News

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

UCLA Research Center Releases Studies Showing Barriers To College From State Budget Cuts Growing

The reports clearly show the very dramatic impact of cuts implemented prior to this year, with huge cuts now being imposed certain to intensify the situation. In a policy briefing today, representatives of the California Senate Education Committee, the California Postsecondary Education Commission, and the Legislative Analyst's Office will comment on the studies and offer their perspectives on where the state goes from here.

CRP Publishes New Manual To Help Suburban Schools Achieve Positive And Lasting Multiracial Diversity

This manual provides invaluable guidance for education stakeholders in suburban school districts — including school board members, parents, students, community activists, administrators, policymakers and attorneys — promoting racially diverse, high quality schools.

College Affordability at Risk for Latino, African American & American Indian Youth

The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA released two studies showing that college affordability in California is at risk and financial aid is urgently needed. Across the board students are found to be working too many hours to keep up with their studies and a huge proportion (30%) of those surveyed may abandon their studies and hopes of getting a college degree.

Federal Policy Guidance Issued on the Rights of Undocumented School Children

The Department of Justice and the Department of Education just last week issued guidance to school officials across the U.S. outlining their responsibilities, under the guarantee against discrimination in the l964 Civil Rights Act and the Supreme Court's 1982 decision, Plyler v. Doe, to admit and give public education to all resident children in the U.S. regardless of their immigration status.

Civil Rights and the Future of Federal Education Law: a Research Briefing on Capitol Hill

A Washington, D.C. briefing at the U.S. Capitol by the Civil Rights Project last week generated an active discussion of research on the intersection of public education and civil rights, with leading scholars suggesting ways in which federal education policy could better foster equal opportunity for all groups of students and further progress in both educational outcomes and race relations.

Education for Students at CSUs Shortchanged by State’s Fiscal Crisis

Faculty in Crisis is a two-part study and the second in a series of reports about the devastating effects of state budget cuts on the California State University system. The reports find that many professors in the CSU system feel that the cutbacks already implemented, coupled with the substantial cuts projected, put the quality of a CSU education in a rapid spiral downward. The studies reveal that faculty are extremely concerned, that the students are losing out, and that their learning experience is significantly undermined by the fiscal crisis.

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.