The Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles

This report shows that segregation has increased seriously across the country for Latino students, who are attending more intensely segregated and impoverished schools than they have for generations.  The segregation increases have been the most dramatic in the West. The typical Latino student in the region attends a school where less than a quarter of their classmates are white; nearly two-thirds are other Latinos; and two-thirds are poor. California, New York and Texas, all states that have been profoundly altered by immigration trends over the last half-century, are among the most segregated states for Latino students along multiple dimensions. In spite of declining residential segregation for black families and large-scale movement to the suburbs in most parts of the country, school segregation remains very high for black students.  It is also double segregation by both race and poverty.  Nationwide, the typical black student is now in a school where almost two out of every three classmates (64%) are low-income, nearly double the level in schools of the typical white or Asian student (37% and 39%, respectively).  New York, Illinois, and Michigan consistently top the list of the most segregated states for black students.  Among the states with significant black enrollments, blacks are least likely to attend intensely segregated schools in Washington, Nebraska, and Kansas.

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In the following report, we present an in-depth exploration of these Western trends that are merely summarized in the corresponding larger report, E Pluribus… Separated. Major findings in the West are highlighted below.

Also avaialble at http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu

In the following report, we present an in-depth treatment of Southern trends that are merely summarized in the accompanying larger report, E Pluribus… Separation

Also available at http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu

In a nation experiencing rapidly shifting demographics, a broadened definition of inclusive education is appropriate. Differences in ability--but also by race and ethnicity, sexuality, gender, religion, and class--are found in classrooms across the nation, and our teaching force must respond accordingly.

Also available at http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu

This research makes clear that unnecessarily harsh discipline policies are applied unfairly and disproportionately to minority students, dragging down academic achievement. The report documents a trend across the United States in which minority students routinely receive major penalties, including school suspensions, for minor school offenses. The materials also show how criminalizing kids detrimentally affects student learning, and criticizes the federal government’s minimal efforts to collect data in any uniform way on the large number of students kicked out of school.

Also available at http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu

In response to the Jefferson County, Kentucky, school board’s request, the authors prepared a plan that builds upon and extends the nationally respected Jefferson County Public School accomplishments in operating diverse schools for nearly four decades. The authors reviewed the existing plan, and proposed a new plan to make the district's desegregation plan more effective and efficient, paying particular attention to decreasing excessive transportation times for students.

Also avaialble at http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu

This manual summarizes and consolidates important diversity and civil rights research for schools. It manual provides invaluable guidance for education stakeholders in suburban school districts — including school board members, parents, students, community activists, administrators, policymakers and attorneys — in promoting racially diverse, high-quality schools.

Also avaialble at http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu

In this first part of research assessing the new Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) student assignment plan, researchers surveyed samples of both parents and students across the county. Three years after the Supreme Court’s 2007 PICS decision ended Louisville's former plan, these surveys tried to get a sense of the community's experiences with school integration efforts after JCPS’s new student assignment plan was implemented in 2009. Related Documents Experiencing Integration in Louisville: How Parents and Students See the Gains and Challenges

Despite the difficulties encountered in designing and implementing a new integration plan in Jefferson County, KY there is a deep and continuing commitment to the goal of diverse schools in Louisville among all groups of parents and students.

There are problems detailed in the survey responses, but they are not problems inherent in the goals or objectives of the plan. Instead, they are problems mostly associated with implementation of the new plan's changes in transportation.  In particular, these problems are significantly related to unreliable bus service and long bus rides experienced by a minority of families.

Also available at http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu

Three years ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court released its 5-4 decision overturning Louisville and Seattle’s voluntarily implemented integration plans and threatening many voluntary plans across the country, the type of plans courts had encouraged for many years.  The Parents Involved decision, issued on June 28, 2007, reflected a divided Supreme Court with four justices strongly supporting these voluntary plans and four justices strongly opposed. Justice Kennedy’s opinion decided the issues and explicitly accepted some kinds of desegregation efforts. The divided decision confused many educators and it was somewhat unclear what did remain legal.  In 2008, the Bush Administration sent a letter to school districts misguidedly interpreting the Parents Involved decision in a way that suggested only race-neutral means of pursuing integration would be legal. This was an inaccurate description of Kennedy’s controlling opinion and suggested that school authorities should abandon all efforts to intentionally pursue integration. As President Barack Obama took office, civil rights groups and other stakeholders anticipated that his administration would be more supportive of integration efforts, including issuing new guidance to replace that from 2008.  Yet, well into the second year of the Obama Administration (which announced earlier this year that it would reinvigorate the Office of Civil Rights) no such guidance about voluntary integration has been issued. From our contacts with school districts across the country, we believe that this guidance is much needed. In addition to these legal and policy constraints and the opportunities and challenges presented by rapidly shifting demographics in the nation’s public schools, school districts, like other governmental bodies, face significant financial pressure in the wake of declining revenues stemming from the economic crisis.  This economic pressure is forcing school districts to make deep cuts in services, which is another potential constraint for integration efforts.

Also available at http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu

This report provides a much-needed overview of the origins of charter school policy; examines the failure of the Bush Administration to provide civil rights policies for charters; outlines state civil rights provisions; and highlights the lack of basic data in federal charter school statistics.

Also available at http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu