The US Supreme Court ruled last week in favour of a primary school where the admissions procedures take a child's race into account. The court ruled the school has a justifiable reason for considering the race of pupils and therefore does not violate the rights of the children it refuses.

The school, Corinne A Seeds University Elementary School, is run by the graduate school of education and information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The school, with 460 pupils, is a kind of "laboratory school", aiming to ascertain the learning skills of children from different racial and social backgrounds.

The criteria considered in admission include race, ethnicity, sex, family income and dominant language. A federal judge said the use of race in the admissions system of this particular school served a "compelling interest" toward improving the quality of education in other urban schools.