Segregation in public schools still existed in Massachusetts despite efforts since the mid-1800s to address it. Previous attempts targeted de jure segregation, or that in which legal codes mandate and enforce the separation of people based on race. Through the 1960s, redlining kept Boston neighborhoods divided by racial and ethnic groups, and the city's policy was to send children to the school nearest their home; due to the confluence of these policies, de jure segregation had been banned, but de facto segregation - that which occurs due to social patterns - remained.
By the 1960s, school systems in Massachusetts were also grappling with the impacts of the 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education. This ruling declared that separating children in public schools based on race was a violation of the fourteenth amendment.
"In 1954, the Supreme Court found that racial segregation is a major driver of educational inequity. When Boston refused to integrate public schools, black women from Roxbury and white suburban residents teamed up to create a new way. That's why METCO was founded."
In spring of 1965, upon urging from parents, a report was published that quantified and explained the racial imbalances in school systems across the state. The report, "Because It Is Right - Educationally" pressured the state Board of Education to enact legislation to address the issues. The resulting, divisive, Racial Imbalance Act of 1965 required schools to actively address "racial imbalance" among its students, and threatened to withhold state funding if the school systems refused to act. Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) was formed in response, with Wellesley as one of the founding seven suburban school districts.
Today METCO is recognized as America's largest voluntary school integration program. As of 2025, the MetroWest communities of Sudbury, Wayland, Needham, Natick, Sherborn, and Dover participate in addition to Wellesley.
- Learn more about the connection between education and health
- Additional context is provided in a video prepared by eight METCO students in 2020.
- Wayland High School History Project team developed a website with expansive materials about METCO's local history
- Students at Wellesley High School devised a play, "Now in Color," in recognition of METCO's 50th anniversary.