOFCHOICE.COM

From 1991 through 2004 the school district of Berkeley twice reinvented its school integration. When its home-spun socio-economic integration system survived a court challenge in 2004 it made national news. It prevailed in court twice more through 2009, persists today and is even cited by parents as a motive for residing there... Superintendents of other districts, seeking a formula for replication, have asked "what kind of ‘bench strength' was needed?" Journalists typically declare "they [the school district] came up with X" as if it was just another day's routine work of bureaucrats. This shrinks to insignificance a story that defies presumption. There was no "bench strength." The birth spanned many years and successive casts. The credit belongs largely to the patience and persistence of volunteers, mostly female.