News

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

The Striking Outlier: The Persistent, Painful and Problematic Practice of Corporal Punishment in Schools

According to this new study, children attending the small percentage of the nation’s public schools that allows corporal punishment face a much greater likelihood of being struck than previously understood, with black students and students with disabilities among the most likely groups to be struck

Brown at 65 -- No Cause for Celebration

As the nation prepares to mark the 65th anniversary of the landmark Brown v Board of Education ruling declaring segregation in public schools unconstitutional, the UCLA Civil Rights Project today published new research detailing school enrollment patterns and segregation in the nation’s schools. The findings are not cause for celebration.

New Research Finds Decline in School Segregation in NYC's Rapidly Gentrifying Neighborhoods

CRP researchers find elementary school enrollment patterns in NYC's most rapidly gentrifying areas have seen a decline in racial segregation, with the declines more evident in traditional public schools than in charter schools.

New Federal Policies & Changes Pose Threats to College Access for Students of Color

At a briefing on Capitol Hill, CRP released five newly commissioned studies--of minority serving institutions, incarcerated students, for-profit colleges, risk sharing proposals, and the current attack on race conscious admissions--that demonstrate the threats to college access for students of color imposed by current and proposed policies under the current administration.

CA Students Still Losing Over 760,000 Days of Instruction Due to Suspensions

This study released by the Center for Civil Rights Remedies, CRP shows that the overuse of suspensions in California schools resulted in well over 760,000 days of lost instruction during the 2016-17 academic year. The impact is greatest in grades 7-8 where the disparities along the lines of race and disability are also the deepest.

Protect the Federal Census

In the statement, the Civil Rights Project urges federal authorities to protect the integrity of the Census, and to avoid distortions that would certainly be produced by inserting an immigration question, sure to lower participation and accuracy.

Statement on DACA Recipients and other Dreamers

The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles deplores the way DACA recipients and other Dreamers have been made pawns in the immigration enforcement policies of the Trump Administration.

Survey of Secondary Teachers Reveals Many Feel Unprepared to Teach their EL Students

A new report highlights the lack of preparation and resources for secondary teachers of EL students, making it challenging to meet student needs.

New Studies Reveal Pervasive Challenges to Expanded Opportunity Education Voucher Advocates Promise

New data illuminates pervasive challenges among education voucher programs that significantly limit the extension of expanded educational opportunities touted by advocates of the programs and the Trump Administration. The data was presented at a Capitol Hill briefing hosted by the UCLA Civil Rights Project.

First-of-its-kind Survey Reveals Alarming Impact of Immigration Enforcement on Public Schools

UCLA Civil Rights Project released the findings of a new national survey of educators revealing the alarming impact of immigration enforcement on teaching and learning in public schools. The study was presented at a policy forum at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., which also included presentations on the topic by immigration experts from the Migration Policy Institute and Brigham Young University.

Charter Schools Are Driving Segregation in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

Amid a federal push for the expansion of charter schools, this study of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) in North Carolina describes how charter schools directly and indirectly contribute to resegregation in traditional public schools.

Study Finds Decline in School Segregation in DC's Rapidly Gentrifying Neighborhoods

Gentrification is a major force in urban neighborhoods across the country, and also transforming the nation’s capital. In 2011, Washington, DC, reached a non-black majority for the first time in more than a half century, and since 2000, the city’s white population has increased from just over a quarter to well over a third of the total population. The report examines whether the potential educational and social benefits that could come from greater racial and socioeconomic diversity are being realized in DC’s most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods.

U.S. Commission for Civil Rights Holds Hearing on School to Prison Pipeline

On December 8, 2017, Daniel J. Losen, director of the CRP’s Center for Civil Rights Remedies, testified in Washington, DC, at a public briefing of the U.S. Commission for Civil Rights (USCCR). The briefing sought to “examine compliance with federal laws designed to protect students of color with disabilities from discrimination, and whether laws adequately protect these students from discriminatory disciplinary actions and policies.”

Troubling Trends for School Segregation in New Jersey

Amid demographic changes reshaping New Jersey’s student population, new research from the UCLA Civil Rights Project makes clear that the state has made little, if any, progress toward reducing the segregation of Black and Hispanic students in the state’s schools. More than one quarter of New Jersey Black students attend schools where less than 1 percent of students are white, and the number of Hispanic students attending these “apartheid schools” has doubled since 1989, and continues to increase. The large majority of Black and Latino students attend schools doubly segregated by both race and income.

Are There Workable Alternatives to Affirmative Action?

Since the courts -- as recently as the 2016 Fisher v. University of Texas II -- recognize that diversity is a compelling educational goal for campuses, a central question is whether or not there actually are any feasible nonracial ways to achieve this goal. The Civil Rights Project worked with the Educational Testing Service to commission research papers from leading scholars that address this central question.

CA Students Lose More Than 800,000 Instructional Days to Suspensions

The overuse of suspensions in California schools resulted in an estimated 840,656 days of lost instruction during the 2014-2015 academic year, or approximately 13 days for every 100 students enrolled. The is the first California study to quantify days of missed instruction due to suspension, rather than suspension rates.

Tough Choices Facing Florida's Governments

New research prepared for the Leroy Collins Institute at Florida State University by The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles finds that dramatic changes in enrollment, court rulings and policy changes in recent decades have undercut desegregation efforts in Florida, leaving black and Latino students increasingly segregated in racially and economically isolated schools. The trend toward school segregation in Florida has increased and is more complex than 50 years ago.

Statement by Concerned Members of the White House Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics

In this time of acute stress for Hispanic students and their families, the Commission, first established by President George H.W. Bush, stands ready to offer its expertise to the current administration. After 27 years of service it is about to cease to exist. Latino youth, now representing one-fourth of all U.S. students, and by 2050 one third, are the future of America. Our fate as a nation rests in large part on the fate of these young people. We do know how to improve the future for them, and thus for the country as a whole. The Commission has offered many research-based recommendations.

Statement on DACA Decision

The Civil Rights Project deeply regrets the President’s decision to terminate the DACA program that has given 800,000 young people -- who have done nothing wrong -- a right to participate lawfully in our society since 2012.

President Donald Trump’s pardon of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio undermines respect for law

The Civil Rights Project condemns the actions of Joe Arpaio and the action of Donald Trump in pardoning a convicted criminal who has shown no regard for the rights of Latinos in the United States.