K-12 Education

We are committed to generating and synthesizing research on key civil rights and equal opportunity policies that have been neglected or overlooked.

Summary Report: Confronting the Equity Issues in Dual Language Immersion Programs

This report is a summary of the papers presented and issues discussed during the 2018 Forum on Equity and Dual Language Education, held at UCLA on December 7-8, 2018.

The State of Dual Language Education in the U.S. in the Context of Equity and Social Justice

This paper attempts to lay a foundation for the discussion of equity issues in dual language immersion education by summarizing some of the more recent research (and identifying some critical gaps) that might inform our understanding of these issues.

Dual Language Program Planning and Equity

DLI programs are sometimes viewed as “magic,” with the assumption that any DLI program will result in the outcomes well documented in the literature. Yet, DLI programs require considerable planning in order to equitably meet the goals of all students in a DLI program.

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

This report examines only the data (students populations and paddling incidents) from schools where corporal punishment is used. The report relies on data from the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), primarily from the 2013-14 school year. In schools where corporal punishment is practiced, black students and students with disabilities are more likely to be struck than white students and those without disabilities.

Harming Our Common Future: America's Segregated Schools 65 Years after Brown

The publication of this report marks the 65th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case declaring racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. There have been many changes since the ruling, but intense levels of segregation—which had decreased markedly after 1954 for black students—are on the rise once again. White and Latino students are the most segregated groups.

School Integration in Gentrifying Neighborhoods: Evidence from New York City

In gentrifying areas of New York City, this research finds that a small but growing segment of middle-class, mostly White families is choosing to enroll their children in their neighborhood public elementary schools, thus increasing the diversity in those schools. Because residential and school segregation across the nation have traditionally had a symbiotic relationship where an increase in one leads to an increase in the other, the demographic phenomenon associated with gentrification where neighborhoods become more diverse has the potential to alleviate persistent school segregation, a major cause of educational inequity.

Asian Americans and Race-Conscious Admissions: Understanding the Conservative Opposition’s Strategy of Misinformation, Intimidation & Racial Division

This report examines the current wave of attacks against race-conscious policies in postsecondary admissions (or affirmative action as the policy is more commonly termed), focuses specifically on the roles that Asian Americans have come to play, both unwillingly and willingly, in opposition efforts, and presents new research on Asian Americans’ support for affirmative action.