Philadelphia's voluntary school desegregation plan is designed to offer pupils the opportunity for educational experiences in multicultural, multiracial schools, and to prevent white flight from the public schools. Strategies for achieving desegregation include the creation of magnet schools, voluntary school pairing, the Alternative for Middle Years program, and "academics plus" schools. Magnet schools at the junior and senior high school levels have been successful in drawing students from all over the city and from private schools in order to study music and arts, engineering, science and mathematics. In order to avoid the danger that magnet schools might detract from the quality of instruction in other schools, the city has developed a plan to raise the academic achievement of all students through alternative schools and back-to-basics programs in which students, parents, and school personnel all participate in decision making. Finally, the pairing of predominantly white with predominantly black schools has resulted in successful mergers from the point of view of racial composition and academic goals. The Philadelphia experience demonstrates that it is possible to desegregate urban schools by offering freedom of choice. (Author/GC)