Los Angeles Schools Ban ‘Willful Defiance’ Suspensions

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

The Los Angeles Unified School District will stop using “willful defiance” as a justification for suspension, a sweeping change that eliminates the broad category as an option for teachers and administrators.

The school board voted 5-2 to end the practice in large part due to concerns raised that the punishments disproportionately affected black and Latino students and disrupted their education. The change was part of a “School Climate Bill of Rights” adopted by the board. The change comes as school districts across the nation feel more pressure to avoid removing children from classroom instruction. In many districts, “zero tolerance” is giving way to positive behavior reinforcement strategies.

Defiance could range from swearing at teachers to not complying with a teacher’s orders. The Wall Street Journal reports that in 2011-12, willful defiance accounted for nearly half of the suspensions in California schools and about 30 percent of Los Angeles’ out-of-school suspensions.

The Center on Public Integrity has reported on other criticisms related to the ticketing and arrests of students. The group reported that L.A. board president Monica Garcia said she sponsored the “bill of rights” because the suspensions were not helping academic achievement. ”What I expect to happen now is more graduation in Los Angeles,” Garcia told the center. She said she wants to stop the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

A study released last August by The Civil Rights Project at UCLA examining nearly 7,000 school districts found that about 7 percent of Latino students received out-of-school suspensions at least once during the 2009-10 school year, in addition to 17 percent of black students and 5 percent of white students. The group warned that suspending students places them at higher risk of dropping out or ending up in the juvenile justice system. Suspension rates varied by geographic region, however.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the vote drew a large crowd.

“Now we’ll have a better chance to stay in school and become something,” Luis Quintero, 14, told the Times.

NPR visited with Jose Huerta, principal of the predominantly Latino Garfield High School in Los Angeles. He strongly supports eliminating suspensions and feels that not using them has helped the school’s graduation rate. ”Suspensions are off the table at Garfield High School,” he told NPR. “I can’t teach a kid if he’s not in school.”

- “LA Schools Throw Out Suspensions for ‘Willful Defiance,’” NPR.

- “Schools Rethink Suspension,” The Wall Street Journal.

- “Study Analyzes Suspension Rates by Race, Ethnicity and Disability,” Latino Ed Beat.

- “Los Angeles school board cracks down on suspensions for minor infractions,” The Center for Public Integrity.

Judge: Group Can’t Block DC School Closures

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

A federal judge has ruled against a community group that sought to block Washington, D.C., public school closures by arguing that they disproportionately hurt black and Latino children.

The Washington Post reports that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote that school officials were not intentionally discriminating against the students.

“In this case, there is no evidence whatsoever of any intent to discriminate on the part of defendants, who are actually transferring children out of weaker, more segregated, and under-enrolled schools,” the judge wrote. “The remedy plaintiffs seek — i.e., to remain in such schools — seems curious, given that these are the conditions most people typically endeavor to escape.”

According to the Washington, D.C., public schools web site this year about 69 percent of students enrolled are black and 16 percent are Hispanic. Additionally, about 77 percent of D.C. students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

According to the Post, the schools the district wants to close in June would affect only two children who are not black or Hispanic out of 2,700 children. According to the ruling, the schools on the closure list are about 94 percent black and 6 percent Hispanic.

Similar charges of school closures hurting minority children have been risen in Chicago.

The judge also noted that community members were given enough notice of the plan. The suit was brought by the group Empower DC.

- “Activists file lawsuit to stop D.C. school closures,” The Washington Post.

- Court opinion on D.C. School Closures

Report Alleges Discrimination Against ELLs in Louisiana

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

The Southern Poverty Law Center broadened its federal complaint against the Jefferson Parish Public School System in Louisiana regarding the district’s treatment of Latino immigrant families this week.

The SPLC alleges that the school district is inadequately serving its students who are English Language Learners. The newest charges come after the organization alleged in a complaint last August that Spanish-speaking Hispanic parents were not being provided proper translation services.

The Times-Picayune reports the SPLC alleges that the school system has only 81 ESL-certified teachers serving 3,300 ELLs. The complaint also says that ELL students are exited from ESL services based on their speaking ability and not their writing and reading skills–setting them up for failure in mainstream classes.

In addition, the report is critical of the district clustering ESL educators at certain schools.

“Because of the improper allocation of resources, the ESL program in JPPSS is understaffed,” the report states. “There are not enough ESL-certified teachers to properly carry out the ESL curriculum and effectively teach ELL students English so that they can succeed in school.”

The complaint also details the experiences of specific students: a high school sophomore who reported that teachers felt bilingual paraprofessionals were a distraction to their teaching, so asked them not to help students until they were done teaching. Other students felt they struggled in math without language assistance.

The SPLC has repeatedly filed complaints against the school system with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education, having previously raised concerns about the district’s treatment of black students.

The newspaper reported that the district declined to comment on the newest complaint.

I wonder how common similar challenges are across the country–particularly in areas of the South that have not traditionally had substantial Latino, and immigrant, populations.

- SPLC new complaint text

- Southern Poverty Law Center Immigrant Justice

- “SPLC Files Civil Rights Complaint Against Louisiana District,” Latino Ed Beat.

Plaintiff in Historic Texas School Finance Case Remembered

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

Demetrio Rodriguez played a pivotal role in the creation of what is known as the “Robin Hood” school funding system in Texas. He was the lead plaintiff in the Rodriguez v. San Antonio ISD case, which was first brought in 1968.

In part, the case centered on inequality and whether children children had a constitutional right to an education.

The issue arose when students attending the poor, almost totally Mexican American Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio walked out of class, demanding better teachers and resources. They marched to the district’s administration building.

Rodriguez was a veteran and a sheet metal worker who became involved in the Edgewood Concerned Parents Association in San Antonio. According to the Texas State Historical Association, because of the area’s poverty and property tax based funding, the district was only receiving $37 per student, while wealthy children in neighboring Alamo Heights received $413 per child.

In Rodriguez, a federal district judge found the system unconstitutional, but the U.S. Supreme Court later overturned that decision. According to the historical association, Rodriguez responded by saying that “the poor people have lost again.”

However, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund tried another challenge with Edgewood ISD v. Kirby in 1984, and Rodriguez once again joined as a plaintiff. This time, in 1989, Edgewood won, and the funding plan known as “Robin Hood,” in which property-rich districts must send funds to poor districts, was born.

Rodriguez died this week at the age of 87, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

“He was my hero,” said his daughter Patricia Rodriguez, now a third grade bilingual teacher in Edgewood ISD, told the Express-News. “I would like for other people to remember him as a great warrior. Even though he wasn’t well educated, he didn’t let that stop him. It didn’t keep him from fighting for what he thought was right.”

To this day, inequalities between the communities persist. Edgewood ISD is about 98% Hispanic and 97% economically disadvantaged, and Alamo Heights is about 38% Hispanic and 21% economically disadvantaged.

In the 2011-12 school year, the academic performance gap was stark. According to the Texas Education Agency, of 10th graders initially taking the English Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies exams, 80% of Alamo Heights students passed all the exams, compared with 40% of Edgewood students. Keep in mind, there are many other students who dropped out and of course were not tested.

The same year Edgewood had 506 high school seniors enrolled and 791 ninth-graders—quite a gap. Meanwhile, Alamo Heights had 353 seniors and 388 ninth-graders.

And the fight over adequate funding for Texas schools continues to rage on. Hundreds of school districts representing more than one million children have once again sued the state for inadequately funding schools. In February, a judge ruled once again that the school finance system is unconstitutional. According to the Dallas Morning News, the ruling centered on schools being inadequately funded, unequally funded and limitations on districts’ taxing levels. The state has planned to appeal.

During the trial, former Texas state demographer Steve Murdoch testified that more funding is needed, particularly because of the growing number of Hispanic and poor children in the state. Texas’ student enrollment is now about 51% Hispanic and 60% economically disadvantaged.

The Texas Legislature cut more than $5 billion in public education funding in 2011 to balance the budget.

“The debt all of Texas owes to Rodriguez can be best repaid by properly funding the state’s public schools,” wrote the editorial board of the San Antonio Express-News.

Clearly, Rodriguez’s battle is not over.

- “Rodriguez was a warrior for equity,” San Antonio Express-News

- Rodriguez v. San Antonio ISD, The Handbook of Texas Online.

- “Judge: Texas school finance system ruled unconstitutional,” The Dallas Morning News.

- “Latino-Majority Texas School System Faces Funding Challenge,” Latino Ed Beat.

L.A. Teacher Led Walkouts of Mexican American Students

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

Sal Castro, a Mexican American Los Angeles high school social studies teacher who played a pivotal role in the walkouts of Latino students demanding better educational opportunities, died Monday at age 79.

In Castro’s obituary, The Los Angeles Times noted that students at five high schools walked out in 1968 “in a dramatic bid to remedy overcrowded and run-down schools, soaring dropout rates, poorly trained teachers, and counselors who steered Latino students into auto shop instead of college-prep classes.”

The Times went on to note that Castro once said that the conditions were “like American education forgot the Latino kid.”

For his role in the protests that became known as the “blowouts” he was arrested, then fired and then later rehired but placed at first in schools where there were few Latino students.

University of California Santa Barbara Chicano studies professor Mario T. Garcia wrote in The Huffington Post that “what the walkouts really changed was the consciousness of the students. They recognized that it was within their power to produce social change.”

Despite his punishment at the time, eventually the Los Angeles Unified School District appreciated his legacy. This week, the district posted a tribute to Castro online. The district later named a middle school after him.

Superintendent John Deasy said, “Sal Castro held a mirror up to our district that showed the need for a youths’ rights agenda more than 45 years ago. Graduation rates, access to college-prep courses, allocation of resources—all of these issues needed fixing and that is why we have spent every day striving to provide the education each and every one of our students deserves.”

- “Sal Castro and Chicano Educational Justice,” The Huffington Post.

- “Sal Castro Dead: Chicago Rights Activist and Educator Dies of Thyroid Cancer,” Associated Press.

- “Latino Educator and Activist Salvador (Sal) Castro Remembered,” Los Angeles Unified School District.

L.A. Parents Use “Parent Trigger” To Create Unusual New School Plan

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

Empowered by California’s “parent trigger” law, the parents at one elementary school cast their votes Tuesday in an unusual election.

They were deciding whether the struggling 24th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles should remain in the L.A. Unified School District, break away and be run by a charter school operator–or opt for an unusual combination of the two.

While public school districts and charter schools often compete to enroll the same students, the parents took the unusual step, and 80% opted for merging both models together.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the parents voted for L.A. Unified to handle the kindergarten through fourth grades, and the charter school to handle grades five through eight. Parents will also participating in the hiring process for new staff.

The majority of the children at the school are Latino, and the vote gave voice to many of the Spanish-speaking immigrant parents. That was reflected during the vote. However, they did not work alone. The campaign was largely organized by the group Parent Revolution.

The Times reported that the vote, which took place in a park, had a festive atmosphere and included face painting, piñata and tamales.

“I’ve seen the struggle of some parents here that they’ve gone through so many problems with their children,” parent Esmerelda Chacon told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m very , very happy with the results we got.”

The California law allows a majority of parents at a failing school to petition seeking reforms, including replacing the principal and much of the staff to closing the school.

So far, the parent trigger concept has proved to be controversial. In Florida, for example, the debate has raged over whether the law reflects an effort to privatize education by converting public schools into charter schools run by companies.

It remains to be seen whether putting parents in charge of a school can be an effective turnaround model. But it’s an experiment many are setting their hopes on.

- “Parents choose unique school takeover model in ‘trigger’ vote,” Hechinger Report.

- “Florida Senate revises ‘parent trigger’ proposal,” The Tampa Tribune. April 11.

Hartford, Conn., Schools Reach Agreement On ELLs

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

Years after concerns were first raised about how the Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut were instructing English Language Learners, the district has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, pledging to make a number of changes to address the needs of the population.

The Center for Children’s Advocacy first filed a complaint with the OCR in April 2007. The student population includes many Spanish-speaking students, in addition to refugees from various countries.

The February 2013 agreement includes ensuring that ELL students receive at least 45-60 minutes a day of ESL instruction from an ESL-certified teacher (or bilingual) and that ELL students receive support in learning core content. It also required the district to actively recruit qualified ESL- and bilingual-certified staff, and offer professional development on ELL instruction to general education teachers.

In addition, when administrators meet to review school performance data they also will review ELL data, including examining the students’ academic progress and graduation rates. In addition, the district will make interpreting services available to parents–but agreed to avoid using students as interpreters.

The district also must provide certain information to the Office of Civil Rights by October 2013, including the numbers and types of ELL staff at each school, a description of professional development opportunities, and a copy of its plan for communication with non-English speaking parents.

By December 2013, the district must provide information including a list of all ELL students and their proficiency levels, the schedules of ELL teachers, and a description of support services in core content for ELL students.

According to the Learning the Language blog, attorney Stacey Violante Cote with the Center for Children’s Advocacy said that the group became concerned about a lack of services for ELL and immigrant students.

“That’s why this agreement with OCR is so necessary,” she said. “We need something that is going to outlast any administrative turnover or changes in the district’s reform agenda.”

Meanwhile, the blog reported that Mary Beth Russo, the school system’s lead facilitator for ELL services, said the district began implementing changes far before the agreement was signed. Those changes included offering school choice to ELLs. Hartford also began publishing a guide providing information about ELLs at every school, including their academic performance and the staff working with the population.

ELL students face considerable hurdles to overcome. According to the Hartford Courant, only 49% of ELL students in the district graduated in four years in 2010, compared with 62% of non-ELLs.

- “After Federal Probe, Hartford Schools Agree to Improve Services for ‘English Language Learners,’” The Hartford Courant.

- Hartford Board of Education Resolution Agreement

Latino Students in Virginia Often Attend Segregated Schools

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

A new study finds that Latino students are becoming more segregated in Virginia schools–particularly in the northern part of the state where they are the largest minority group.

According to the study by The Civil Rights Project at UCLA, Northern Virginia is the only part of the state where Latino students are more segregated than black students.

“Despite Virginia’s long history with school desegregation, little political attention has been paid to the growing multi-racial diversity of the state’s enrollment and rising levels of isolation for its black and Latino students,” the report says.

The report examined data from the National Center for Education Statistics between 1989 and 2010, and found the following about school enrollments in 2010:

- About 6% of the state’s Latino students attended schools where white students make up less than 10% of the enrollment.

- Despite segregation, schools are also becoming increasingly diverse as well. In 2010, more than 60% of Latino students attended a multiracial school where three or more racial groups made up at least 10% of the enrollment. It was a dramatic increase from 1989, when the rate was 10%.

- The typical Latino student attended a school where low-income students made up about 41% of students.

The study breaks out numbers depending on the region of the state- Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, Richmond-Petersburg and Northern Virginia. The report makes various suggestions as to how the state can increase integration, including using magnet schools to promote more racial integration and avoiding rezoning policies that increase racial isolation.

Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project, called attention to the need for the state to adjust to its changing demographics.

“Though many racial issues remain unsettled for black students, Virginia now faces another kind of change as it becomes a truly multiracial state, which poses a different set of risks and opportunities,” Orfield said. “Leaders need the vision to renew efforts to achieve justice and integration for blacks and to be sure that the growing Latino communities are not locked into segregation and inequality.”

- “UCLA Report Finds Virginia’s African American Students Face Increasing Racial Segregation and Poverty in School,” The Civil Rights Project at UCLA.

Latinos Underrepresented in New York City Gifted Programs

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

While Latino children make up the largest racial or ethnic group enrolled in New York City’s public elementary schools, they occupy the smallest percentage of the gifted and talented program’s enrollment.

Data obtained by The Wall Street Journal shows that Latino children are dramatically underrepresented in the program, making up just 12% of the city’s 14,266 gifted elementary school students this school year. Yet Latino children make up about 41% of the 489,911 elementary students.

The Journal reports that white and Asian children make up about 70% of students enrolled in the city’s 110 gifted and talented elementary programs. Children who are Latino, black or of other races make up about 29%. The newspaper asked the city’s chief academic officer, Shael Polakow-Suransky, whether he thought the racial imblance was a problem.

“I wouldn’t say that we set a goal for ourselves on diversity,” he told the newspaper. “We set a goal for ourselves on having a high standards that we want to push our kids and our families to meet.”

The newspaper is shining a light on the disparity, as the city prepares to change the exam it uses to screen for gifted children. The new test will be the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test, relying on abstract thinking.

A large part of the racial and ethnic disparity is that low-income, minority parents don’t know about the gifted program or test. Nor do they have the resources to prepare for it, as tutoring can be expensive. Critics say that the city should not solely rely on standardized test for admission to the program.

According to the Journal, only about 13% (39,300) of children kindergarten through third grade were even tested for gifted programs in 2012, and the city does not believe in screening all students.

In a follow-up story, the Journal reported that the school system’s Chancellor ,Dennis Walcott, said the low enrollment of black and Hispanic children “is what it is.”

“It’s unfair to [black and Hispanic students] if they just need to be put in a program to satisfy some type of percentage,” he told the newspaper.

The lack of diversity among elementary schoolchildren is just the tip of the iceberg. The New York school system has also come under fire for the lack of diversity at the city’s most elite magnet high schools, including Stuyvesant and Bronx Science .

Last September, the NAACP filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education (with the support of Latino Justice PRLDEF), saying that the city’s magnet admission exam discriminated against black and Latino students.

At the time, Reuters reported that in the 2011-12 school year Latinos only made up about 2.4% of Stuyvesant students, and black students made up 1.2 percent.

Admissions standards for gifted programs can vary widely. Make sure to compare your school district’s racial and ethnic composition against the gifted population. Does your district use an exam, or include other factors?

- “City Defends Gifted Policy,” The Wall Street Journal.

- “NAACP says entry exam bars Blacks, Latinos from Top N.Y. Schools,” Latino Ed Beat.

- “Gifted, Talented and Separated.” The New York Times.

DOJ Reaches Settlement with Florida School District

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Katherine Leal Unmuth

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Palm Beach County School District in Florida have reached a settlement agreement following complaints that the school district discriminated against immigrant families.

The department had been investigating complaints that the school system failed to enroll children based on their immigration status and that its disciplinary actions discriminated against students based on their immigrant status or limited English proficiency.

The Palm Beach County Legal Aid Society and the Florida Equal Justice Center filed the complaints against the district in August 2011, the Florida Sun Sentinel reported, saying that two teenagers were not able to register at Boca Raton High School because they lacked documents. The department had also investigated complaints that immigrant children and ELLs were suspended and arrested for offenses that were minor and not violent.

About 20,000 ELLs are district students.

In a statement, Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, said that the agreement would remove barriers to student enrollment, and promote an inclusive environment.

The district must agree to enroll all students, no matter their immigration status. The district must provide translation services during the enrollment and disciplinary process.

The Justice Department has previously cautioned school districts that they must enroll undocumented immigrant children who reside within their boundaries, due to the Supreme Court’s Plyler v. Doe decision.

School district spokesman Nat Harrington told the Palm Beach Post that the district was happy to reach an agreement.

“We remain committed to treating all of our students fairly regardless of their language, backgrounds or their parents’ status,” he said.

- “Justice department finalizes pact with PBC School District to end bias in discipline, registration policies,” The Palm Beach Post.

- “Justice Department Reaches Settlement with School District of Palm Beach County, Fla.,” U.S. Department of Justice.

- Plyler v. Doe Video History.

latinoedbeat

Covering Latino children and research about Latino education and research

Category Archives: Civil Rights