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BACKGROUND
California has attempted to implement various desegregation efforts, including an early effort to desegregate school districts in the wake of Mendez v. Westminister (1947), seven years before Brown v. Board of Education. State mandated desegregation measurers were enacted soon after, but repealed after voting referendums in the 1980s. Given the state’s increasing ELL population, the noteworthy civil rights case Lau v. Nichols (1974), brought by Chinese American students in San Francisco, established that students are entitled to accommodations for limited English language proficiency under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. In 2014, UCLA’s Civil Rights Project/Project Derechos Humanos cited that California was the most segregated state for Latino students. Though there is currently no statewide integration initiative, local leaders are leading the charge through programs in in heavily segregated communities such as the Los Angeles Unified School District Student Integration Service.
MEDIA
- Los Angeles, CA – L.A. education reform group names board, signals shift from charter-school-only focus (Jun 15, 2016)
- Los Angeles, CA – The next chapter in Los Angeles school reform: Great Public Schools Now (Jun 15, 2016)
- Santa Ana, CA – Before ‘Brown V. Board,’ Mendez Fought California’s Segregated Schools (May 16, 2016)
- Los Angeles, CA – How Mexican immigrants ended ‘separate but equal’ in California (Mar 2, 2016)
- Washington, D.C. – Follow the Numbers: Magnet Schools Outperform Charters (Jan 6, 2016)
- Oakland, CA – Despite Brown ruling, integrated schools in California a vanishing dream (May 15, 2014)
- Los Angeles, CA – Report: Students in California more segregated than ever (May 2014)
- California State University, Northridge, CA – School Desegregation and Busing in Los Angeles (Feb 26, 2013)
ADVOCACY
- Internet For All Campaign (support for legislation related to connecting all schools to high-speed internet) (April 2016)
- Task force unveils plan to overhaul special education (March 2015)
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Los Angeles Unified School District Charter and Magnet School Smarter Balanced Assessment Results
- Latino School Segregation: The Big Education Problem That No One Is Talking About (October 2015)
- State Policy Briefing: CSU Crisis and California’s Future – leading scholars present findings on the impact of fiscal cutbacks on opportunity for higher education in California State University System (June 2011)
OTHER RESOURCES
- Diversity Characteristics under Different Models of K–5 Assignment (San Francisco Public Schools, 2016)
- Brown at 60: Great Progress, a Long Retreat and an Uncertain Future (UCLA Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Humanos, 2014)
- SEGREGATING CALIFORNIA’S FUTURE: Inequality and Its Alternative 60 Years after Brown v. Board of Education (UCLA Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Humanos, 2014)
- Divided We Fail: Segregation and Inequality in the Southland’s Schools (March 2011)
- School Integration and Residential Segregation in California: Challenges for Racial Equity (UC/ACCORD 2004)
ACTIVE NSCD MEMBERS
- Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy
- The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Humanos at UCLA
- Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley
- National Organization (based in Los Angeles, CA) –MALDEF
RESEARCH ADVISORY PANEL MEMBERS
- Rucker Johnson, University of California, Berkeley
- Pedro Noguera, University of California, Los Angeles