Metro and Regional Inequalities
Research in this section focuses attention on the structure of economic and social opportunities created by the intersection of metropolitan and regional housing, education, transportation, growth, workforce and other policies, all within a context of often dramatic demographic changes.
The challenges to creating and implementing an anti-discrimination agenda call for a renewed, creative agenda that recognizes the structural, multi-layered impediments to opportunities faced in minority communities. The most obvious, although often overlooked, is the interrelationship between housing and schools, especially residential segregation by class and race. Other topics are less familiar, such as the relationship between racial justice and "smart growth," or racial justice evaluations of metropolitan transportation planning.
Recent Metro and Regional Inequalities Research
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California’s Geography of Opportunity: Intergenerational Mobility in the Golden State
- In anticipation of the next twenty-five years of civil rights policy in California, this work investigates social mobility in the Golden State between the last two generations to gain insight into which groups could be best served by civil rights policy interventions.
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From Institutions to Individuals: A Paradigm Shift for California's Master Plan for Higher Education
- This essay outlines a new Master Plan for a unified, student-centered higher education system. It emphasizes the principles of ensuring equitable access and support for all students, streamlining processes to minimize barriers for students, enabling affordable enrollment without excessive debt, aligning programs with career opportunities and personal development, and creating a system that can successfully evolve with changing student needs and societal demands.
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The Case for a Right to a Racially Just Education
- This paper examines how, at its core, the California statewide education system has constructed educational pipelines that perpetuate and expand stark inequities based on race, income, and immigrant status.
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Academic Disparities in California’s Central and Imperial Valleys
- This report focuses on the racial and ethnic academic disparities in California’s Central and Imperial Valleys (CIV). Using a decade’s worth of data on K-12 students, the authors examine standardized test scores in mathematics and English language arts (ELA), absenteeism, and graduation rates while controlling for student-level demographics and school district characteristics.
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Segregated by Teacher Experience in California
- Given the importance of teacher experience and possible changes to the racial distribution of experience in recent years, this policy brief examines the distribution of teacher experience across segregated schools in California. The authors analyzed 7 years of the most recent publicly available data from California’s public schools, focusing on the relationship between student race and teacher experience.
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Barriers to Racial Equity for Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers in California’s Teaching Pipeline and Profession
- This paper explores obstacles to recruiting and retaining teachers of color and Indigenous teachers (TOCIT) in California’s schools. The researchers used a mix of qualitative and quantitative data collected over the course of one year from system leaders in teacher preparation, pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and former teachers to better understand current policies and practices that may be contributing to teacher burnout, turnover and early retirement.
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A Capitol Hill Research and Policy Briefing: A Civil Rights Agenda for the Next Quarter Century
- On March 13, 2024, the Civil Rights Project will bring together researchers, policymakers, civil rights and education advocates as well as other stakeholders for a research and policy briefing, "A Civil Rights Agenda for the Next Quarter Century."
