News

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

Study Finds Many Charter Schools Feeding "School-to-Prison Pipeline"

A first-ever analysis of school discipline records for the nation’s more than 5,250 charter schools shows a disturbing number are suspending big percentages of their black students and students with disabilities at highly disproportionate rates compared to white and non-disabled students.

CCRR/CRP supports newly proposed regulations by U.S. Dept of Education to correct flaws in special education law

The Center for Civil Rights Remedies (CCRR) at the UCLA Civil Rights Project applauds the newly proposed regulations, from the U.S. Department of Education, which ensure that states more effectively address the problem of racial inequity in special education identification, placement and disciplinary exclusion. The proposed rules were issued earlier this week, on Tuesday, February 23, 2016 and CCRR encourages their support. Please read our following response (a more complete and official response will be posted within 75 days).

California School Suspensions Decline, Driven by Fewer Punishments for Disruption/Defiance

Districts Making Progress toward Reducing Racial/Ethnic Suspension Disparities, though Gaps Still Remain. Study Shows Higher Test Scores Correlated with Lower Suspension Rates, Reducing Concern that Discipline Reforms May Jeopardize Student Achievement.

More than 800 Scholars File Brief with U.S. Supreme Court Supporting Diversity Policies in College Admissions

More than 800 social scientists from all parts of the U.S. recently submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court presenting evidence on the need to maintain colleges’ rights to consider race as one of many factors in selecting students. We believe that this brief is the most massive outpouring of scholarly support ever for a social science brief in a civil rights case.

Education Secretary Duncan Advocates Shifting Money From Prisons to Schools

CRP's Center for Civil Rights Remedies supports Education Secretary Arnie Duncan's September 30, 2015 proposal to shift funds from prisons to schools.

UCLA Report Finds Connecticut’s Schools Growing More Integrated; Programs are a “Lighthouse for the Region”

LOS ANGELES—For the first time in its ten recent studies of public school segregation in East Coast states, the Civil Rights Project today releases a new report documenting significant progress toward integrated education. In the state of Connecticut there has been clear progress, according to the new study’s findings.

Are We Closing the School Discipline Gap? New Research Identifies Districts with Worst Suspension Records

Findings include: U.S. kids are losing almost 18 million days of instruction; Florida leads all states with highest suspension rate; many districts have improved, but overall U.S. rate has changed little.

The Winter 2015 Bulletin/Noticiero is here!

The Winter 2015 Issue highlights a new CRP book release, one that looks at the benefits of being bilingual in the U.S. labor market. Alumni Spotlight interviews Associate Professor Mindy Kornhaber, who conducts research on how institutional policies affecting individual potential could be more equitable. Upcoming events, new resources, and civil rights in history are also featured.

Announcing New Book with Groundbreaking Studies on School Discipline

A new book, Closing the School Discipline Gap, from The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the UCLA Civil Rights Project (CRP/CCRR) looks at disciplinary policies and practices in school that result in disparities, and provides remedies that may be enacted at federal, state, and district levels.

Decades of Inaction Lead to Worst Segregaton in Pennsylvania Schools in Two Decades

Using statewide public school enrollment data from 1989 to 2010, a new report examines changes in school enrollment and segregation at the state-level as well across Pennsylvania’s two largest metropolitan areas –Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Senator Edward Brooke: A personal reflection by Gary Orfield

CRP Co-director Gary Orfield reflects on the Civil Rights legacy of Senator Edward William Brooke III (October 26, 1919 – January 3, 2015).

Experts Say Schools Can’t Address Racial Disparities in Discipline without Confronting Racial Issues

Research Collaborative Urges School Data Collection, Frank Conversation, and Adoption of New Practices

Delaware’s School Resegregation Increasing after Dissolution of its Groundbreaking Metropolitan Desegregation Plan

"The Courts, the Legislature and Delaware’s Resegregation" summarizes substantial research showing segregated schools’ strong links to multiple forms of unequal educational opportunity and outcomes.

A Dream Undone? Higher Education Access and Opportunity in a Shifting Legal Landscape

CRP and partners launch groundbreaking study to examine how legal challenges to race-conscious admissions have changed contemporary admissions practices at selective colleges and universities.

Groups File Civil Rights Complaint Challenging Tracking and Discipline Practices in South Orange-Maplewood School District

The complaint was brought by CRP's Center for Civil Rights Remedies, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of New Jersey.

Northern New England Schools Experience Early Racial Change

In this report, school segregation in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont is analyzed and found to be presently modest and localized, especially compared to other parts of the country, but slow increases in racial diversity signal changes ahead for the region’s schools. The authors urge the states and schools to act now to create policies addressing racial change and integration, before segregation becomes entrenched.

Education Tool Guides Districts and Schools on Using LCFF to Narrow EL Achievement Gaps

A new educational guide is available that helps California schools, districts and teachers target the best ways to implement California's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), so that it narrows the achievement gaps between the state’s English Learners (ELs) and all other students. The guidance recommends research-based practices that innovate and reshape ways for addressing the educational needs of ELs.

Center for Civil Rights Remedies joined by 32 organizations and 19 scholars urge Department of Education to Address Racial Discipline Disparities among Students with Disabilities

Center for Civil Rights Remedies joined by 32 organizations and 19 scholars urge Department of Education to Address Racial Discipline Disparities among Students with Disabilities: The attached letter was posted on Monday in response to a “request for information” from Assistant Secretary of Education Michael Yudin.

Two of Three CA School Districts Reduce Out-of-School Suspensions as Discipline Gap Narrows

Based on the statewide averages for 2011-12 and 2012-13, progress was made in reducing out-of-school suspensions in California schools for every racial/ethnic subgroup. “Disruption/Willful Defiance” suspensions still, however, account for the largest share of the problem.

UCLA Report Finds Changing U.S. Demographics Transform School Segregation Landscape 60 Years After Brown v Board of Education

Segregation Increases after Desegregation Plans Terminated by Supreme Court