The flags of 73 nations are displayed in the main hallway of Cambridge's King Elementary School--a sign of the pride which the city takes in its diversity. Yet the city's racial and socioeconomic diversity may not be truly reflected in the city's elementary schools despite Cambridge's celebrated "controlled-choice" program.

Cambridge has long been praised for its school choice program that both achieves a racial balance in the city's elementary schools and allows parents to have some choice in which school their child will attend.

But this effort to balance the schools in terms of white and "minority" students has not been entirely successful in achieving either a racial or socio-economic balance between schools.

Although the percentage of minority students at each of Cambridge's 13 elementary schools is fairly constant, the mixture of individual races--Asian, Black, Hispanic or Native American--varies widely from school to school.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Education's October 1990 statistics, the most recent available, while Graham and Parks School is 44.0 percent Black it is only 3.4 percent Asian and 4.9 percent Hispanic. But at the Peabody School the enrollment is 13.7 percent Asian, but only 7.3. percent Hispanic and 27.9 percent Black.

And similarly, the number of children receiving free or reduced lunches--a barometer of the economic diversity of a school--runs from a low of 16.7 percent at the Agasiz School to 76.8 at the Kennedy School.

The Choice System

Cambridge's controlled-choice program--the first of its kind in the nation--was put into place in 1981 as a voluntary effort to racially integrate the city's public elementary schools without implementing mandatory busing. All attendance zones, or districts, were abolished, allowing parents to list their top three choices for the kindergarten through eighth grade elementary schools.

After parents submit their requests, student assignment officers allot slots in a particular school. Although there are several criteria used in determining to what school children will be assigned, race is the primary deciding factor.

The Cambridge system has won praise and has been used as a model for school districts as for away as Minneapolis and Seattle. Under the system more than 90 percent of parents have received one of their three choices and most schools are close to the city average of 52.1 percent minority.

But the system is not flawless. Cambridge makes no distinction between different minority groups; a student is either classified as white or minority. This was less of a problem when the controlled choice system was initially conceived, according to officials. But increases and changes in immigration patterns over the past decade have changed the racial makeup of Cambridge schools.

Michael J. Alves, who was the desegregation planner for the Massachusetts Department of Education when the controlled-choice plan was unveiled in 1981, says adjustments in Cambridge's system may be necessary.

"Over time we've seen an increase in Hispanic and Asian immigration significant enough to warrant a third racial category," he says.

Alves said it might be helpful to examine Boston's choice system and its methods of allocating seats to students. "In Cambridge, you're either white or minority." he says. "In Boston, seats are allocated for whites, Blacks, and others."

It is not just that the Cambridgecontrolled-choice system fails to correct racialimbalances in the school; it actually causes them,says Jeanette Collier, a Boston school teacherwhose child attended a Cambridge public elementaryschool.

Collier, whose daughter now attends a privatehigh school, said the concentration of bilingualprograms in certain schools is a form of"institutional racism."