Opinion ID: 619919
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Advanced placement

Text: Section D of Plan 2000 requires PCSSD to implement certain standards to promote racial diversity in its advanced placement, gifted and talented, and honors programs. Some of those standards are embodied in PCSSD's 1998-1999 Advanced Placement Guidelines, which set an aspirational 8 percent limit on the variance between overall black enrollment at a school and advanced-placement black enrollment at each school. As the district court explained, for example, if a given school's enrollment is 60 percent white and 40 percent black, then the guidelines are satisfied as long as the school's black enrollment in advanced placement courses exceeds 32 percent. The district court found that a substantial portion of PCSSD's advanced programs failed to meet this standard, and PCSSD does not challenge that finding. The district court correctly noted that failure to meet the aspirational 8 percent goal could be excused if PCSSD demonstrated that it had complied in good faith with its plan obligations. The 1998-1999 Advanced Placement Guidelines list eight recruitment strategies that PCSSD agreed to pursue in order to improve black enrollment in advanced placement courses. However, the district court found that PCSSD simply failed to show that it has done anything to implement the eight goals set forth in the 1988-1999 Guidelines. As a result, the district court denied unitary status in the area. PCSSD makes no representation that it attempted to implement the agreed-upon strategies. Instead, it merely argues that its advanced-placement enrollment disparities are less pronounced than those of NLRSD, which achieved unitary status in this area. Unfortunately, mere comparisons to other unitary districts are insufficient to satisfy Freeman. Because PCSSD has not even attempted to implement its plan, we have no basis on which to decide if the vestiges of past discrimination ha[ve] been eliminated to the extent practicable at PCSSD. See Freeman, 503 U.S. at 492, 112 S.Ct. 1430. More importantly, PCSSD, an adjudged constitutional violator, has done nothing to assure the public of any permanent good-faith commitment to promoting racial diversity in its advanced placement courses. See id. at 491, 112 S.Ct. 1430. Therefore, we affirm the denial of unitary status for PCSSD in the area of advanced placement.