Abstract
The Martin Luther King, Jr., Middle School in Boston's black community used to be plagued with a familiar litany of problems — violence, vandalism, high teacher turnover, and low expectations. Then a court-ordered busing plan made it into a magnet school, and it was forced to attract a racially mixed student body or go out of business. The King School staff responded by revamping the program and launching a series of aggressive recruiting drives. Three years later, the school is now almost filled to capacity and running smoothly. It exemplifies the kind of approach other city schools must take to meet the challenge of declining middle-class enrollment.
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