Description/Abstract: The article presents the reply of authors to the comments by Bruce K. Eckland, professor at the University of North Carolina, published in the April 1979 issue of the "Sociology of Education" on desegregation of education. The argument about the need to control on ability or some other student attribute is closely related to the issue of self-selection; if bright black students choose white schools, that is self-selection, and authors tried to deal with that issue. Authors' data on attaining college junior status are derived simply by asking students if they had been in college three years and were classified as juniors. Eckland has not attempted to construct his own version of this variable, and nothing makes us think this variable has problems. Adding achievement as a control would not greatly reduce the sizeable relationship between percent white and reaching the junior year of college, which is why authors stress that this finding is not involved in this debate. The question of whether achievement is logically prior to percent white is interesting, but empirically it has only a moderate effect on authors' interpretation.