Plaintiffs' Amended Responses to Defendants' First Set of Interrogatories
Public Court Documents
February 19, 1991
57 pages
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Case Files, Sheff v. O'Neill Hardbacks. Plaintiffs' Amended Responses to Defendants' First Set of Interrogatories, 1991. e0b097d0-a146-f011-877a-002248226c06. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/5bf16e64-c547-4156-8603-05f3a3860788/plaintiffs-amended-responses-to-defendants-first-set-of-interrogatories. Accessed November 02, 2025.
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HE CvB89-0360977S
‘ll MIT.0O SHEFF, et al. : SUPERIOR COURT
Plaintiffs :
Vv. JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF
HARTFORD/NEW BRITAIN
WILLIAM A. O'NEILL, et al. AT HARTFORD
Defendants FEBRUARY 19, 1991
PLAINTIFFS’ AMENDED RESPONSES TO DEFENDANTS’
FIRST SET OF INTERROGATORIES
PAST VIOLATIONS: AFFIRMATIVE ACTS
1. Please identify each and every affirmative act by the
defendants, their predecessors, or any other state officer,
agency or other body which the plaintiffs will claim at trial
violated the State Constitution. For each such act provide the
date the act occurred, the person, agency or other body
responsible for the act, and any and all information the
plaintiffs will claim that person, agency or other body had or .
should have had at that time which would have apprised them of
the consequences of that act.
RESPONSE TO INTERROGATORIES 1, 2, 3, 4:
As plaintiffs have repeatedly maintained, it is the present
condition of racial segregation in the region's schools that
violates the Connecticut Constitution as a matter of law, and the
harms that flow from the present condition of racial and economic
segregation that in fact deprive Hartford area school children of
their right to equality of educational opportunity.
Defendants have claimed that the requisite “state action” is
not present here, because, as they argue, the state has taken no
affirmative steps to cause segregation. As plaintiffs have tried
to impress upon the court, the state's argument has no basis in
law. The state controls public education, and the state has an
affirmative duty to guarantee equal educational opportunity. The
extensive involvement of the state satisfies every standard of
state action of which plaintiffs are aware.
Nonetheless, if defendants persist in this line of argument,
plaintiffs are prepared to show that defendants have taken
numerous actions that have “caused” or “contributed to”
segregation, and that defendants are responsible for existing
school boundaries that exacerbate segregation. Taken together,
in whole or in part, these actions by the state can be said to be
unconstitutional to the extent that they have led to or have
contributed to the unconstitutional system of racial and economic
segregation and the concomitant harm that flows from that system.
A summary of plaintiffs’ proof on these points is set out below,
as best as can be determined at this stage of the case.
Plaintiffs reserve the right to amend or supplement their
responses.
a. Detrendants are legally responsible for the
creation, maintenance, approval, funding,
supervision and control of public education.
Defendants discharge a broad range of statutory
obligations that demonstrate their control over and
responsibility for Connecticut's system of public education.
Defendants provide substantial financial support to schools
throughout the State to finance school operations. See §§10-262,
et seq. They also approve, fund, and oversee local school
building projects, see §§10-282, et seg., and reimburse towns for
student transportation expenses. See §10-273a.
Defendant State Board of Education has “general
supervision and control [over] the educational interests of the
state,” §10-4, and exercises broad supervision over schools
throughout the State. It prepares courses of study and curricula
for the schools, develops evaluation and assessment programs, and
conducts annual assessments of public schools. See id. The
Board also prepares a comprehensive plan of long-term goals and
short-term objectives for the Connecticut public school system
every five years. See id.
Defendants exert broad control over school attendance
and school calendar requirements. They establish the ages at
which school attendance is mandatory throughout the State. See
§10-184. They determine the minimum number of school days that
public schools must be in session each year, and have the
authority to authorize exceptions to this requirement. See §10-
15. They also set the minimum number of hours of actual school
work per school day. See §10-16. In addition, defendants
promulgate a list of holidays and special days that must be
suitably observed in the public schools. See §10-29a.
Defendants are directly involved in the planning and
implementation of required curricula for the State's public
schools. They promulgate a list of courses that must be part of
the program of instruction in all public schools, see §10-16b,
and they make available curriculum materials to assist local
schools in providing course offerings in these areas. See id.
Defendants impose minimum graduation requirements on high schools
throughout the State, see §10-22la, and they exercise supervisory
authority over textbook selection in all of the State's public
schools. See §10-221. In addition, defendants require that all
public schools teach students at every grade level about the
effects of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, see §10-19, and that they
provide students and teachers with an opportunity for silent
meditation at the start of every school day. See §10-16a.
Defendants exert broad authority over the hiring,
retention, and retirement, of teachers and other school
personnel. They set minimum teacher standards, see §10-145a, and
administer a system of testing prospective teachers before they
are certified by the State. See §10-145f. Certification by
defendants is a condition of employment for all teachers in the
Connecticut public school system. See §10-145. All school
business administrators, see §10-145d, and intramural and
interscholastic coaches hired must also be certified by
defendants. See §10-149. Defendants also prescribe statewide
rules governing teacher tenure, see §10-151, and teacher
unionization, see §10-153a, and maintain a statewide teachers’
retirement program. See §10-183c.
Defendants supervise a system of proficiency
examinations for students throughout the State. See §10-14n.
These examinations, provided and administered by the State Board
of Education, test all students enrolled in public schools. See
id. Defendants require students who do not meet State standards
to continue to take the examinations until they meet or exceed
expected performance levels. See id. Defendants also promulgate
procedures for the discipline and expulsion of public school
students throughout the State. See §10-233a et seq.
Defendants also exert broad authority over language of
instruction in public schools throughout the State. They mandate
that English must be the medium of instruction and administration
in all public schools in the State. See §10-17. But they also
require local school districts to classify all students according
to their dominant language, and to meet the language needs of
bilingual students. See §10-17f. Defendants require each school
implementing a program of bilingual education for the first time
to prepare and submit a plan for implementing such a program to
the State Commissioner of Education. See id.
The Connecticut Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that
public education is, in every respect, a responsibility of the
state. See Plaintiffs’ Memorandum of Law in Opposition to
Respondents’ Motion to Strike (November 9, 1989) (pp. 7-15).
While certain aspects of administration are delegated to local
districts, such delegation is only at the pleasure of the state,
and in no way diminishes the state's ultimate duty to provide
public education. Plaintiffs will present evidence of the
history of state control over local education in Connecticut
through their expert historical witness, Professor Christopher
Collier.
b. The state requires, pursuant to C.G.S. §10-240, that
school district boundaries be coterminous with municipal
boundaries.
The requirement that town and school district boundaries
be coterminous was imposed by the state in 1909. Prior to 1809,
there was no state requirement that town and school district
lines be the same, and many school districts crossed town lines.
Since 1909, there has been no change in school district
boundaries in the Hartford region, even as those school districts
became increasingly segregated. Thus, the state-imposed system
of coterminous town and school district boundaries served as a
legal template on which the pattern of school segregation was
laid out.
Even in 1909, although Connecticut's black population
was very small, the pattern of black migration and racially
identifiable housing was already becoming established. By 1909,
roughly 92% of Connecticut blacks were living in the cities.
Thus, restriction of school districts to city boundaries had the
foreseeable impact of limiting black access to suburban schools.
The modern pattern of school segregation also traces its
foundations to a system of official segregation in the 19th
century.
The only exception to the requirement of coterminous
town and school district boundaries is where two or more
districts voluntarily enter into a regional school district with
state approval, pursuant to C.G.S. §10-39 et seq. However,
regionalization requires voluntary suburban participation.
There is no constitutional basis for the legal
requirement that town and school district boundaries be
coterminous. Nor is there any practical basis for the
requirement. Indeed, the requirement, as applied to the Hartford
metropolitan area, operates to maintain a system of racial and
economic segregation. School districts throughout the United
States are organized on other than a town-by-town basis. In
Connecticut, intertown arrangements have been approved,
: encouraged, or mandated by the state, in the areas of sewer,
water, transportation, and education. In the area of education,
the state has established regional vocational-educational
schools, and has encouraged interdistrict cooperative
arrangements among suburban communities in special education
programs. However, since 1954, with the exception of Project
Concern, which the state has failed to adequately fund (see
response to Interrogatory 5), the state provided little or no
funding for urban/suburban interdistrict programs in regular
education until after the present lawsuit was announced.
c. The state requires, pursuant to C.G.S. §10-184,
that school-age children attend public school
within the school district wherein the child
resides.
Pursuant to C.G.S. 10-184, parents are required to send
their children seven and over and under sixteen to a school “in
the district wherein such child resides.” Defendants have
enforced this statute to prevent children living in the city of
Hartford from attending school in suburban districts. For
example, in 1985, four parents living in Hartford sent their
children across town lines to the Bloomfield school system in
order to secure an integrated and minimally adequate education
for their children. The State, with the knowledge that the
system of education these children were receiving was better in
Bloomfield, employed the criminal process and had the parents
arrested for larceny pursuant to C.G.S. 53a-119. See State v.
Saundra Foster, et al. (spring 1985).
Plaintiffs will also present historical evidence that
prior to the adoption of C.G.S. §10-184, school children in
Connecticut, and particularly, in the Hartford region, often
crossed district lines to obtain education.
d. From approximately 1954 to the present, the
Department of Education and the State Board
Education have engaged in a massive program
school construction and school additions or
renovations in Hartford and the surrounding
communities, with direct knowledge of the
increasing segregation in Hartford area schools.
By 1954, defendants were well aware of the growing
pattern of racial segregation in education and its alleged harm
to black children. Between 1954 and the present, defendants
approved and funded the construction of over ninety new schools
in virtually all-white suburban communities, representing over
50% of the total school enrollment in the region. [Source: H.C.
Planning Associates Survey and local reports] During the same
time period, defendants financed a major expansion of school
capacity within the increasingly racially isolated Hartford
school district.
wt 10
e. The state's adoption and im lementation of the "Racial
Imbalance” law and regulations has contributed to and
authorized racial segregation in Hartford schools.
1. Public Act 173, "An Act Concerning Racial Imbalance
in the Public Schools” codified as §10-226a-e was passed in July
1969, requiring “racial balance” among schools within individual
districts. The state adopted the intra-district racial imbalance
law with knowledge that segregation was increasingly an inter-
district phenomenon. As the minutes of a meeting of the
Legislative Committee on Human Rights and Opportunities on
December 5, 1969 reflect, by 1969 it was well established that it
was no longer possible to remedy the problem of racially and
economically segregated schools by desegregating or balancing
city schools, where minorities were already in the majority. To
mandate only intra-district desegregation was to get the suburbs
off "scot free.” (at 1). By 1969, the state was aware of the
multiple reports, including those that gave rise to Project
Concern in 1966, that concluded that racial and economic
isolation was an inter-district problem that demanded an inter-
district remedy. The state was well aware that solutions
restricted by town boundaries would only burden urban areas and
plague them with further racial polarization.
2. The State Board of Education’s delay, from 1969
until 1980, in the adoption of regulations to implement the state
racial imbalance law required by C.G.S. §226e foreseeably
“il -
contributed to racial and ethnic segregation of the schools. In
September, 1969, racial imbalance regulations were prepared and
presented to the State Board of Education. School districts were
notified and the State Board declared its intent to adopt the
regulations. At a time when urban areas were racially polarized,
these actions also notified non-minorities living in the city of
Hartford that desegregation of their schools was imminent. By
delaying the adoption of the controversial regulations, the
state’s white citizens were given ample time to find alternative
arrangements for the schooling of their children.
Although time was of the essence and the racial
composition of city schools were rapidly changing, in March, 1970
after public hearings held in Hartford, the proposed regulations
were rejected. From 1971 to 1975 nothing was done to correct the
problem. Not until 1976 were efforts even renewed to draft
regulations in compliance with the mandate of §10-226.
In May, 1977, the State Board of Education adopted a
Policy and Guidelines for the development of requlations, in
accordance with the Board's stated belief that segregated schools
could not provide truly equitable learning opportunities.
Defendants had knowledge of both the inter-district nature of
segregation in the Hartford area and the continuing fast pace of
change in the racial composition of schools in the city of
Hartford. Nevertheless, no regulations were adopted in 1977.
- 10
Significantly, the ethnic distribution of the
student population changed markedly during the state's delay.
From 1970 to 1980, the white student population in city schools
decreased dramatically, while the non-white population increased.
While the trend toward increasing racial isolation within the
city of Hartford had been clear in 1969, the concept of an intra-
district remedy had quickly become irrelevant.
3. In April, 1980, more than ten years after the
passage of the racial imbalance law and long after school
desegregation within the city of Hartford might have had meaning,
the state prepared and adopted racial imbalance regulations. The
regulations established that a school was “imbalanced” if its
minority enrollment was more that 25 percentage points above or
‘below the district-wide proportion of minority students in that
grade range.
As the State has itself reported, “the statute and
regulations have always placed a heavy burden on those school
districts having large minority student enrollments.” State
Department of Education, “A Report Providing Background
Information Concerning the Chronology and Status of Statutes,
Regulations and Processes Regarding Racial Imbalance in
Connecticut Schools” (January, 1984), at 1. Not only did the
passage of the racial imbalance law and delay in promulgation of
its regulations contribute to racial, ethnic, and economic
v 313 -
-segregation in the Hartford metropolitan area, but enforcement of
the racial imbalance law, with its punitive measures for racial
imbalance, places an undue and unfair burden on Hartford and
other urban school districts with high proportions of African
American and Latino students, while releasing suburban districts
from their responsibility to ensure equity and racial balance.
In addition, as the State further reported in 1984, "as the
overall percentage of minority students in the three largest
cities continues to grow, the concepts on which the statute is
predicated become questionable.” Id.
Hartford was one of the seven urban districts found
by the State Board of Education in 1979 to be in violation of the
racial imbalance law. In March, 1981, the Equal Education and
Racial Balance Task Force, established by the Hartford Board of
Education to assist in the development of a plan to comply with
the new law, not only arrived at a plan but also recommended
changes in the racial imbalance law and regulations to make them
applicable and workable in the City of Hartford. In April, 1981,
Hartford's plan to correct racial imbalance within the school
district was approved by the State Board of Education. In June,
1981, over eleven years after the passage of the racial imbalance
law, defendants began to monitor the Hartford schools for
compliance with the law. In 1988, the State Department again
notified the Hartford schools that Kennelly and Naylor, with
minority enrollments of 38.2% and 32.9% respectively, were, by
definition, racially imbalanced, since they were more than 25
percentage points below the city-wide average of 90.5%. Yet, as
the Hartford public schools stated in its “Alternate Proposal to
Address Racial Imbalance,” "[i]t is clear that the establish ed
definition of racial balance is meaningless for the city of
Hartford. As long as the boundaries of the attendance district
of the Hartford schools is coterminous With he boundaries of the
city, no meaningful numerical balance can be achieved, and it
would be an exercise in futility to develop proposals to seek
racial balance.” “Alternate Proposal,” (1988) at 6. (The
Alternate Proposal was approved by the state.)
f. The state has further contributed to segregation bv
authorizing and/or requiring payment of transportation
costs by local districts for students attending private
schools, and by reimbursing local districts for said
costs,
1. Pursuant to C.G.S. §10-281, the state requires
school districts to provide transportation to
private nonprofit schools and provides reimbursement
for expenses incurred by the district in providing
this transportation.
Pursuant C.G.S. §10-281, the state requires school
districts to provide transportation to a private nonprofit school
in the district whenever a majority of the students attending the
private school are residents of Connecticut and provides for the
reimbursement of expenses incurred by districts providing this
transportation. Plaintiffs intend to produce evidence that the
-_15
implementation of this law by defendants caused and contributed
to increased racial, ethnic, and economic concentration in the
Hartford metropolitan area, in violation of the Connecticut
Constitution.
Since 1971, the state has required districts to
provide transportation to private schools when a majority of
students live in the district. P.A. 653 §§1,2. Defendants have
implemented and enforced this statute with direct knowledge of
its segregative effect. In 1971, the relative percentages of
African American and Latino group enrollment in the public and
non-public schools in the Hartford area were enormously
different. In essence, defendants not only supported a private
school system that, through its admissions policies, effectively
excluded the poor, but also subsidized the transfer of white
school children out of the public school system and into these
private schools at the same time that intra-district
desegregation of the public schools was planned.
In 1974, the state expanded the mandate of §10-281,
requiring districts to provide transportation for students at
private schools when a majority of students attending the schools
are from Connecticut, versus from the particular district. P.A.
74-257 §1. Defendants implemented this expansion, thereby
subsidizing the transfer of white students out of the Hartford
public schools, with a full awareness of its discriminatory
= 16 =
yn effect. Defendants continue to require and subsidize the
transportation of students to non-public schools in the Hartford
metropolitan area.
2. Pursuant to §10-280a, the state permits school
districts to provide transportation to private
nonprofit schools in other districts and, between
1978 and 1989, provided reimbursement for expenses
incurred for transportation to contiguous districts
within Connecticut.
From 1978 through 1989, pursuant to §10-280a, the
state also reimbursed school districts in the Hartford area for
transportation of students to private schools in contiguous
Connecticut districts, thus facilitating the attendance of a
predominantly white, relatively well-off group of students at
non-public schools. The state adopted §10-280a in 1978 with
knowledge of the problem of segregation in Connecticut’s urban
areas and awareness of the damage to be incurred to the
desegregation process by the flight of these schoolchildren to
private schools. See e.g., 21 S. Proc., Pt. 5, 1978 Sess., pp.
1916 (Sen Hudson).
g. The state contributed to racial and economic
segregation, and unequal, inadequate educational
conditions by establishing and maintaining an unequal
and unconstitutional system of educational financing.
Until 1979 the principal source of school funding came
from local property taxes, which depended on the wealth of the
town. This principal source was supplemented by the state by a
$250 flat grant principal, which applied to the poorest and the
-'l7 -
wealthiest towns. There was great wealth disparity which was
reflected in widely varying funds available for local education
I and consequently widely varying quality of education among towns.
The property-rich towns through higher per pupil expenditures
were able to provide a substantially wider range and higher
quality of education services than property-poor towns even as
taxpayers in those towns were paying higher taxes than taxpayers
in property-rich towns. All this was happening even though the
state had the non-delegable responsibility to insure the students
throughout the state received a substantially equal educational
opportunity. Thus prior to 1979, the system of funding public
education in the state violated the state constitution.
In 1979, the state adopted a guaranteed tax base to
rectify in part the finanding inequities. Subsequent delays
between 1980 and 1985 in implementing the 1979 act and the
unjustified use of obsolete data made the formula more
disequalizing and exacerbated disparities in per pupil
expenditures. These conditions denied students their rights to
substantially equal educational opportunities under the state
constitution. [Sources for this section include Horton v.
Meskill, 31 Conn. Sup. 377, 332 A.2d 113 (1874): l1d., 172 Conn.
615, 376 A.2d 359 (1977); Supreme Court Record in previous case,
(No. B127); Horton v. Meskill, 195 Conn. 24, 486 A.2d 1099
(1985); Supreme Court Record in previous case, Nos. 12499-12502)
-i3 -
h. The state has contributed to racial and economic
segregation in housing.
Plaintiffs are not claiming in this lawsuit that any of
the state's housing actions are unconstitutional. Any such
claims are expressly reserved. However, the state has played an
important causal role in the process of residential segregation
in the Hartford region, and plaintiffs will describe, through
expert testimony, some of the ways that the state of Connecticut
has contributed to segregated housing patterns. Plaintiffs’
testimony on these issues may include but will not be limited to
the following areas:
Location of Assisted Housing: At least 73% of
Hartford-area subsidized family housing units are located in the
City of Hartford. The state has played a direct role in the
creation, funding, approval, siting, or administration of many of
these units over the past 40 years.
Transportation: During the same time period, the
state has engaged in a series of transportation decisions that
have increased “white flight” from Hartford, limited minority
access to employment opportunities, and exacerbated racial and
economic residential segregation in the Hartford region.
Affirmative Marketing: In its administration of
state housing programs, the state has failed to monitor and
enforce affirmative marketing plans for state-funded suburban
housing developments, including, on information and belief,
- 10 ie
failure to require affirmative marketing during initial
occupancy, failure to provide adequate numbers of staff to
monitor and enforce affirmative marketing requirements, failure
to conduct surveys of racial occupancy, and failure to require
affirmative marketing plans until 1988.
Statutory Barriers: The state has provided suburban
towns with veto power over state-subsidized projects through
C.G.S. §8-120, which prohibits the Connecticut Housing Authority
from developing new housing, including Section 8 developments, in
any municipality without a finding of need or approval by the
local governing body of the municipality, and through C.G.S. §§8-
39(a) and 8-40, which prohibit local housing authorities from
constructing, rehabilitating or financing a housing development
in a neighboring municipality without that municipality's
permission.
Rental Assistance: Another way in which the state
has contributed to residential segregation through its
administration of state housing programs is through its
administration and oversight of state and federal rental
assistance programs, and its failure to permit or encourage such
certificates to be used in a portable manner to permit
certificate holders to cross municipal lines.
Residency Preferences: The state has officially
permitted the use of residency preferences by suburban public
housing authorities, including certain PHAs in the Hartford area.
Residency preferences have a discriminatory impact in white
suburban communities, limiting the access of low income minority
residents to suburban housing opportunities and suburban schools.
Exclusionary Zoning: The state has been repeatedly
advised of the discriminatory and exclusionary effects of its
system of planning, zoning and land use laws and regulations,
which have permitted local governments to erect zoning and other
land use barriers to the construction of multifamily housing,
rental housing, manufactured housing, and subsidized low and
moderate income housing.
* * * * *
At the present time, plaintiffs are continuing to
investigate actions taken by defendants that have contributed to
the constitutional violations set out in the Complaint.
Plaintiffs’ investigation is ongoing and is subject to amendment
in a timely fashion. At this time, except as set out above,
plaintiffs have not completed investigation as to what specific
“information [defendants]...had or should have had” at particular
times which would have "apprised defendants of the consequences
of particular actions.” Plaintiffs’ position is that although
proof of such “notice” is not necessary for plaintiffs to
prevail, nonetheless the increasing racial and economic
segregation in area schools was obvious, and numerous reports and
-——y
-gtudies put the state on notice of the problems and possible
causes and solutions. See response to Interrogatory 5. Further
details in response to this interrogatory will be provided in a
timely fashion, in advance of trial.
2. Please identify each and every affirmative act by the
defendants, their predecessors or any other state officer, agency
or other body which the plaintiffs will claim at trial caused the
conditions of racial and ethnic isolation in the Hartford Public
Schools and/or the identified suburban school districts. For
each such act provide the date the act occurred, the person,
agency or other body responsible for the act, and any and all
information the plaintiffs will claim that person, agency or
other body had or should have had at that time which would have
apprised them of the consequences of that act.
RESPONSE: [Please see response to Interrogatory 1]
3. Please identify each and every affirmative act by the
defendants, their predecessors or any other state officer, agency
or other body which the plaintiffs will claim at trial caused the
condition of socio-economic isolation in the Hartford Public
Schools and/or the identified suburban school districts. For
each such act provide the date the act occurred, the person,
agency or other body responsible for the act, and any and all
information the plaintiffs will claim that person, agency or
other body had or should have had at that time which would have
apprised them of the consequences of the act.
RESPONSE: [Please see response to Interrogatory 1]
4. Please identify each and every affirmative act by the
defendants, their predecessors or any other state officer, agency
or other body which the plaintiffs will claim at trial cause the
concentration of "at risk” children in the Hartford Public
Schools. For each such act provide the date the act occurred,
the person, agency or other body responsible for that act, and
any and all information the plaintiffs will claim that person,
agency or other body had or should have had at that time which
would have apprised them of the consequences of that act.
RESPONSE: [Please see response to Interrogatory 1)
i222.
PAST VIOLATIONS: OMISSIONS
so
il
5. Please identify each and every affirmative act, step, or
plan which the plaintiffs will claim at trial the defendants,
| their predecessors, or any other state officer, agency or other
body were required by the State Constitution to take or implement
to address the condition of racial and ethnic isolation in the
Hartford Public Schools and the identified suburban school
districts, but which was not in fact taken or implemented. For
each such act, step, or plan provide the following:
a) The last possible date upon which that act, step or
plan would necessarily have been taken or
implemented in order to have avoided a violation
that the Constitution;
b) The specific details of how such act, step or plan
should have been carried out, including (1) the
specific methods of accomplishing the objectives of
the act, step or plan, (2) an estimate of how long
it would have taken to carry out the act, step, or
plan, and (3) an estimate of the cost of carrying
out the act, step or plan;
c) For Hartford and each of the identified suburban
school districts, the specific number and percentage
of black, Hispanic and white students who would, of
necessity, have attended school outside of the then
existing school district in which they resided in
order for that act, step or plan to successfully
address the requirements of the Constitution.
RESPONSE: As set out in the Complaint, defendants’ failure to
act in the face of defendants’ awareness of the educational
necessity for racial, ethnic, and economic integration in the
public schools, defendants’ recognition of the lasting harm
inflicted on poor and minority students concentrated in urban
school districts, and defendants’ knowledge of the array of legal
tools available to defendants to remedy the problem, is violative
of the State Constitution. Plaintiffs challenge defendants!’
‘4 “failure to provide plaintiffs with the equal educational
- a3.
opportunities to which the defendants were obligated to ensure.
~~ 8ince At least 1965, -when the United ‘States Civil Rights
Commission reported to Connecticut’s Commissioner of Education,
defendants have had knowledge of the increasing racial, ethnic,
and economic segregation in the Hartford metropolitan area and
the power and authority to remedy this school segregation. Not
only did defendants fail to take comprehensive or effective steps
to ameliorate the increasing segregation in and among the
region's schools, but defendants also failed to provide equal
access to educational resources to students in the shoals in the
Hartford metropolitan area. Such resources include, but are not
limited to, number and qualification of staff; facilities;
materials, books, and supplies; and curriculum offerings.
Specifically, plaintiffs may present evidence at trial of
the many reports and recommendations presented to Defendants
which documented the widespread existence of racial, ethnic, and
economic segregation and isolation among the school districts and
which proposed or endorsed remedial efforts to eliminate such
segregation. Plaintiffs will not necessarily claim that if
implemented, the specific programs and policies offered in such
reports and recommendations would have been sufficient to address
the constitutional violation. Neither will plaintiffs
necessarily claim that any one particular recommendation was
- Ol
+ required by the State Constitution. These reports and
| recommendations may include but are not limited to the following:
a. United States Civil Rights Commission, Report to
Connecticut's Commissioner of Education (1965);
b. Center for Field Studies, Harvard Graduate School
of Education, Schools for Hartford (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University, 1965);
c. "Equality and Quality in the Public Schools,”
Report of a Conference Sponsored Jointly by the
Connecticut Commission on Civil Rights and the
Connecticut State Board of Education,” (1966).
d. Request by the Connecticut Civil Rights Commission
to the Governor (request that the Governor take a
stand against de facto segregation and publish a
statement on the drawbacks of de facto segregation
in the schools) (1966).
e. Committee of Greater Hartford School
Superintendents, Proposal to Establish a
Metropolitan Effort Toward Regional Opportunity
(METRO) (1966);
f. Legislative Commission on Human Rights and
Opportunities, Plan for the Creation and Funding of
Educational Parks (Hartford, December, 1968);
g. Task Force, Regional Advisory Committee for the
Capitol Region, “The Suburbs and the Poverty
Problems of Greater Hartford,” (Hartford, September
30, 1968);
h. Irving L. Allen and J. David Colfax, Urban Problems
and Public Opinion in Four Cities (Urban Research
Report No. 14, Community Structure Series No. 3;
Storrs, Conn.: University of Connecticut, 1968);
i. Walter R. Boland, et al., De Facto School
Segregation and The Student: A Study of the
Schools in Connecticut's Five Major Cities (Urban
Research Report No. 15, Community Structure Series
No. 4; Storrs, Conn.: University of Connecticut,
1968);
- OB
Educational Resources and Development Center, The
School of Education and Continuing Education
Service, University of Connecticut, A Study of
Urban School Needs in the Five Largest Cities of
Connecticut (Storrs, Conn.: University of
Connecticut, 1969);
Edward A. Lehan, Executive Secretary to the
Hartford City Manager, Report on Racial Composition
of Hartford Schools to the State Board of Education
(Hartford, 1969);
Joint Committee of the Hartford Board of Education
and the Human Relations Commission, Hartford,
Report, (July, 1969);
City of Hartford, “Community Development Action
Plan: Education 1871-1975,” (Sept. 1, 1970);
Hartford Board of Education, “Recommended Revision
in School Building Program,” (May 18, 1970);
Local Government: Schools and Property, “The
Report of the Governor's Commission on Tax Reforms,
Submitted to Governor Thomas J. Meskill Pursuant to
Executive Order 13 of 1972,” (Hartford,
Connecticut, December 18, 1972);
Commission to Study School Finance and Equal
Educational Opportunity, Financing Connecticut
Schools: Final Report of the Commission (Hartford,
Conn., January, 1975);
Equal Education and Racial Balance Task Force,
appointed by the Hartford Board of Education,
“Advisory Report,” (Hartford, March, 1981);
Connecticut State Department of Education, “A Report
Providing Background Information Concerning the
Chronology and Status of Statutes, Regulations and
Processes Regarding Racial Imbalance in Connecticut’s
Public Schools,” (February 6, 1986);
Connecticut State Department of Education, “The Issue of
Racial Imbalance and Quality Education in Connecticut's
Public Schools,” (February 5, 1986);
- 00 -
I u. “State Board of Education Policy Statement on Equal
| Educational Opportunity,” Connecticut State Board of
Education, (Hartford, October 27, 1986);
v. "Report on Racial/Ethnic Equity and Desegregation
in Connecticut's Public Schools,” Connecticut
State Department of Education (1988); and
w. "Quality and Integrated Education: Options for
Connecticut,” Connecticut State Department of
Education (1989).
x. Governor's Commission Report 1990.
In addition to the recommendations and reports set out
above, the State failed to adequately supplement the funding of a
known successful integration program, Project Concern, beginning
in 1980 when federal funding cutbacks and Hartford Board of
Education cutbacks forced a reduction in the numbers of children
participating in the program and in the numbers of staff hired to
service these children (e.g. paraprofessionals, resource
teachers, bus stop aides). The State has also failed to take ap-
propriate steps to increase the numbers of children participating
over and above the approximately 730+ students now enrolled in
the program, despite knowledge that receiving school districts
would increase their participation if the State provided funding.
The following studies and documents, among others, have repeated-
ly demonstrated to the Defendants that Project Concern is one of
a number of programs to successfully provide an equal educational
ER oes,
jon t and a meaningful integrated experience for some urban
|| and suburban children:
a. Mahan, Thomas W. The Impact of Schools on Learning:
—— ~~... Inner-City Children in Suburban Schools.
b. Mahan, Thomas W. Project Concern 1966-1968, A Report on
the Effectiveness of Suburban School Placement for
Inner-City Youth (1968).
c. Ninety-First Congress, Second Session on Equal Education
Opportunity. “Hearing Before the Select Committee on
Equal Educational Opportunity of the United States
Senate.” 1970.
d. Connecticut State Department of Education, “Reaction to
Racial Imbalance Guidelines for Hartford Public
Schools.” April 20, 1870.
e. State Board of Education Minutes (Capital Region
Planning Agency Endorses the Expansion of Project
Concern) January 7, 1970.
f. Gable, R. and Iwanicki, E., A Synthesis of the
Evaluation Findings from 1976-1980 (May 1981)
g. Gable, Thompson, Iwanicki, The Effects of Voluntary
Desegregation on Occupational Outcomes, The Vocational
Guidance Quarterly 31, 230-239 (1983)
h. Gable, R.and Iwanicki, E. The Longitudinal Effects of a
Voluntary School Desegregation Program on the Basic
Skill Progress of Participants. 1 Metropolitan
Education 65. Spring, 1986.
i. Gable, R. and Iwanicki, E., Project Concern Evaluation.
October, 1986.
Jj. Gable, R. and Iwanicki, E., Final Evaluation Report
| 1986-87 Hartford Project Concern Program (December
1987)
k. Gable, R. and Iwanicki, E., Final Evaluation Report
1988-89: Hartford Project Concern Program (Nov. 1989)
28
l. Crain, R., et al., Finding Niches: Desegregated
Students Sixteen Years Later, Rand Reports, (1985);
revised 1990
m. Crain, R., et al., School Desegregation and Black
Occupational Attainment: Results from a Long Term
Experiment; (1985).
n. “Project Concern Enrollment 1966-1990,” (Defs’ Response
to Plaintiffs’ First Request for Production, 13(b)).
o. Iwanicki, E., and Gable, R., Almost Twenty-Five Years of
Project Concern: An Overview of the Program and Its
Accomplishments, (1990) (and sources cited therein)
(Defs' Response to Plaintiffs’ First Request for
Production, 12 (g).
In addition, Plaintiffs’ evidence at trial may include
but will not be limited to testimony and reports demonstrating
defendants’ failure to eliminate exclusionary zoning and housing
policies; defendants’ failure to promote integrated housing in
the Hartford region; and defendants’ failure to establish a
constitutional system of educational financing (see response to
Interrogatory 1).
In regard to questions 5 a, b, and c, as set out in
Defendants’ Interrogatory 5, Plaintiffs have not determined and
are, at least at this time, unable to estimate the “last possible
date” upon which individual actions, steps, or plans would
necessarily have had to have been implemented in order to have
avoided violation of the State Constitution, nor do plaintiffs
concede the relevance of such an inquiry. Likewise, plaintiffs
are not required to specify which methods would have cured the
constitutional violation at particular moments in time, how long
]
- 230 .
“such methods would have taken to implement, or the cost of
implementation. Such questions, including the number and
percentage of African American, Latino, and white students who
may seek to attend school outside of the boundaries of the city
of Hartford, are issues which plaintiffs expect would be
addressed by plaintiffs’ expert witnesses on desegregation
remedies after a determination is made by the court as-to the
state's liability.
6. Please identify each and every affirmative act, step or
plan which the plaintiffs will claim at trial the defendants,
their predecessors, or any other state officer, agency or other
body were required by the State Constitution to take or! implement
to address the condition of socio-economic isolation in ithe
Hartford Public Schools and the identified suburban school
districts, but which was not in fact taken or implemented. For
each such act, step or plan provide the following:
a) The last possible date upon which that act, step or
plan would necessarily have been taken or
implemented in order to have avoided a violation of
the Constitution; :
b) The specific details of how such act, step or plan
should have been carried out including, (1) the
specific methods of accomplishing the objectives of
the act, step or plan, (2) an estimate of how long
it would have taken to carry out the act, step or
plan, and (3) an estimate of the cost of carrying
out the act, step or plan;
c) For Hartford and each of the identified suburban
school districts, the specific number and percentage
of poor, middle, and/or upper class students who
would, of necessity, have attended school outside of
the then existing school district in which they
resided in order for that act, step, or plan to
successfully address the requirements of the
Constitution;
-30 «
d) The specific criteria which should have been used to
identify those students who would, of necessity,
have attended school outside the then existing
school district in which they resided, so that the
concentration of students from poor families in
Hartford Public Schools would be low enough to
satisfy the requirements of the Constitution.
RESPONSE: Please see response to Interrogatory 5. Plaintiffs
have not, at this point, alleged that one specific criterion or
indicator must be used to identify students who “would, of
necessity” be transferred to another school district. As stated
in the Complaint, rates of family participation in the federal
Aid to Families with Dependent Children program is widely
accepted as a measure closely correlated with family poverty.
Participation in the federal school lunch program is also an
‘index of poverty status.
7. Please identify each and every affirmative act, step or
plan which the plaintiffs will claim at trial the defendants,
their predecessors, or any other state officer, agency or other
body were required by the State Constitution to take or implement
to address the conditions created by the concentration of “at
risk” children in the Hartford Public Schools but which were not
in fact taken or implemented. For each such act, step, or plan
provide the following:
a) The last possible date upon which that act, step or
plan would necessarily have been taken or
implemented in order to have avoided a violation of
the constitution; :
b) The specific details of how such act, step or plan
should have been carried out including (1) the
specific methods of accomplishing the objective of
the act, step or plan, (2) an estimate as to how
long it would have taken to carry out the act, step
or plan, and (3) an estimate of the cost of carrying
out the act, step or plan;
9
—
@® a IE THERESE: Na We - RP -n a — - aa er ne
- 3] =~
c) The specific number and percentage of “at risk”
Hartford students who would, of necessity, have
attended school outside of the existing school
district in which they resided in order for that
act, step or plan to successfully address the
requirements of the Constitution.
d) The specific criteria which should have been used to
identify those students who would, of necessity,
have attended school outside the then existing
school district in which they resided so that the
concentration of “at risk” students in Hartford
Public Schools would be low enough to satisfy the
requirements of the Constitution.
RESPONSE: Please see response to Interrogatory 5. As set out in
the Complaint in this action, all children, including those
deemed at risk of lower educational achievement, have the
capacity to learn if given a suitable education. Yet, the
Hartford public schools operate at a severe educational
disadvantage in addressing the educational needs of all students,
due in part to the sheer proportion of students who bear the
burdens and challenges of living in poverty. The increased need
for special programs, such as compensatory education, stretches
Hartford school resources even further. As also stated in the
Complaint, the demographic characteristics of the students in the
Hartford public schools differ sharply from students in the
suburban schools by a number of relevant measures, such as
poverty status, whether a child has limited English proficiency,
and whether a child is from a single-parent family. Plaintiffs
have not, at this point, alleged that one specific criterion or
“indicator must be used to identify students who “would, of
necessity” be transferred to another school district.
CURRENT OR ONGOING VIOLATIONS
8. Using the 1987-88 data as a base, for Hartford and each
of the identified suburban school districts please specify the
number and percentage of black, Hispanic and white students who
must, of a necessity, attend school in a location outside of the
existing school district in which they reside in order to address
the condition of racial and ethnic isolation which now exists in
accordance with the requirements of the Constitution.
RESPONSE: Objection [Please see plaintiffs’ objection to
Interrogatory 8, Plaintiffs’ Objections To Interrogatories, Filed
September 20, 1990, attached hereto. ]
9. Using the 1987-88 data as a base, for Hartford and each
of the identified suburban school districts please specify the
number and percentage of poor, middle and/or upper class students
who must, of necessity, attend school outside of the existing
school district in which they reside in order to address the
condition of socio-economic isolation which exists in Hartford
and the identified suburban school districts in accordance with
the requirements of the Constitution. Also identify the specific
criteria which must be used to identify the pool of poor Hartford
students from which those students who would be required to
attend schools outside of the existing district in which they
reside must be chosen so as to address the condition of socio-
economic isolation in accordance with the requirements of the
Constitution.
RESPONSE: Objection [Please see plaintiffs!’ objection to
Interrogatory 9, Plaintiffs’ Objections To Interrogatories, Filed
September 20, 1990, attached hereto. ]
“33
10. Using the 1987-88 data as a base, identify the number
and percentage of "at risk” children in the Hartford Public
Schools who must, of necessity, attend school at a location
outside the existing Hartford School District lines in order to
address the concentration of “at risk” children in the Hartford
Public Schools in accordance with the requirements of the
Constitution. Also identify the specific criteria which must be
used to identify the pool of Hartford students from which those
who would be required to attend schools in the suburban school
districts must be chosen so as to address the concentration of
“at risk” children in the Hartford Public Schools.
‘RESPONSE: Objection [Please see plaintiffs’ objection to
Interrogatory 10, Plaintiffs’ Objections To Interrogatories,
Filed September 20, 1990, attached hereto. ]
MINIMALLY ADEQUATE EDUCATION
11. Please identify each and every statistic the
plaintiffs’ will rely on at trial to support any claim they
intend to make that the educational “inputs” (i.e. resources,
staff, facilities, curriculum, etc:) in the Hartford Public
Schools are so deficient that the children in Hartford are being
denied a “minimally adequate education.” For each such fact
specify the source(s) and/or name and address of the person(s)
that will be called upon to attest to that statistic at trial.
RESPONSE: [Please see response to Interrogatory 13.]
12. Please identify each and every statistic, other than the
results of the Mastery Test, which the plaintiffs will rely on at
trial to support any claim they intend to make that children in
Hartford are being denied a “minimally adequate education”
because of the educational “outputs” for Hartford. For each such
fact specify the source(s) and/or name and address of the
person(s) that will be called upon to attest to that statistic at
trial.
RESPONSE: [Please see response to Interrogatory 14.]
- 34 0.
EQUAL, EDUCATION
13. Please identify each and every category of educational
“inputs” which the plaintiffs will rely on at trial in their
effort to establish that the educational “inputs” in Hartford are
not equal to the educational “inputs” of the suburban school
districts. For each such category identify each and every
statistical comparison between Hartford and any or all of the
suburban school districts which the plaintiffs will rely on to
show the alleged inequality. For each such comparison identify
the source(s) and/or name and address of the person(s) that will
be called upon to attest to the accuracy of that statistical
comparison at trial.
RESPONSE: As of the date of this response, plaintiffs are
compiling data and information on disparities and inequities in
“educational inputs” and resources among Hartford and the
surrounding districts. This data may include, but may not be
limited to comparisons in the following areas:
a. Facilities -- data may include, but may not be
limited to comparisons of the condition and size of
school buildings, the condition and size of school
grounds, overcrowding and school capacity,
maintenance, the availability of specific
instructional facilities and physical education
facilities, and special function areas (e.g. types
of counselling, libraries);
b. Equipment and Supplies;
Cc. Personnel -- data may include, but may not be
limited to comparisons of student teacher ratios,
teaching staff characteristics, and non-teacher
staff number and characteristics;
d. Curriculum -- data may include, but may not be
limited to comparisons of course offerings,
textbooks and course levels, and special programs;
€. Extracurricular Opportunities; and
p
p
- 35
f. School evperience -- data may include, but may not
be limited to comparisons of counselling services,
disciplinary rates, absentee rates, retention
rates, tardy rates, and the concentration of -
poverty.
At the present time, plaintiffs’ investigation and analysis
of these categories has not been completed. The data and
information concerning disparity in “inputs” upon which
plaintiffs rely is equally available to defendants.
Nevertheless, plaintiffs will disclose such information in a
timely manner prior to trial.
14. Please identify each and every category of educational
“outputs” other than the Mastery Test, which the plaintiffs will
rely on at trial in their effort to establish that the
educational “outputs” in Hartford are not equal to the
educational “outputs” of the suburban school districts. For each
such category identify each and every statistical comparison
between Hartford and any one or all of the suburban school
districts which the plaintiffs will rely on to show the alleged
inequality. For each such comparison identify the source(s)
and/or name and address of the person(s) that will be called upon
to attest to the accuracy of that statistical comparison at
trial,
RESPONSE: As listed in plaintiffs’ response to Interrogatory 18,
Professor Robert Crain is expected to testify to the following
areas of comparison: the likelihood of (1) dropping out of high
school; (2) early teenage pregnancy; (3) unfavorable interactions
with the police; (4) college retention; (5) working in private
sector professional and managerial jobs; (6) interracial contact,
occupationally and otherwise; and (7) favorable interracial
attitudes. Plaintiffs are also compiling data and information on
- 36 -
disparities and inequities in other measures of achievement or
educational quality among Hartford and the surrounding districts,
including but not limited to percentage of students receiving a
diploma; PSAT and SAT scores; enplovient cutoones; and career and
life outcomes. At the present time, plaintiffs’ investigation
and analysis of these and other categories have not been
completed. Plaintiffs have not yet identified who will present
analyses of such data at trial, other than those experts listed
in plaintiffs’ response to Interrogatories 18 and 19. Plaintiffs
will disclose such information in a timely manner prior ito trial.
OTHER
15. Please identify each and every study, other document,
or information or person the plaintiffs will rely upon or call
upon at trial to support the claim that better integration will
improve the performance of urban black, Hispanic and/or socio-
economically disadvantaged children on standardized tests such as
the Mastery Test.
RESPONSE: As set out in the complaint, racial and economic
isolation in the schools adversely affects both educational
attainment and the life chances of children. The studies,
decinenite, information, and persons upon whom the plaintiffs will
rely at trial may include, but are not limited to information
listed in the response to Interrogatory 19 and the following:
Crain, R.L., and Braddock, J.H., McPartland, JM., "A
Long Term View of School Desegregation: Some Recent
Studies of Graduates as Adults,” 66 Phi Delta Kappan
259-264 (1984);
J!
p
e
r
v
de
nt
- 37 -
Crain, R.L., and Hawes, J.A., Miller, R.L., Peichert,
J.R., "Finding Niches: Desegregated Students Sixteen
Years Later,” R-3243-NIE, Rand (January, 1985);
Crain, R.L., and Strauss, J., “School Desegregation and
Black Occupational Attainments: Results from a Long-
term Experiment,” Reprinted from CSOS Report No. 359
(1985);
Levine, D.U., Keeny, J., Kukuk, C., O'Hara Fort, B.,
Mares, K.R., Stephenson, R.S., “Concentrated Poverty
and Reading Achievement in Seven Big Cities,” 11 Urban
Review 63 (1979).
“Poverty, Achievement and the Distribution of
Compensatory Education Services,” National Assessment
of Chapter 1, Office of Educational Research and
Improvement, U.S. Dept. of Ed. (1986);
"Report on Negative Factors Affecting the Learning
Process," Hartford Board of Education (1987);
Connecticut State Department of Education (various
reports, past and present, including but not limited to
reports on racial, ethnic, and economic segregation,
racial balance, school resources, and educational
outcomes).
See also reports listed in Plaintiffs’ Identification of
Expert Witnesses Pursuant to Practice Book §220 (D) (January
15, 1991), attached hereto.
16. Please identify each and every study, other document,
or information or person the plaintiffs will rely upon or call
upon at trial to support the claim that better integration will
improve the performance of urban black, Hispanic and/or socio-
economically disadvantaged children on any basis other than
standardized tests.
RESPONSE: [Please see response to Interrogatory 15.]
17. Please describe the precise mathematical formula used
by the plaintiiis to compute the ratios set forth in paragraph 42
of the complaint.
RESPONSE: Plaintiffs recognize that the computation set out in
942 of the Complaint may be inaccurate. Plaintiffs have
indicated their willingness to discuss stipulation as to
aggregate city vs. suburban mastery test scores.
EXPERT WITNESSES
18. Please specify the name and address of each and every
person the plaintiffs expect to call as an expert witness at
trial. For each such person please provide the following:
a) The date on which that person is expected to
complete the review, analysis, or consideration
necessary to formulate the opinions which that
person will be called upon to offer at trial;
The subject matter upon which that person is
expected to testify; and
The substance of the facts and opinions to which
that person is expected to testify and a summary of
the grounds for each opinion.
RESPONSE: On January 15, 1991, the plaintiffs disclosed their
initial list of expert witnesses anticipated to testify at trial,
pursuant to Practice Book §220 (D), as modified by this Court's
Order of October 31, 1990 and the parties’ Joint Motion for
Extension of Time to Disclose Expert Witnesses filed December 3,
1990. See Plaintiffs’ Identification of Expert Witnesses
Pursuant to Practice Book §220 (D) (January 15, 1991); attached
hereto and incorporated herein by reference. In addition,
- 35
plaintiffs have identified other possible witnesses who may
testify at the trial in this action, but whose analyses are not
sufficiently complete to respond to defendants’ interrogatory or
to confirm whether plaintiffs expect to call such witnesses.
Additional expert witnesses will be identified as set out in the
parties’ December 3, 1990 Joint Motion, as they become available.
DATA COMPILATIONS
19. In the event the plaintiffs intend to offer into
evidence at trial any data compilations or analyses which have
been produced by the plaintiffs or on the plaintiffs’ behalf by
any mechanical or electronic means please describe the nature and
results of each such compilation and/or analysis and provide the
following additional information.
a)
b)
c)
e)
£)
g)
The specific kind of hardware used to produce each
compilation and/or analysis;
The specific software package or programming
language which was used to produce each compilation
and/or analysis;
A complete list of all specific data elements used
to produce each compilation and/or analysis;
The specific methods of analyses and/or questions
used to create the data base for each compilation
and/or analysis;
A complete list of the specific questions, tests,
measures, or other means of analysis applied to the
data base to produce each compilation and/or
analysis;
Any and all other information the defendants would
need to duplicate the compilation or analysis;
The name, address, educational background and role
of each and every person who participated in the
development of the data base and/or program used to
i 0:
analyze the data for each compilation and/or
analvsin: and
h) The name and address of each and every person
-expected to testify at trial who examined the
results of the compilation or analysis and who
~reached any conclusions in whole or in part from
those results regarding the defendants’ compliance
with the law, and, for each such person, provide a
complete list of the conclusions that person
reached.
RESPONSE: Plaintiffs may offer into evidence compilations and
analyses including but not limited to analyses of data on the
educational and long-term effects of racial, ethnic, and economic
segregation. In addition, plaintiffs may offer into evidence
compilations and analyses on other elements of plaintiffs’ case,
including the disparity in resources between Hartford and the
suburban schools. Plaintiffs are still compiling and analyzing
data drawn from the following sources and will provide more
detailed information in such research when it is available. Such
information will be provided in a timely fashion, in advance of
trial,
The data sets which form the basis for the analyses of the
educational and long-term effects of racial, ethnic, and economic
segregation include, but will not be limited to the following:
(1) The National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Force
Behavior -- Youth Cohort, an annual survey
sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Labor and
Defense of 12,686 young persons throughout the
United States. Data available and used in this
research begins in 1979 and extends through 1987.
|
(2)
(3)
(4)
- dy -
The National Survey of Black Americans, a national
survey oi 22,1927 African Americans who are 18 years
of age or older. The survey was designed and
conducted by the survey Research Center, Institute
for Social Research at the University of Michigan.
Data was collected between 1979 and 1980.
The High School and Beyond Study, a national
longitudinal probability sample of more than 58,000
1980 high school sophomores and seniors. Surveys
were conducted in 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1986.
The National Longitudinal Survey of Employers, a
national probability sample of 4,087 employers.
Surveys were conducted in the 1970's.
Further sources of data are set out in Plaintiffs’
Identification of Expert Witnesses Pursuant to Practice Book §220
(D), served on January 15, 1991, and incorporated herein by
reference.
With respect to defendants’ questions a-d, at this time,
plaintiffs’ counsel are aware that some experts conducted
regression analyses using SPSS software on IBM computers.
this, plaintiffs are currently unable to specify the kind of
hardware used to produce each analysis, the specific software
package used,
and specific methods of analysis.
information in a timely fashion as it becomes available to the
plaintiffs, in advance of trial.
Beyond
the complete list of specific data elements used;
Plaintiffs will provide such
- 42 -
MISCELLANEOUS
20. For each of the above listed interrogatories please
provide the names and address of each person who assisted in the
preparation of the answer to that interrogatory and describe the
nature of the assistance which that person provided.
RESPONSE: Objection. [See plaintiffs’ Objection to
Interrogatory 20, Plaintiffs’ Objections to Interrogatories,
Filed September 20, 1990.] Without waiving their objection,
plaintiffs respond that the responses to the foregoing
interrogatories were prepared by counsel in consultation with
experts identified in Plaintiffs’ Identification of Expert
Witnesses Pursuant to Practice Book §220 (D), served on January
15, 1991, as well as additional exvaTts to be identified pursuant
to the parties’ Joint Motion for Extension of Time to Disclose
"Expert Witnesses filed December 3, 1990.
PLAINTIFFS, MILO SHEFF, ET AL
HAVE LAF or A774
MARIANNE ENGELMAN LADO
RONALD ELLIS
"NAACP Legal Defense &
Educational Fund, Inc.
99 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
(212) 219-1900
Pro Hac Vice
MARTHA STONE
CONNECTICUT CIVIL LIBERTIES
UNION FOUNDATION
32 Grand Street
Hartford, CT 0 06106
(203) 247-9823
Juris No. 61506
WILFRED RODRIGUEZ
HISPANIC ADVOCACY PROJECT
Neighborhood Legal Services
1229 Albany Avenue
Hartford, CT 06102
(203) 278-6850
Juris No. 302827
ADAM S. COHEN
HELEN HERSHKOFF
JOHN A. POWELL
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES
UNION FOUNDATION
132 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
(212) 944-9800
Pro Hac Vice
PHILIP D. TEGELER
CONNECTICUT CIVIL LIBERTIES
UNION FOUNDATION
32 Grand Street
Hartford, CT 06106
(203) 247-9823
Juris No. 102537
WESLEY W. HORTON
MOLLER, HORTON &
FINEBERG, P.C.
90 Gillett Street
Hartford, CT 06105
(203) 522-8338
Juris No. 38478
JOHN BRITTAIN
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
SCHOOL OF LAW
65 Elizabeth Street
Hartford, CT 06105
(203) 241-4664
Juris No. 101153
JENNY RIVERA
PUERTO RICAN LEGAL
DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND
99 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
(212) 219-3360
Pro Hac Vice
Cv89-0360977S
SUPERICACUURT
Plaintiffs
v. JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF
HARTFORD/NEW BRITAIN
WILLIAM A. O'NEILL, et al. AT HARTFORD
Defendants JANUARY 15, 1991
00
00
e0
80
00
d8
eo
00
00
eo
PLAINTIFFS’ IDENTIFICATION OF EXPERT WITNESSES
PURSUANT TO PRACTICE BOOK §220 (D)
Pursuant to Practice Book §220(D), as modified by this
Court's Order of October 31, 1990 and the parties’ Joint Motion
for Extension of Time to Disclose Expert Witnesses filed December
3, 1990, the plaintiffs herein disclose their initial list of
expert witnesses anticipated to testify at trial, in response to
Defendants’ First Set of Interrogatories. In addition,
plaintiffs have identified other possible witnesses who may
testify at the trial in this action, but whose analyses are not
sufficiently complete to respond to defendants’ interrogatory or
to confirm whether plaintiffs expect to call such witnesses. As
set out in the parties’ Joint Motion for Extension of Time to
Disclose Expert Witnesses filed December 3, 1990, such additional
expert witnesses may be identified in sixty days or thereafter.
Interrogatory 18. Please specify the name and address of
each and every person the plaintiffs expect to call as an expert
witness at trial. For each such person please provide the
following:
a. The date on which that person is expected to complete
the review, analysis, or consideration necessary to formulate the
opinions which that person will be called upon to offer at trial;
b. The subject matter upon which that person is expected to
testify; and
Cc. The substance of the facts and opinions to which that
person is expected to testify and a summary of the grounds for
each opinion.
RESPONSE: Experts whom the plaintiffs expect to call at trial
are listed below, pursuant to Practice Book Section 220(D), as
modified by the Court:
Dr. Jomills Henry Braddock, II, Center for Social
Organization of Schools, Johns Hopkins University, 3505
North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21218. Dr.
Braddock is expected to testify to (1) the adverse
educational and long-term effects of racial, ethnic,
and economic segregation; (2) the adverse effects of
racial, ethnic, and economic segregation on the
educational process within schools. Specifically, Dr.
Braddock is expected to testify that school segregation
tends to perpetuate segregation in adult life, that
school desegregation helps to transcend systemic
reinforcement of inequality of opportunity, and that
segregation affects the educational process within
schools. In his testimony, the materials on which Dr.
Braddock is expected to rely include his published
works, as well as research currently being conducted on
the educational and long-term effects of racial,
ethnic, and economic segregation by Dr. Marvin P.
i 3.
Dawkins and Dr. William Trent. (See descriptions
below.) Dr. Braddock is expected to base his testimony
on (1) Braddock, “The Perpetuation of Segregation
Across Levels of Education: A Behavioral Assessment of
the Contact-Hypothesis,” 53 Sociology of Education 178-
186 (1980); (2) Braddock, Crain, McPartland, “A Long-
Term View of School Desegregation: Some Recent Studies
of Graduates as Adults.” Phi Delta Kappan 259-264
(1984); (3) Braddock, “Segregated High School
Experiences and Black Students’ College and Major Field.
Choices,” Paper Presented at the National Conference on
School Desegregation, University of Chicago (1987); (4)
Braddock, McPartland, “How Minorities Continue to be
Excluded from Equal Employment Opportunities: Research
on Labor Market and Institutional Barriers,” 43 Journal
of Social Issues 5-39 (1987); and (5) Braddock,
McPartland, “Social-Psychological Processes that
Perpetuate Racial Segregation:. The Relationship
Between School and Employment Desegregation,” 19
Journal of Black Studies 267-289 (1989). Dr. Braddock
is expected to complete his review by April 1, 1991.
Christopher Collier, Connecticut State Historian, 876
Orange Center Road, Orange, Connecticut, 06477.
Professor Collier is expected to testify regarding (1)
the historical lack of autonomy of Connecticut towns
and school districts and the history of state control
over local education; (2) the historical development of
the system of town-by-town school districts including
legislation passed in 1856, 1866, and 1909; (3) the
existence and prevalence of school districts and
student attendance patterns crossing town lines prior
to 1903 legislation mandating consolidation; (4) the
existence of de jure school segregation in Connecticut
from 1830 through 1868; (5) the origins and historical
interpretation of the equal protection and education
clauses of the 1965 Constitution; (6) a historical
overview of the options for school desegregation
presented to the state but not acted upon, 1954 to
1980. In his testimony, the materials upon which
Professor Collier may rely will include numerous
historical sources, including primarily but not limited
to Helen Martin Walker, Development of State Support
and Control of Education in Connecticut (State Board of
Education, Connecticut Bulletin #4, Series 1925-16);
Keith W. Atkinson, The Legal Pattern of Public
Education in Connecticut (Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1950); Annual
Reports of the Superintendent of the Common Schools,
1838-1955; Jodziewicz, Dual localism in 17th Century
Connecticut, Relations Between the General Court and
the Towns, (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, William
& Mary, 1974); Bruce C. Daniels, The Connecticut Town:
Growth and Development, 1635-1790, Middletown
Connecticut, Wesleyan University; Trumbull, Public
Records of the Colony of Connecticut; Public Records of
the State of Connecticut; Proceedings of the
Constitutional Convention of 1965; as well as the
documents listed in response to defendants’
interrogatory 5, Plaintiffs’ Responses to Defendants’
First Set of Interrogatories (October 30, 1990), and
the sources referenced in plaintiff's supplemental
submission to Judge Hammer dated February 23, 1990.
Additional historical documents upon which Professor
Collier relies will be identified upon request at or
before the time of his deposition. Professor Collier
is expected to complete his review by March 1, 1991.
Dr. Robert IL. Crain, Professor of Sociology and
Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, 525
West 120th Street, Box 211, New York, New York, 10027.
Dr. Crain is expected to testify to the adverse
educational and long-term effects of racial, ethnic,
and economic segregation in the Hartford metropolitan
area. Specifically, Dr. Crain is expected to testify
that the effects of Project Concern participation for
students in the Hartford metropolitan area have been to
reduce the likelihood of (1) dropping out of high
school, (2) early teenage pregnancy, and (3)
unfavorable interactions with the police. Dr. Crain is
expected to testify, further, that the effects of
Project Concern participation for students in the
Hartford metropolitan area have been to increase (1)
college retention, (2) the probability of working in
private sector professional and managerial jobs, (3)
the probability of interracial contact, and (4)
favorable attitudes toward whites. In his testimony,
Dr. Crain is expected to base his testimony on his
published works and his analyses of Project Concern.
Specifically, Dr. Crain is expected to rely on (1)
Crain, Strauss, “School Desegregation and Black
Occupational Attainments: Results from a Long-Term
Experiment,” Center for Social Organization of Schools,
Report No. 359 (1985); (2) Crain, Hawes, Miller, and
Peichort, *Finding Riches: Desegregated Students
Sixteen Years Later,” Unpublished Manuscript, Institute
for Urban and Minority Education, Teachers College
(revised 1990); and (3) Gable, Thompson, Iwanicki, "The
Effects of Voluntary Desegregation on Occupational
Outcomes,” The Vocational Guidance Quarterly 230-239
(1983). Dr. Crain is expected to complete his review
by April 1, 1991.
Dr. Marvin P. Dawkins, 17627 N.W. 62nd Place, North,
Hialeah, Florida, 33015. Dr. Dawkins is expected to
testify to the adverse educational and long-term
effects of racial, ethnic, and economic segregation on
African Americans. Specifically, Dr. Dawkins is
expected to testify that African Americans who have
attended segregated schools have a lower probability of
attending predominantly white «colleges and
universities, maintaining interracial contacts, and
working in desegregated settings. Dr. Dawkins is
expected to base his testimony on (1) his analysis of
data from the National Survey of Black Americans, a
nationally representative survey of African Americans
conducted over a period of seven months between 1979
and 1980 at the Survey Research Center, Institute for
Social Research, University of Michigan, and funded by
the Center for the Study of Minority Group Mental
Health, at the National Institute of Mental Health; (2)
Dawkins, "Black Students’ Occupational Expectations: A
National Study of the Impact of School Desegregation,”
18 Urban Fducation 98-113 (1983); (3) Braddock,
Dawkins, "Predicting Black Academic Achievement in
Higher Education,” 50 Journal of Negro Education 319-
327 (1981); (4) Braddock, Dawkins, "Long-Term Effects
of School Desegregation on Southern Blacks,” 4
Sociological Spectrum 365-381 (1984); and (5) Dawkins,
"Persistence of Plans for Professional Careers Among
Blacks in Early Adulthood,” 58 Journal of Negro
Education 220-231 (1989). Dr. Dawkins is expected to
complete his analysis by March 15, 1991.
Dr. Mary Kennedy, Director, National Center for
Research: on Teacher Evaluation, Michigan State
University, 513 Ardson Road, East Lansing, Michigan,
48823. Dr. Kennedy will testify about the relationship
of family poverty and high concentrations of poverty to
educational outcomes. Specifically, Dr. Kennedy will
testify that two of the most important measures of
poverty which have a strung relationship to educational
outcomes are intensity of family poverty (measured by
number of years of sustained poverty of the child and
his family), and attendance at a school with a high
concentration of poor children. Her conclusions show
that: (1) Students are increasingly likely to fall
behind grade levels as their families experience longer
spells of poverty; (2) Achievement scores of all
students - not just poor students - decline as the
proportion of poor students in a school increases; (3)
The relationship between school poverty concentration
and school achievement averages is even stronger than
the relationship between family poverty status and
student achievement. In fact, non-poor students who
attend schools with a high concentration of poor
students are more likely to fall behind than are poor
students who attend a school with a small proportion of
poor students; and (4) Increases in the proportion of
poor children in a school are associated with decreases
in average starting achievement and even occasionally
with decreases in learning rates over time. Dr.
Kennedy's opinions are based on her research and that
of others as contained in reports, including, but not
limited to Kennedy, M.M., Jung, R.K., and Orland, M.E.
(1986), Poverty, Achievement and the Distribution of
Compensatory Education Services, U.S. Department of
Education, 1986. Dr. Kennedy is expected to complete
her review by May 1, 1991.
Dr. JWilliam Trent, EPS, 368 Education Building,
University of Illinois, 1310 South Sixth Street,
Champagne, Illinois, 61820. Dr. Trent is expected to
testify to the adverse educational and long-term
effects of racial, ethnic, and economic segregation on
Latinos, African Americans, and white Americans.
Specifically Dr. Trent is expected to testify that
economic school segregation has adverse long-term
outcomes for Latinos, African Americans, and white
Americans, that desegregation has beneficial results on
the aspirations and expectations of Latino students and
on their likelihood of working in interracial
environments, and that white Americans who have
experienced desegregated schools are more likely to
work with and to have positive attitudes toward African
American co-workers. Dr. Trent is expected to base his
testimony on his published work and his analysis of
data from (1) the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor
Force Behavior -- Youth Cohort, an annual survey
sponsored by the United States Departments of Labor and
Defense of 12,686 young persons throughout the United
States, with data available for 1979-1987; (2) the High
School and Beyond Study, a national longitudinal
probability sample of more than 58,000 1980 high school
sophomores and seniors, conducted in 1980, 1982, 1984,
and 1986; and (3) the National Longitudinal Survey of
Employers, a national probability sample of 4,087
employers, conducted in the 1970's. Dr. Trent is
expected to complete his analysis by April 1, 1991.
In addition to the areas of testimony set out above,
plaintiffs’ experts are also expected to interpret and comment on
the testimony and research of other experts, including both
plaintiffs’ and defendants’ experts. With respect to documents
listed herein, plaintiffs have included some of the primary
sources upon which these experts base their opinions, but have
not provided a comprehensive list of all documents reviewed or
relied on. If any other additional areas of testimony are
identified for the foregoing experts or other documents upon
which they primarily rely are identified, plaintiffs will
identify such testimony and documents in a timely fashion,
pursuant to the parties’ Joint Motion for Extension of Time to
Disclose Expert Witnesses filed December 3, 1990.
Wesley W. Horton
Moller, Horton, & Fineberg
90 Gillett Street
Hartford, CT 06105
Julius L. Chambers
Marianne Lado
Ron Ellis
NAACP Legal Defense &
Educational Pund, Inc.
99 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
Helen Hershkoff
John A. Powell
Adam Cohen
American Civil Liberties
Union Foundation
132 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
Respectfully Submitted,
‘Philip D. Tegeler
Martha Stone
Connecticut Civil Liberties
Union Foundation
32 Grand Street
Hartford, CT 06106
Wilfred Rodriguez
Hispanic Advocacy Project
Neighborhood Legal Services
1229 Albany Avenue
Hartford, CT 06112
John Brittain
University of Connecticut
School of Law
65 Elizabeth Street
Hartford, CT 06105
Jenny Rivera
Puerto Rican Legal Defense
and Education Fund
99 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
This is to certify that one copy of the foregoing has been
110 ray rrm——— Hartford, CT 06105 this 15th pre of
Jp Sree
Philip D. Tegeler
January, 1991.
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Cve9-03609778
MILO SHEFF, ET AL SUPERIOR COURT
VS. : JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF HARTFORD/
NEW BRITAIN AT HARTFORD
WILLIAM A. O’/NEILL, ET AL : SEPTEMBER 20, 1990
PLAINTIFFS’ OBJECTION TO INTERROGATORIES
Pursuant to §228 of the Connecticut Practice Book, the Plaintiffs
herewith object to the following interrogatories dated July 13, 1990:
8. Using the 1987-1988 data as a base, for Hartford and each of
the identified suburban school districts please specify the number and
percentage of black, Hispanic and white students who must, of a
necessity, attend school in a location outside of the existing school
district in which they reside in order to address the condition of
racial and ethnic isolation which now exists in accordance with the
requirements of the Constitution.
OBJECTION: Defendants’ interrogatory seeks information from
plaintiffs in regard to the specific remedy that plaintiffs seek if they
prevail in this lawsuit. To that extent, defendants do not seek
information relating to the liability phase but the remedial phase of
this lawsuit. Plaintiffs object on the grounds that such information is
premature, and beyond the scope of the lawsuit at this present time.
9. Using the 1987-88 data as a base, for Hartford and each of the
identified suburban school districts please specify the number and
percentage of poor, middle and/or upper class students who must, of
necessity, attend school outside of the existing school district in
which they reside in order to address the condition of socio-economic
isolation which exists in Hartford and the identified suburban school
districts in accordance with requirements of the Constitution. Also
identify the specific criteria which must be used to identify the pool
of poor Hartford students from which those students who would be
required to attend schools outside of the existing district in which
they reside must be chose so as to address the condition of
socio-economic isolation in accordance with the requirements of the
Constitution.
OBJECTION: See objection to Interrogatory 8.
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lg Using the 1987-88 data as a base, identify the number and
perazantage of "at risk" children in the Hartford Public Schools who
must, of necessity, attend school at a location outside the existing
Hartford School District lines in order to address the concentration of
“at risk" children in the Hartford Public Schools in accordance with the
requirements of the Constitution. Also identify the specific criteria
which must be used to identify the pool of Hartford students from which
those who would be required to attend schools in the suburban school
districts must be chosen so as to address the concentration of "at risk"
children in the Hartford Public School.s
OBJECTION: 8&ee objection to Interrogatory 8.
20. For each of the above listed interrogatories please provide
the name and address of each person who assisted in the preparation of
the answer to that interrogatory and describe the nature of the
assistance which that person provided.
OBJECTION: To the extent it requires the disclosure concerning
experts who will not testify at trial, it is not provided for under P.B.
§220(A) (1).
PLAINTIFFS, MILO SHEFF, ET AL
MARTHA STONE
CONNECTICUT CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
FOUNDATION
32 Grand Street
Hartford, CT 06106
(203)247-9823
Juris No. 61506
PHILIP D. TEGELER
CONNECTICUT CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
FOUNDATION
32 Grand Street
Hartford, CT 06106
(203)247-9823
Juris No. 102537
WESZEY W. HORTON
MOLLER, HORTON &
FINEBERG, P.C.
90 Gillett Street
Hartford, CT 06105
(203)522-8338
Juris No. 38478
WILFRED RODRIGUEZ
HISPANIC ADVOCACY PROJECT
Neighborhood Legal Services
1229 Albany Avenue
Hartford, CT
(203)278-6850
Juris No.
06102
302827
Sik RE BNL 050 JQEN BRITTAIN
RONALD ELLIS UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
NAACP Tegnrl Defense & SCHOOL OF LAW
Bducational Fund, Inc. 65 Elizabeth Street
99 Hudson Street Hartford, CT 06105
New York, NY 10013 (203) 241-4664
(212)219-1900 Juris No. 101153
Pro Hac Vice
HELEN HERSHKOFF
ADAM S. COHEN JENNY RIVERA
JOHN A. POWELL PUERTO RICAN LEGAL DEFENSE
> AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION AND EDUCATION FUND
S FOUNDATION 99 Hudson Street
< 132 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10013
4 New York, NY 10036
g (212) 944-9800
5 Pro Hac Vice
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CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify that a copy of the foregoing was mailed to all
counsel of record on September 20, 1990.
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
This is to certify that one copy of the foregoing has been
mailed postage prepaid to John R. Whelan and Diane W. Whitney,
Assistant Attorney Generals, MacKenzie Hall, 110 Sherman Street,
™
Hartford, CT 06105 this /7 day of February, 1991
JY J TA
Philip D. Tegeler