The significance of this study is rooted in the need for a better understanding of new policies on race and schools, the social and political context of choice, and the consequences of these reform strategies for school systems in urban America and for the lives of educators, students, and their families. Thus, the significance of this study extends beyond the city limits and school corridors of Nashville. As a Southern city with a distinctive and historic role in the Civil Rights Movement (see Halberstam, 1998), Nashville plays a prominent, widely recognized part in the national policy debates related to school desegregation, choice, and equity. This city’s high profile desegregation plan, and the research outlined here have implications for the nature and direction of the nation’s desegregation policies for the next decade. This is the story of a district in transition, wrestling with the key issues of access, equity, and excellence during the era of extreme focus on accountability and student achievement.