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The Controversy Over The Portland Public Schools' African-American Baseline Essays, 1983-1992, Thomas Damian Rand-Luby

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis chronicles the controversy surrounding the implementation of the multicultural education curriculum in the public schools of Portland, Oregon between 1983 and 1992. It surveys and discusses the germane events, processes, procedures, and perceptions which led up to, accompanied, and emerged from the city's adoption of the African-American Baseline Essays. This work seeks to place the Portland experiment in an historical context by revealing its contribution to the study of United States social/cultural history and race relations. This story of community empowerment is tied to long-standing conflicts and questions surrounding the nature of multicultural education, the role of public …