News

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

CRP Announces Opportunity for Postdoctoral Scholar in Higher Education Research

The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles seeks an experienced education policy researcher in the area of higher education policy and finance. The postdoctoral scholar must have proven experience managing a complex research project, analyzing quantitative/qualitative data, and writing well and clearly for a policy audience.

Two New Studies Show Alarming Segregation in New Jersey Schools Which May Run Afoul of State Constitution

The Civil Rights Project at UCLA (CRP) and the Institute on Education Law and Policy at Rutgers University-Newark (IELP) today jointly released two reports finding that the racial and socioeconomic divide in New Jersey public education continues to grow unabated. While the CRP report documents the jump from 1989 to 2010 in quantity of apartheid schools in New Jersey, the IELP study shows that extreme isolation of poor students of color is concentrated in mostly urban areas. Both studies are products of close collaboration between the two research centers and are interrelated, but each develops a distinctive set of issues.

U.S. Researchers File Brief with U.S. Supreme Court Opposing Michigan’s Proposal 2 and Ban on Affirmative Action

The Civil Rights Project today submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court for Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action et al., in support of the Court of Appeals decision overturning the referendum banning affirmative action in Michigan. The referendum, known as Proposal 2, was designed to overturn affirmative action plans at the University of Michigan and other universities in the state and to inscribe that prohibition into the state constitution.

CRP Center issues statement supporting US DOE's changes to Civil Rights Data Collection

CRP's Center for Civil Rights Remedies issued a statement of support to the U.S. Department of Education's proposed changes to the Civil Rights Data Collection. We applauded additions, such as tracking the days of lost instruction due to disciplinary actions, and reporting on the educational conditions in juvenile justice institutions. But we also urged annual and timely reporting of the disaggregated data so essential to the enforcement of anti-discrimination law.

Civil Rights Leaders Urge CA Governor to Address Inequities in School Discipline

Civil rights leaders from across the country signed a letter to California Gov. Jerry Brown urging him to stand with them in addressing the inequities in school discipline and sign Assembly Bill 420, authored by Assembly Member Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento).

A Tribute to Julius Chambers

The Civil Rights Project mourns the loss of Julius Chambers, a legendary civil rights leader, who passed away on August 2, 2013.

Leading Social Scientists Find Powerful Research Base for Affirmative Action

The Civil Rights Project is releasing today a statement by leading scholars highlighting rigorous social science research that could provide guidance to universities assessing their diversity plans in the context of the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, in Fisher v. the University of Texas, at Austin. Today’s statement points to the broad and deep base of research literature on affirmative action.

Federal Government to Investigate Alleged Civil Rights Violations in Durham Public Schools

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is investigating a claim filed by Advocates for Children's Services and the Center for Civil Rights Remedies that Durham Public Schools discriminates against students of color and students with disabilities.

Civil Rights Project Releases Statement of Nation’s Leading Constitutional Law Scholars on U.S. Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling

The Civil Rights Project is honored to distribute today a statement of constitutional law scholars, an independent assessment of the ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas, at Austin, announced yesterday by the U.S. Supreme Court.

CRP Report Says Time Has Come for MA to Deal with its Diversity and Segregated Schools

The Civil Rights Project releases a new study today, the first of its kind to thoroughly explore school segregation trends in Massachusetts since the peak of desegregation in the 1980s. The study shows student enrollment in the Commonwealth’s public schools growing more diverse, while the state’s public schools become increasingly segregated along race and class lines.

Report Finds Over Half of Maryland’s Black Students Attend Intensely Segregated Schools

Maryland’s public school students are increasingly segregated by race and class, in spite of growing diversity in student enrollment statewide. The report is the first of its kind to thoroughly explore the status of school segregation trends in Maryland since the peak of desegregation in the 1980s.

Complaint Filed with OCR against Durham Public Schools

The Advocates for Children's Services project of Legal Aid of North Carolina ("ACS") and the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project of UCLA ("CRP") filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, against the Durham Public Schools ("DPS"). The complaint exposes DPS’s overreliance on out-of-school suspension, which disproportionately harms Black students and students with disabilities, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The complaint is filed on behalf of all DPS students who are unjustly harmed by the district's suspension policies, including two Black students with disabilities whose experiences are described in the complaint.

"Out of School and Off Track" Reports Detail Disturbing and Increased Use of Suspensions

Two first-of-their-kind reports shed light on the growing use of punitive disciplinary measures and provides research-based alternatives. The reports were presented at a Congressional briefing by researchers with responses from the legislative staffers and civil and disability rights advocates on Capitol Hill earlier today.

UCLA Report Finds Virginia’s African American Students Face Increasing Racial Segregation and Poverty in School

Despite Virginia’s long history with school desegregation, little political attention has been paid to the growing multi-racial diversity of the state’s enrollment and rising levels of isolation for its African American and Latino students. This report, which covers the past two decades, is the first to thoroughly explore trends in the state, its major metro areas and largest school divisions in the years since many of its districts were released from court order to desegregate.

Call for Papers: Segregation, Immigration, and Educational Inequality: A Multinational Examination of New Research

The Civil Rights Project, University of Ghent, Université Libre de Bruxelles and the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies invite proposals for papers an upcoming conference called "Segregation, Immigration, and Educational Inequality: A Multinational Examination of New Research."

Civil Rights Project Report Shows Bans on Affirmative Action Hinder University Recruitment Efforts & Harm Campus Racial Climate

The Civil Rights Project today published important new data on the way in which California’s ban on affirmative action harms the University of California in comparison to the University of Texas -- which still has affirmative action -- in terms of both the climate on campus for nonwhite students and the lack of success in recruiting top-ranked applicants of color.

Civil Rights Project Reports Deepening Segregation and Challenges Educators and Political Leaders to Develop Positive Policies

E Pluribus… Separation suggests a number of ways to reverse the trends toward deepening resegregation.

Project SOL Teacher Honored by Presidential Commission

Octavio Alvarez is one of 10 exceptional teachers of Latino students from across the nation to receive honors today at a White House ceremony sponsored by President Obama’s Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

Hundreds of U.S. Researchers File Brief with U.S. Supreme Court Supporting University of Texas Diversity Policies

Scholars from 172 universities and research centers in 42 states have joined together in a brief summarizing key research on affirmative action for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Civil Rights Project Issues Policy Brief, California: A Case Study in the Loss of Affirmative Action

This brief reviews the various efforts undertaken by the University of California to maintain diversity in the institution, and especially at its highly competitive flagship campuses, UCLA and Berkeley, in the face of the loss of affirmative action during the mid-1990s.