News

This section includes press releases and statements about education and racial justice issues.

Separate and Unequal Schools Pervasive in Southern California

California has become a national leader in school segregation for Latino students who are now a clear majority of all students in Southern California, the center of the nation’s largest Latino community. The Southern California region is also home to the West’s largest black community and African American students are also intensely segregated. This segregation is not only by race and poverty, but frequently by language as well, and it is related to fundamentally different patterns of educational opportunity and achievement.

Impact of CSU Cuts on Students is Worse than Expected

Fewer courses and rising tuition are compounded by the nation's financial crisis.

Experiencing Integration in Louisville: How Parents and Students See the Gains and Challenges

The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles released the much-anticipated results of their survey of Jefferson County, KY parents and high school students regarding diverse education in the county’s public schools. “Experiencing Integration in Louisville: How Parents and Students See the Gains and Challenges,” is an analysis of survey responses regarding the public’s experiences with integration efforts after the implementation of the Jefferson County Public Schools’ (JCPS) new student assignment plan, which began in 2009.

Study Finds Big Racial Gap in Suspensions of Middle School Students

In order to better understand the issues of efficacy and fairness in the use of out-of-school suspension, we address two questions: How frequently is suspension being used in our schools? Are there significant differences when we look at suspensions by race/ethnicity and gender? This report is designed to help answer these questions.

A Threat to the Integrity of Civil Rights Research in Arizona and Elsewhere

CRP views the demands by the Arizona court in the Horn v. Flores case -- that confidential information be disclosed and that assurances to respondents be systematically ignored and violated -- to be a direct threat not only to civil rights and educational research, but also to the confidence any respondent could have about the disclosure of confidential information, which political leaders of a state might want to demand in the midst of a trial.

9 Studies Document the Educational Condition of Arizona's English Learners

In an unprecedented collaboration, 21 senior scholars and advanced graduate students from four major research universities joined together as the Arizona Educational Equity Project, under the aegis of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, to produce nine new studies on the condition of English learner students in Arizona.

School Integration Efforts Three Years After PICS Ruling

Authors Adai Tefera, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, and Erica Frankenberg synthesize major themes in local policymaking during the last year, as local school districts continue to grapple with legal and economic constraints on policies aimed at creating diverse schools.

CRP's Response to "Re-analysis" of Charter School Study

On April 27, 2010, Education Next posted a re-analysis and commentary of our February 2010 charter school report. Read our response, where we accurately explain what we did, why we did it, and the actual nature of our conclusions.

March 2010 Issue Highlights Papers from "Looking to the Future" Conference

The March 2010 issue of the North Carolina Law Review highlights scholarly articles first presented as draft papers at the April 2, 2009 conference

Call for Proposals: The Impact of Budget Cuts on Underrepresented Students in the CSU System

Proposals will be due by April 20. Draft papers will be due by July 1 and will be discussed in an academic roundtable at UCLA on July 9. Authors will have until August 25th to revise their papers in light of suggestions and questions coming out of the roundtable and peer review.

The Price of Retreat: Paying More for a Divided and Less Well-Educated Community in Wake County, North Carolina

After four months of debate, a newly configured school board voted on March 23, 2010 to end Wake County’s long-standing commitment to promoting racially and socioeconomically diverse schools. This statement, by various signatories working in civil rights research including the Civil Rights Project co-directors, is a brief glimpse into the past—or a look at school systems around the South no longer working towards the goal of integration— and suggests that serious, negative consequences await North Carolina’s largest district.

Report Examines Graduation Rates Among American Indian and Alaska Native Students in Twelve States

On average, less than 50% of American Indian and Alaska Native students from the Pacific and Northwestern regions of the United States graduate high school, according to a new study released. Findings indicate that the number of American Indians and Alaska Natives who graduate continues to be a matter of urgent concern.

Report Explains that Charter Schools' Political Success is a Civil Rights Failure

The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA issued "Choice Without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards," a nationwide report based on an analysis of Federal government data and an examination of charter schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia, along with several dozen metropolitan areas with large enrollments of charters.

Major Bi-national Conference to Address Education Crisis Across the U.S.-Mexico Border

"The Students We Share," a bi-national conference relating to the educational needs of immigrant students, will be held January 15-16 In Mexico City.

Government’s Largest Program for Subsidized Housing Ignores Civil Rights Standards says New Report by UCLA Civil Rights Project

In a report, "The Opportunity Illusion: Subsidized Housing and Failing Schools in California," CRP Researcher Deirdre Pfeiffer explores the link between housing segregation and inferior educational outcomes.

Report Challenges Charter School Civil Rights Policy

"Equity Overlooked: Charter Schools and Civil Rights Policy," by Erica Frankenberg and Genevieve Siegel-Hawley examines the civil rights implications of the Obama administration's pro-charter school policies.

UC Report Says Districts Struggling to Maintain Diversity Plans Should Look to Berkeley Public Schools for Ideas

The Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity at UC Berkeley and the Civil Rights Project's joint report, "Integration Defended: Berkeley unified's Strategy to Maintain School Diversity," describes how the school district's successful integration efforts have created diverse schools and survived legal challenges.

Study by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project: NCLB Ignores What We Know about School Change and Is Motivated by Politics

In "Why High Stakes Accountability Sounds Good but Doesn’t Work — And Why We Keep on Doing It Anyway," Researchers Gail Sunderman and Heinrich Mintrop address the failure of NCLB to meaningfully address the problems facing the nations schools.

School Resegregation and Civil Rights Challenges for the Obama Administration: Report from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA

"Reviving the Goal of an Integrated Society: A 21st Century Challenge" calls on the Obama administration and Congress to review the evidence, to support integrated schools, and to avoid the resegregation of suburban schools.

Book Provides New Studies on Race Relations in the U.S.

Twenty-First Century Color Lines: Multiracial Change in Contemporary America collects work form the "Color Lines Conference" and offers insight inot the complex racial setting of contemporary America.