Integrated schooling "fundamentally changed the people who lived through it" 25 years ago, according to a new study of high schools in six U.S. communities including Shaker Heights. Graduates interviewed for the study said their school experiences greatly influenced their views about race, leaving them less prejudiced and more comfortable around people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds as adults.

The report, published this week, was conducted by researchers affiliated with Teachers College, Columbia University, and the University of California at Los Angeles. It will appear in a forthcoming history of school desegregation, In Search of Brown, to be published in 2005 by Harvard University Press. The authors interviewed more than 500 graduates, educators, advocates, and local policymakers who were directly involved in racially mixed high schools in different communities 25 years ago.

Described by its authors as "a study that connects personal perspectives about school desegregation across different towns and schools in a systematic way," the work underscores the value of diverse educational settings but notes that the broader society remains segregated.

Virtually all the graduates interviewed reported that they wanted their own children to have similarly diverse school experiences, but have difficulty finding desegregated schools.

The forthcoming book is one of many scholarly works and media events planned to observe the 50th anniversary next month of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision aimed at ending segregation in the nation's public schools.

More information about the study and the full text of the report may be found at http://www.tc.edu/newsbureau/features/wells033004.htm.