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Obama College-Aid Proposals Underscore Importance of Pell Grants

The Editors — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:02:21 +0000

By The Editors
Some educational and political observers readily ascribe President Obama’s proposals unveiled Friday to restrain the increasing costs of college-going for students and their families while compelling colleges to improve the “value” of their curricular offerings as more symbolic than substantive – as political theater meant for the campaign trail.

LDF Successfully Defends Lower Court Ruling in Historic School Desegregation Case

The Editors — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:45:07 +0000

On December 28, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit affirmed key aspects of the lower court’s decision in Little Rock School District v. Lorene Joshua. This long-standing school desegregation case involves key educational equity issues, including: racial disparities in school discipline, student achievement, access to advanced placement and honors curriculum and inequities in school facilities within three Arkansas school districts, the Little Rock School District, the North Little Rock School District and the Pulaski County School District.

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) Welcomes New Federal Guidance on Diversity in K-12 and Higher Education

The Editors — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:42:27 +0000

Today the United States Department of Education and the Department of Justice issued policy guidance that provides greater clarity and encouragement to school districts and higher education institutions as they seek to explore available options for promoting and maintaining meaningful diversity.

Inclusivity in Education: When it comes to African American history, students aren’t getting the full story

The Editors — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:30:06 +0000

By Tarice L.S. Gray
Eighty percent of fourth-graders, 83 percent of eighth-graders, and a truly astonishing 86 percent of high school seniors failed to show a “proficient” knowledge and understanding of the nation’s history - or rather, that they knew and understood the subject matter.

Innovative Programs Aim To Make Students College-Bound

The Editors — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:58:37 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
Studies show that only a small percentage of high school seniors from poor African-American or Hispanic families even apply to the country’s best colleges. Most of these students incorrectly assume they would never get into top schools or couldn't possibly afford to attend them.

Two Women of Little Rock: 1957 and Beyond

The Editors — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 19:50:34 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
Their paths crossed for only a few moments that September day in 1957: Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan, two teenagers in Little Rock, Arkansas who were supposed to be on their way to school.

LDF Takes a Stand for Teacher Quality and Equity in ESEA Reauthorization

The Editors — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:03:49 +0000

LDF joined more than eighty civil rights, disability, parent, student, grassroots and education organizations from across the country to urge Congress not to turn back the clock on teacher quality gains for poor and minority students, English Learners, and students with disabilities as it considers reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB).

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Applauds Introduction of Bipartisan Bill to Reform Approaches to School Discipline

The Editors — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:01:19 +0000

Today, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (“LDF”) joined other civil rights and education groups in supporting introduction of the Positive Behavior for Safe and Effective Schools Act (PBSESA) - a bill to fund positive, preventative approaches to discipline in U.S. schools.

Making the Numbers and Letters Count

The Editors — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:47:29 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
Tennessee State University, a historically black school in Nashville, has devised a program to improve math instruction in the state’s K-8 schools that could help narrow gaps in student achievement and college completion rates.

Emerson College: Faculty “Diversity” Has Meaning

The Editors — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 22:34:30 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
Emerson went on a spree of hirings and promotions of minorities, capped by the installation in July of its first African-American president, M. Lee Pelton, former president of Willamette University in Oregon.

Study Whites More Likely to Gain Grants and Scholarships

The Editors — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:03:01 +0000

By The Editors
A newly-published study states that, contrary to the conventional belief, students of color, and especially black students, are not favored more than whites in gaining grants and scholarships.

The Schools’ Crucial Ingredient: Parental Involvement

The Editors — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:18:32 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
A decade after the No Child Left Behind Act became law, the achievement gap still yawns as schools across the country reopen for a new year.

Charter School Controversy Roils A Predominantly Black Suburb

The Editors — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 01:12:04 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
Charter schools are moving into the suburbs, and one of the first in Illinois outside of a big city is near Chicago in a predominately black suburb, where the school’s presence has heightened class tensions and raised questions about educational equities.

2011 Legal Defense Fund Scholars

The Editors — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:51:38 +0000

The scholarships awarded by the Lehman Fund and the Warren Program have provided over $19 million in financial support to undergraduates and law students, making it possible for hundreds of highly qualified students to attend the nation’s most competitive colleges, universities and law schools.

LDF Calls for Accountability in ESEA Reauthorization

The Editors — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 03:41:45 +0000

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, along with a broad coalition of civil rights groups, education advocates, public rights groups, and others, sent a letter urging federal involvement in accountability through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
This letter marks the first time that such as broad assemblage of organizations has spoken in one voice on the need for a strong federal role in educational accountability, particularly for students of color. The stand these groups have taken will set the tone for when Congress resumes the ESEA reauthorization debate after the August congressional recess.

Your Take: Bill a Threat to Poor Students

The Editors — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 03:34:00 +0000

Source: The Root
While some of the gridlock among policymakers today can be chalked up to principled differences in political philosophy, some political stalemates are the result of policies that defy common sense. This most often happens when politicians ignore basic realities in order to further their own ideologies. This behavior is frustrating in any instance but is particularly galling when the needs of kids are involved.

LDF, ACLU, NAACP Oppose AG’s Request to Rehear Proposal 2 Case

The Editors — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:23:47 +0000

The ACLU, NAACP and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) announced today that they oppose the Michigan Attorney General’s request to convene a special 16-judge panel to reconsider the court’s decision this month striking down Michigan’s Proposal 2. The attorney general expressed his plans to request a rehearing by the full court of appeals today.

Texas Schools’ Study Questions Reliance on Harsh Disciplinary Policies

The Editors — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:29:56 +0000

Today, the Council of State Governments released a new report that helps to raise awareness about the importance of dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Entitled Breaking Schools’ Rules: A Statewide Study of How School Discipline Relates to Students’ Success and Juvenile Justice Involvement, the report is the most in-depth of its kind, examining the academic, disciplinary, and juvenile court records of nearly a million Texas secondary school students. Sadly, it confirms the national trend that LDF has observed in its Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline initiative: educational inequity, excessive reliance upon harsh disciplinary practices, and extreme racial disparities in both.

Prepping for the Future: Two Black Experiences

The Editors — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:09:01 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
Though we never met in our youth, the governor and I were on the back side of the first wave of large numbers of black students to attend New England boarding schools, until then the predominant preserve of the sons and daughters of elite white families.

John Payton and Marian Wright Edelman Join in Opposition to Harmful Education Bill

The Editors — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:43:47 +0000

The leaders of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) and the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) have joined forces to oppose the “State and Local Funding Flexibility Act” – an education bill that would dismantle civil rights protections for poor students, students of color, English language learners and others.

Court of Appeals Strikes Down Michigan Ballot Initiative Blocking Equal Opportunity in University Admissions

The Editors — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 19:56:40 +0000

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit struck down a Michigan ballot initiative that unconstitutionally limited access to opportunity at the state’s public universities and in other contexts. Passed in 2006 and commonly known as “Proposal 2,” the initiative was a deliberate effort to prohibit precisely the types of race-conscious admissions policies that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) as constitutionally permissible approaches to ensuring pathways to leadership in our nation’s civic, political, and economic life.

Pushing “Teacher Equity” to Put Children First

The Editors — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 20:18:22 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
One of the more important but overlooked provisions of No Child Left Behind was aimed at making sure poor children get a fair share of the better teachers. In the decade since the federal education law was adopted, however, the “teacher equity” provision has not been widely implemented, and the national pattern of low-income students receiving instruction from less qualified teachers has not changed much.

5th Circuit Preserves Higher ED Opportunity Victory

The Editors — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:24:58 +0000

On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rebuffed a request to reconsider its prior ruling upholding the constitutionality of the admissions program utilized by the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) to assemble a diverse student body.

Minority Mentoring: The True Value of a Hand Up

The Editors — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 22:26:59 +0000

By Tarice L.S. Gray
Despite their value, finding mentors still proves elusive to many who need them.

More schools rethinking zero-tolerance discipline stand

The Editors — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 01:57:17 +0000

Zero-tolerance rules, once hailed as the panacea to an explosion of serious student misbehavior in schools, are now recognized more and more as part of the problem, not the solution.