This case study gauges the perceptions of teachers to the “harm and benefit thesis” of Coleman’s social-capital hypothesis. The study uses data from one de facto segregated southern school system that hastily implemented a court order in 2000. The study collects the perceptions of teachers at five predominantly middle-class White schools that received 460 lower socioeconomic status African American students ordered bussed when their inner-city schools were closed. Sixty-percent of the teachers feel that the African American students are better off in the White schools. However, only 11% feel that the White students are better off than before the busing. Open-ended responses reveal that most teacher comments are negative, with fully 40% of teachers specifically indicating that busing had increased discipline problems. The study findings undermine the notion that transferring Black students to majority White schools is necessarily a superior pedagogical strategy.
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