He said he thought that pressuring less oft-selected schools to improve would be beneficial to education in the city as a whole.

“A rising tide raises all boats,” he said.

A working draft of the plan—translated into Korean, Haitian Creole, Chinese, Portuguese and Spanish—was distributed to audience members.

Harvard education professor Gary A. Orfield presented his study of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) 12th-graders that indicates students benefit from the diverse environment created within the school system.

His findings are part of a larger national survey, to be released next week, that demonstrates the educational benefits of racial diversity.

Orfield said in recent years the courts have hurt desegregation efforts, but using socioeconomic factors could be a suitable replacement for programs that focus primarily on race.

He said he has seen a correlation between race and poverty in his work.

“It is very important that they have a system to maintain racial diversity that can be legally upheld,” Orfield said in an interview.

“They should be able to achieve diversity through socio-economic considerations,” Orfield said.

The presentation by D’Alessandro showed a correlation between performance and income status at a given school.

“A high concentration of low-income students causes low performance regardless of how much money is put into a school,” she said.

The plan hit home with many in the audience.

“I think it’s time the elementary schools addressed disparities, just as the high school already has,” said Deborah Downes, a staff developer at CRLS whose son attended Cambridge public schools.

Many audience members said they were concerned that 30 percent of Cambridge children were not enrolled in the public school system.

“Those who do not get their choices do not stay in the schools,” one audience member said.