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.
Well before the passing of the "Leave No Child Behind" Act of 2002, which renewed the nation's interest in K-12 education, The Civil Rights Project had been focused on critical issues affecting this country's elementary and secondary students. CRP believes that equal educational opportunity is a necessary prerequisite to equal educational outcomes. Further, CRP believes that all students benefit from ethnically diverse educational experiences. For the past several years, a main focus of our research has been to demonstrate concrete educational benefits derived from attending diverse elementary and secondary schools. Research in the area of K-12 Education has been extensive with the hopes of having a broad impact nation-wide.
Our current research interests related to K-12 education include:
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The effectiveness of Title I reforms
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Dropout trends and remedies
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The impacts and benefits of racial and ethnic diversity in education
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The racial disparities in policies and practices related to special education and school discipline
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Resegregation trends and remedies in our nation's public schools
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Effective educational policies for language minority students (English Language Learners)
Recent K-12 Research
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The Baccalaureate in the California Community College: Current Challenges & Future Prospects
- This report considers the experiences with community college baccalaureate programs of three states that are demographically similar to California, and offers a set of recommendations that could help California achieve both workforce readiness and greater equity of opportunity to complete a baccalaureate degree for underrepresented students.
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The High Cost Of Harsh Discipline And Its Disparate Impact
- This report carefully and conservatively quantifies the costs of suspension in two highly populated states, Florida and California, and for the nation.
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Realizing the Economic Advantages of a Multilingual Workforce
- As markets have transitioned from agricultural to industrial to what is now the information age, there are tremendous opportunities for those who can analyze, collaborate, and communicate with people all over the world while providing services in the local language of the client. These workers can compete for work in their home markets and in markets where their language fluency puts them at an advantage over those with only monolingual skills—like many in the American workforce.
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Brown at 62: School Segregation by Race, Poverty and State
- This research brief finds the dramatic increase of double segregation by both race and poverty for the nation's schools.
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Fulfilling America’s Future: Latinas in the U.S., 2015
- At 54 million, Hispanics now make up the largest ethnic minority in the country. Currently, Hispanic girls and women are one in five women in the U.S. and will comprise nearly one third of the country’s female population by 2060. Ensuring they are positioned for success is a fundamental responsibility and an important economic opportunity for the country.
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Better Choices for Buffalo's Students: Expanding & Reforming the Criteria Schools System
- This research was funded by a contract from the Buffalo Public Schools as part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. It represents our independent judgment on the issues addressed in the OCR investigation and agreement with the Buffalo Public Schools. This report examines educational opportunity in Buffalo’s system of criteria-based schools of choice, which offer their admitted students special opportunities not available in the regular schools.
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Connecticut School Integration: Moving Forward as the Northeast Retreats
- Looking at the grim picture of central city Hartford and Bridgeport when desegregation efforts began and considering the odds against the creation of new models in a time when civil rights were shrinking, what has been accomplished in Connecticut is a victory over great odds. It is also an example of the way there can be change that expands the possibilities for all and enriches the communities.
