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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.

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).

The Disparity in Teacher Pay: A Civil Rights Issue

The Editors — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 18:28:52 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
New federal research shows that African American and Hispanic students are being shortchanged, literally, when it comes to school budgets, in most districts with diverse enrollments.

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.

Some Get the Benefit of the Doubt; Others, Just the Doubt

The Editors — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:08:20 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
Why, after Texas Governor, and Republican Party presidential nomination seeker, Rick Perry, shrugged off his poor college grades before a university audience the other day, has there been nothing but silence from certain quarters?

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.

The Schools Scandal in Atlanta

The Editors — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:41:18 +0000

By Sylvester Monroe
Last week, the city’s schools reopened under a lingering cloud of controversy surrounding a state report released last month by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal charging Atlanta school teachers, principals and area superintendents with cheating on the 2009 Georgia CRCT (Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests) achievement tests.

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.

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.

The Tradition of Black Arts: Why It’s Worth Sustaining

The Editors — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:29:59 +0000

By Tarice L.S. Gray
Black people in America have had a long-standing love affair with the arts. When black people in this country were enslaved, laws restricted them from doing much of anything, but they could always sing. Music proved to be more than a lifeline. Portia Maultsby, Laura Boulten Professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University, believes that blacks have always used music “as a centerpiece of [their] social and cultural practices.” It was and remains a way to affirm their African-American identity and be a spiritual bulwark against oppression.

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.

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.

Study: Young Males of Color Likely to end up Jobless, Imprisoned or Dead

The Editors — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:18:23 +0000

By George E. Curry
“Collectively, the pathway data show that more than 51 percent of Hispanic males, 45 percent of African American males, 42 percent of Native American males and 33 percent of Asian American males ages 15-24 will end up unemployed, incarcerated or dead.”

American Students: Don’t Know Much About History

The Editors — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 23:21:44 +0000

By The Editors
The results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress examination, given last year to a representative national sample of just over 31,000 pupils in the three grades, are dismaying, to say the least.

LDF Reflects: 57 Years After Brown

The Editors — Tue, 17 May 2011 19:36:47 +0000

Today marks the fifty-seventh anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, a case litigated by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (“LDF”) and considered one of the most important in the nation’s history.

HARD LESSON: Educators Learn How Not to Teach Children About Slavery

The Editors — Fri, 13 May 2011 23:28:12 +0000

By Tarice L.S. Gray
Slavery as a topic needs no introduction to most Americans. But it does need an introduction to children; and how the facts of Negro Slavery in America has been taught to schoolchildren has often been as fraught with tension and controversy as other spheres what used to be know as “race relations.”

LDF Joins Civil Rights Coalition in Issuing ESEA Accountability Principles

The Editors — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 11:41:01 +0000

Last week, LDF joined more than a dozen civil rights organizations in authoring a letter urging Congress to incorporate key accountability provisions as it reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Readin,’ Writin’ & Race: Education Snapshots in Black and White

The Editors — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 01:31:27 +0000

By TaRessa Stovall
A quick round-up of recent education stories offers a glimpse into the complex stew of progress, setbacks and conflicting news that represents race and learning in America today.

Vigilante Desegregation: Ohio Mother Jailed for Sending her (Black) Children to a Better (Whiter) School

The Editors — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 03:18:09 +0000

By TaRessa Stovall
When Kelley Williams-Bolar, a single black mother living in public housing in Akron, Ohio, was sentenced to 10 days in jail for sending her daughters to the Copley-Fairlawn school district outside of her educational jurisdiction, the issue of what parents—especially black, low-income parents—will do to get their children a better education burst into the national consciousness.

Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline: A Survey from the Field

The Editors — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:50:22 +0000

By Matt Cregor & Damon Hewitt
Our nation’s school discipline rates have reached all-time highs. As suspension, expulsion and school-based arrests rates grow, racial disparities in discipline continue to widen.