"I didn't investigate any other schools,"Jasienski says. "I wanted to walk to school withmy son Adam Every day."
The preference shown toward children who livein the neighborhood and those with siblings in aparticular school prevents the abolition of schoolstereotypes, says Farah M. Ravanbakash, a formerparent liaison at the Tobin School.
"The neighborhood school concept does hinderdiversity--both racial and socio-economic," shesays.
Reputation
Like the old choice system the Harvard Housesused to operate under, Cambridge'scontrolled-choice plan has failed to abolish thedifferent reputations given to various elementaryschools.
The Morse School's Rings says some parentsstill choose schools based on "hearsay." "There'sdefinitely a reputation for schools--whether thoseare deserved or undeserved," she says. "I thinkpeople need to be much more objective than theyare."
James J. Coady, principal of the Morse School,said the high proportion of immigrants in certainschools is due to a feeling of "comfortableness."
"Most of the immigrant families naturally,either through their churches or support groups,try to go to a certain school," he says.
The necessary creation of bilingual facilitiesin these schools reinforces the clustering ofminorities, says Marilyn McGinn, principal of theFletcher School.
But some parents attribute the clustering andgrouping of different minorities in differentschools to racism, both subtle and overt.
According to Jeanette Collier, there are waysof discouraging low-income parents from choosingcertain schools. "I know of instances where parentliaisons would be outright rude to mothers ofchildren who lived in low-income areas," she says.
Today, the schools are far more balanced withrespect to their white to minority ratio, thanthey were before 1981. It is generally agreed thatthe controlled-choice system has improved theelementary schools across the board. The systemhas also helped educate and empower parents byexpanding their educational options.
"Ten years ago, even activist parents--half ofthem couldn't name five schools, usually the verybad or very good ones," Alves says. "Now inCambridge, every school gets a lot of attention."
Cambridge's controlled-choice system is a modelprogram. But clearly, complete racial and economicdiversity within the individual elementary schoolshas not yet been attained.