Dive Brief:
- The latest Civil Rights Data Collection, which includes information from nearly every school and district in the country has found persistent inequities in student discipline, access to advanced courses and teacher quality.
- The U.S. Department of Education announced a 20% drop in the number of out-of-school suspensions identified in the CRDC since 2011-2012, but black students and those with disabilities are overrepresented in the suspensions that remain.
- When it comes to teacher quality and access to advanced courses, students who are Latino, black, American Indian and Alaska Native are more likely to attend schools with fewer opportunities for rigorous learning, fewer counselors and fewer experienced teachers.
Dive Insight:
The Department of Education plans to release a series of analyses following up on the massive, biennial data collection effort, and it will partner with GreatSchools to distribute more information about individual schools to the parents whose children attend them.
As unfortunate as it may be, the persistent inequities in K-12 schools are not surprising. More than 60 years after the Supreme Court outlawed public school segregation, enrollment data show retrenchment towards school segregation, rather than continued progress. And schools dominated by minority students are under-resourced and lower-performing when compared to schools in wealthy, white neighborhoods. The conversation about equity continues, however, and pockets of progress give educators and reformers hope.