Under an integration plan the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 2007, the Jefferson County School District required every school across greater Louisville to have an enrollment that was 15% to 50% African-American. The goal was to make schools in the district, where the student population is about two-thirds white and one-third black, racially diverse throughout.

The Supreme Court’s decision ended that.

Now, Louisville is taking another swing at school integration. Under a new student-assignment plan that’s tied to household income and dependent on increased cross-town busing, elementary schools slowly are being integrated in a different way. Yet the district that lost its case before the high court has fallen short of its goals of having a mix of students from higher- and lower-income areas and a blend of races in all classrooms.

Its situation reflects the new landscape for school integration that’s coming into focus three years after the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling. The new reality tests the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education— the landmark high-court decision that struck down the doctrine of “separate but equal” schools more than a half-century ago — as school districts decide whether to continue to make integration a priority or return to neighborhood schools, whose enrollments often reflect communities’ racial divide.

“I think that minority schools are going to be even more isolated,” says education professor Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at University of California-Los Angeles, which supports integration. “For very large communities, there is going to be no integration experience available. … Segregation perpetuates itself.”

The 2007 decision, the first of a series of conservative blockbusters under Chief Justice John Roberts, came as many districts already had been backing away from race-based integration.

Supreme Court rulings in the 1990s and shifting political winds had stalled school desegregation, which began with the 1954 decision in Brown and continued until the late 1980s. The court’s new ruling in paired cases from Louisville and Seattle more definitively challenged the integration efforts of previous decades.

For educators seeking to mix students of all races, the decision has led to complex new approaches based on income level and other factors. At the same time, it also has generated attempts to create more magnet schools and strengthen academics.

The Supreme Court said districts could not look at the race of an individual student but did not bar districts from broadly considering race in certain communities. Under the new Louisville plan, parents list their top four choices for schools, some of which can be near home and some of which are supposed to be in other neighborhoods. Officials consider parents’ requests and other factors, such as a sibling already in school, as they try to meet diversity goals. The plan has taken effect in kindergarten through second grades. It will be phased in to include all of elementary school over the next three years and will start to take effect in middle school next year.

“No retreat” has become the official mantra of Jefferson County School Superintendent Sheldon Berman and other school administrators in Louisville. In other places, most recently Wake County, N.C., school boards have moved back to neighborhood-school plans, which can mean plentiful resources for students in affluent areas but the opposite for students in low-income places.

Education researchers such as Orfield note blacks and Hispanics do better in racially integrated schools. Students of all races who go to integrated schools are more inclined as adults to live in integrated communities.

Focusing on class, rather than race

Yet, Richard Kahlenberg, who has worked with schools in Chicago and elsewhere on approaches that integrate students based on income and other non-race factors, says students ultimately may be better off without exclusively race-based methods.

“The things we’re looking for in a school — such as peers who will be positive role models and parents who are actively involved in the school — track closer by class than race,” says Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, which researches economic and social issues.

Kahlenberg notes that before the ruling, Louisville’s Roosevelt-Perry Elementary, for example, “was beautifully balanced (racially) but was a disaster” academically since it was nearly “100% poor.”

Today, classrooms in the two-story brick school have been modernized with technology themes such as robotics. Principal Pamela Howell has spearheaded the reinventing of Roosevelt-Perry as a magnet school that focuses on math and science. She says the upside to discarding race-based plans is that school officials must be more innovative to draw parents’ interest across neighborhood lines.

Her message to parents reluctant to try the near-downtown location: “No matter where you live, no matter what you had to do to get here, you will get a high-quality education once you get here.”

Yet the school is still in a run-down urban strip where the area’s average household income is about $20,000 annually and the population is mostly African-American.

The principal-led transformation works for some parents — but not others.

Brandy Schad, who protested her 5-year-old son’s assignment to the magnet Roosevelt-Perry, says the promise of better academics could not persuade her to accept a school that was an hour from her home and had comparatively low test scores. “I certainly understand the importance of diversity,” she says, “but not at the expense of a 5-year-old.”

The 2007 ruling revealed a young Roberts Court flexing its conservative muscle on social issues.

John Roberts became chief justice in 2005, and conservative Justice Samuel Alito succeeded centrist Sandra Day O’Connor in 2006, leading to a more consequential ideological shift. The 2007 decision in the Louisville schools case was a jolt to the right. Justice John Paul Stevens, who had served since 1975 and retired this past summer, said he believed that no one on the court he joined would have voted the way the five conservatives did in the Louisville case.

Roberts wrote that the disputed integration plans from Louisville and Seattle recalled a pre-Brown era. In Brown, the Supreme Court said “separate but equal” schools were inherently unequal and violated the Constitution’s equality guarantee.

“Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin,” Roberts said, joined by the court’s most conservative justices. “The school districts in these cases have not (demonstrated) that we should allow this once again — even for very different reasons.” He added, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

Dissenting justices observed that before the Brown ruling, only black children were told where they could go to school. Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by the court’s three other more liberal justices, said the majority’s decision undermined “Brown‘s promise of integrated primary and secondary education that local communities have sought.”

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is at the ideological middle of a divided court, was the crucial fifth vote for the conservative majority. He wrote a concurring statement that declared diversity in schools remained a “compelling” governmental interest but integration programs had to be “narrowly tailored.”

“This nation has a moral and ethical obligation to fulfill its historic commitment to creating an integrated society that ensures equal opportunity for all of its children,” Kennedy wrote, adding that districts could look at race only as part of a “nuanced, individual evaluation of school needs and student characteristics.”

Setting the bar higher

Louisville’s efforts to follow the high-court ruling have ushered in new challenges.

The new plan has turned out to be far more “disruptive” than the prior plan, says student-assignment specialist Barbara Dempsey, requiring more students to be bused between regions. In two years of the new plan, fewer than half of the kindergarten to second-grade classes have reached the district’s diversity goals, she says.

Pat Todd, executive director of student assignments, chalks that up to initial difficulties in balancing diversity with other factors, such as requests for siblings to stay together, and says she expects the elementary schools to meet the goals fully in four to five years.

“I do think we will have to make modifications,” Todd says. “But we will be continuing with a diversity plan, so the students will be better prepared for the future.”

There has been political fallout: Two Republican state legislators recently introduced a bill that would require the district to return to neighborhood schools. In this fall’s school board election, the integration plan is a major issue.

The plan prompted hundreds of school-transfer requests, one of which came from Schad who, with her husband, who has Crohn’s disease, wanted their son, Ethan, closer to home.

Schad says she was dismayed by Roosevelt-Perry’s academic scores and didn’t want to take a chance on the new magnet program: “It’s so new and so fresh that I don’t feel like you can put a whole lot of stock in it.” Her son is now at a school less than a mile from their home.

Still, the district has plenty of supportive parents, such as Shweta Krishnani, who chose Roosevelt-Perry after touring the school.

Krishnani says she was reluctant at first to send son Sahil, 5, there because of the neighborhood and the school’s low test scores. But Howell convinced her and her husband the grounds were safe and the new technology program was first-rate.

Those and other worries, including the two-bus ride her son must take every morning, have been eclipsed by his academic progress. Sahil began the school year in kindergarten but proved himself so advanced he was reassigned to first grade, where he can participate in a LEGO robotics lab and build robots with moving parts and sensors.

Krishnani is from Dubai and her husband grew up in India. She says she wants Sahil to mix with students of all races so he will be ready, as an adult, for anything in life or on the job.

Howell says she did not object to the old diversity plan but has since realized that with the poverty levels of students, white and black, the diversity “wasn’t pushing us to the top.” With the magnet program, she says, “we are now able to set the bar a lot higher for our students.”

Plans vary across the nation

In Louisville, a new turn in school integration

In Louisville, a new turn in school integration

JACKSON, Miss. – A policy designed to achieve racial equality at a north Mississippi school has long meant that only white kids can run for some class offices one year, black kids the next. But Brandy Springer, a mother of four mixed race children, was stunned when she moved to the area from Florida and learned her 12-year-old daughter couldn’t run for class reporter because she wasn’t the right race.

The rules sparked an outcry on Internet blogs and other websites after Springer contacted an advocacy group for mixed-race families. The NAACP called for a Justice Department investigation — not surprising in a state with a history of racial tension dating to the Jim Crow era.

The district scrapped the policy by Friday afternoon.

Superintendent Russell Taylor posted a statement on the school’s website, saying the policy had been in place for 30 years, dating back to a time when school districts across Mississippi came under close scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department over desegregation.

“It is the belief of the current administration that these procedures were implemented to help ensure minority representation and involvement in the student body,” the statement said. “It is our hope and desire that these practices and procedures are no longer needed.”

Springer, who moved to Lee County from Florida in April, said her daughter was told the office of sixth-grade class reporter at Nettleton Middle School was available only to black students this year.

Her anger grew when she saw school election guidelines that allowed only whites to run for class president this year. In alternating years, the positions would be reversed so blacks could run for president and whites could hold other positions, district officials said.

Even if the policy is an attempt to ensure black and white participation, Springer said diversity is no longer a black and white issue, with a growing number of mixed-race children, Hispanics and other ethnicities attending school together.

The school agreed, saying it the statement that it “acknowledges and embraces the fact that we are growing in ethnic diversity and that the classifications of Caucasian and African-American no longer reflect our entire student body.”

Springer is white. Her two older children, including the sixth grader, are half Native American. Her two younger children have a black father.

“How are they supposed to be classified?” she asked.

“My main concern is that the object of school is to prepare people for life. An employer could never do this: Advertise a position for a white man only or a black man only,” she said. “This is not a lesson we want to teach.”

The changes in school policy may have come too late for Springer. Springer said she moved to another school district last week and pulled her kids from Nettleton Middle School.

School administrators did not immediately respond to messages seeking further comment left Friday by The Associated Press.

Nettleton is a town of about 2,000 people with a population that is about 66 percent white and 32 percent black.

Springer’s plight demonstrates the complexities faced not only by interracial families, but by school officials trying to achieve racial equality in a state known for tensions between blacks and whites. The school district also manipulated prom and homecoming elections so that the outcome is an equal division of blacks and whites.

Springer and others worried that could leave out Hispanics, Asians or any other student from another race or ethnicity, Springer said.

Springer’s story spread rapidly on the Internet after she contacted a website for mixed families — mixedandhappy.com.

Suzy Richardson, the website’s founder and the mother of four mixed-race children, said she and her husband have “raised our children to tell them they are black and white. They’re half of me and half of dad.”

“It really made me upset (to hear Springer’s story). The message that were sending to kids is that they have to choose one side of who they are,” she said. “The message that we’re sending our children is that we do things based on race.”

Before the school announced it was getting rid of the policy, Charles Hampton, a vice president of the Mississippi NAACP, said he would ask the U.S. Justice Department to investigate.

“That’s something that shouldn’t be happening anywhere in America, but we still have pockets of it happening at certain schools,” Hampton said. “The local community needs to get involved and demand they change the policy.”

School’s race rule prompts mom to pull kids out (AP)

School’s race rule prompts mom to pull kids out (AP)

“We have an obligation to lift up every child in every school in this country, especially those who are starting out furthest behind,” Obama told the centennial convention of the National Urban League.

The Urban League has been a vocal critic of Obama’s education policies, most notably the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” program that awards grants to states based on their plans for innovative education reforms. A report released earlier this week by eight civil rights groups, including the Urban League, says federal data shows that just 3% of the nation’s black students and less than 1% of Latino students are affected by the first round of the administration’s “Race to the Top” competition.

Obama pushed back Thursday, arguing that minority students are the ones who have been hurt the most by the status quo.

Obama’s reforms have also drawn criticism from education advocates, including prominent teachers’ unions like the American Federation of Teachers, who have argued that the reforms set unfair standards for teacher performance.

Obama said the goal isn’t to fire or admonish teachers, but to create a culture of accountability. He pinned some of the criticism on a resistance to change.

“We get comfortable with the status quo even when the status quo isn’t good,” he said. “When you try to shake things up, sometimes people aren’t happy.”

Seeking to ease his strained relationship with the powerful teacher’s unions, Obama hailed teachers as “the single most important factor in a classroom,” calling for higher pay, better training and additional resources to help teachers succeed.

“Instead of a culture where we’re always idolizing sports stars or celebrities, I want us to build a culture where we idolize the people who shape our children’s future,” Obama said.

The president laid the groundwork for what he called “an honest conversation” about education with comments on several recent developments that were designed as sweeteners for his mostly minority audience.

For instance, he said his goal with his domestic agenda, including the economy, health care and other priorities, is to create “an economy that lifts all Americans — not just some, but all.” That comment earned him significant applause and pleased murmurs in the room.

The president also said he very much looks forward to signing a bill recently passed by Congress to reduce the disparities between mandatory crack and powder cocaine sentences. The matter has been a longtime thorn for the black community, as the quarter-century-old law that Congress changed has subjected tens of thousands of blacks to long prison terms for crack cocaine convictions while giving far more lenient treatment to those, mainly whites, caught with the powder form of the drug.

“We got it done,” Obama said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

And he forthrightly addressed the racial firestorm over the recent ouster of a black Agriculture Department official. He said the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod “marked both the challenges we face and the progress we’ve made.”

“She deserves better than what happened last week,” Obama said.

Obama defends education policies to critics

Obama defends education policies to critics

“We have an obligation to lift up every child in every school in this country, especially those who are starting out furthest behind,” Obama told the centennial convention of the National Urban League.

The Urban League has been a vocal critic of Obama’s education policies, most notably the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” program that awards grants to states based on their plans for innovative education reforms. A report released earlier this week by eight civil rights groups, including the Urban League, says federal data shows that just 3% of the nation’s black students and less than 1% of Latino students are affected by the first round of the administration’s “Race to the Top” competition.

Obama pushed back Thursday, arguing that minority students are the ones who have been hurt the most by the status quo.

Obama’s reforms have also drawn criticism from education advocates, including prominent teachers’ unions like the American Federation of Teachers, who have argued that the reforms set unfair standards for teacher performance.

Obama said the goal isn’t to fire or admonish teachers, but to create a culture of accountability. He pinned some of the criticism on a resistance to change.

“We get comfortable with the status quo even when the status quo isn’t good,” he said. “When you try to shake things up, sometimes people aren’t happy.”

Seeking to ease his strained relationship with the powerful teacher’s unions, Obama hailed teachers as “the single most important factor in a classroom,” calling for higher pay, better training and additional resources to help teachers succeed.

“Instead of a culture where we’re always idolizing sports stars or celebrities, I want us to build a culture where we idolize the people who shape our children’s future,” Obama said.

The president laid the groundwork for what he called “an honest conversation” about education with comments on several recent developments that were designed as sweeteners for his mostly minority audience.

For instance, he said his goal with his domestic agenda, including the economy, health care and other priorities, is to create “an economy that lifts all Americans — not just some, but all.” That comment earned him significant applause and pleased murmurs in the room.

The president also said he very much looks forward to signing a bill recently passed by Congress to reduce the disparities between mandatory crack and powder cocaine sentences. The matter has been a longtime thorn for the black community, as the quarter-century-old law that Congress changed has subjected tens of thousands of blacks to long prison terms for crack cocaine convictions while giving far more lenient treatment to those, mainly whites, caught with the powder form of the drug.

“We got it done,” Obama said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

And he forthrightly addressed the racial firestorm over the recent ouster of a black Agriculture Department official. He said the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod “marked both the challenges we face and the progress we’ve made.”

“She deserves better than what happened last week,” Obama said.

Obama defends education policies to critics

Obama defends education policies to critics

President Obama made it clear Thursday morning that he has no intention of backing down from his education reform agenda, despite criticism from core constituencies in his own party.

Speaking before a crowd of civil rights advocates in Washington, he went to bat for his signature education initiative so far, the Race to the Top competition among states for $4.3 billion in grants tied to a range of education reforms.

“I’ll continue to fight for Race to the Top with everything I’ve got,” he said at the convention marking the centennial of the National Urban League, a New York based civil rights group devoted to economic empowerment of minorities.

IN PICTURES: Inside President Obama’s White House

Noting that concerns have been raised about whether competition for some education funds in the midst of a recession is the right approach to help minority students, Mr. Obama said, “What’s not working for black kids and Hispanic kids and native American kids across this country is the status quo.â€

Race to the Top, Obama added, is “the single most ambitious, meaningful education reform effort we’ve attempted in this country in generations.”

Race to the Top has been controversial for a number of reasons, including the incentives it gives for more charter schools; for tying teacher evaluations in part to student test scores; and for drastic changes at chronically failing schools, which at times has meant the wholesale removal of the staff. Earlier this week, a coalition of civil rights groups released a recommended framework for federal education law that challenges some of the administration’s approach.

The administration is “certainly in a defensive posture,” says Jack Jennings, president and CEO of the Center on Education Policy. “They have problems with the Congress, they have problems with civil rights groups, they have problems with regular education groups.”

Obama had been pushing for $10 billion to save education jobs as part of a broader emergency spending bill, but when one proposal would have paid for it by trimming money for Race to the Top and other reform-based grants, he threatened a veto, and the jobs money was removed. Now it’s unlikely the administration will find another vehicle in Congress to get that jobs funding passed, Mr. Jennings says. It also appears that any rewriting of the nation’s education law, currently known as No Child Left Behind, will also have to wait for the next Congress.

Obama told the crowd today that “charter schools aren’t a magic bullet, but I want to give states and school districts a chance to try new things” – and then replicate what works.

He cited the Mastery charter schools in Philadelphia, where the level of proficiency in reading and math more than doubled in two years and violence dropped by 80 percent. “If [those schools] can do it, every troubled school can do it, but that means we’re going to have to shake some things up.”

Race to the Top has also encouraged dozens of states to adopt voluntary national standards designed to ensure that high school graduates are ready for college and a career. That’s important, Obama said, because some states had watered down standards to avoid having too many schools fall under the sanctions of No Child Left Behind. “I do not want to see young people get a diploma but they can’t read that diploma,” he said to applause.

Obama called for parents to take more responsibility, too. Improving education, he said, will take better schools and more parental engagement, a collective commitment and a personal commitment. And students themselves, despite the serious barriers they face, have to do their part, he noted.

“Our kids need to understand nobody’s going to hand them a future. And education’s not just something [where] you tip your head and they pour it in your ear.” he said, leaning his head to one side to demonstrate. “You’ve got to want it.”

IN PICTURES: Inside President Obama’s White House

Related:

As Race to the Top competition intensifies, so do education reforms

Uniform education standards: Momentum grows as more states sign on

Study: On average, charter schools do no better than public schools

Obama refuses to budge on Race to the Top education reforms (The Christian Science Monitor)

Obama refuses to budge on Race to the Top education reforms (The Christian Science Monitor)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Department of Education has selected 19 states to vie for $3.4 billion in grants aimed at improving their schools, Secretary Arne Duncan said in a speech on Tuesday.

He added that 10 to 15 of those states are expected to win money from the federal stimulus-funded program known as “Race to the Top.”

The program is President Barack Obama’s pet project, offering federal grants to states for improving education and supporting semi-autonomous charter schools – in what Duncan called the “quiet revolution” in education.

The money primarily covers adoption of standards and assessments, boosting of low-performing schools, creating teaching jobs and building better data systems.

The finalists are competing for $3.4 billion left in the program fund after $600 million was sent to Delaware and Tennessee in the first round of funding earlier this year.

Duncan dispelled earlier concerns over Congress possibly taking $500 million away from the program to help pay for a $10 billion schools measure folded into the U.S. House of Representatives’ defense spending bill.

“This money is going to be there for the finalists, and this money will be committed by September,” he said.

With education funding facing cuts as states grapple with the withering of federal stimulus dollars, the 19 finalists have requested more than $6 billion in their Race to the Top applications – but only half of that money is available.

In fact, the program has come under fire for effectively creating a grand incentive for reforming the schools without appropriate financial support for longer-term implementation and with only some states benefiting.

“Education reform faces impossible odds when schools face massive budget cuts,” said Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers president, in a statement.

The 19 states selected as finalists in this round include those that made it to the final round of the program’s first phase. Depending on the size of the winners, Duncan said between 10 and 15 states will share what’s left of the program’s total $4.35 billion fund.

Part of that original pool, $350 million, has been set aside in another competition between groups of states.

Ohio and Maryland, touted as two of the nation’s best-performing states in terms of their public school systems, are among the second-round finalists.

Also on the list are the financially struggling states of California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh)

Government taps 19 states for education grant finals (Reuters)

Government taps 19 states for education grant finals (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Department of Education has selected 19 states to vie for $3.4 billion in grants aimed at improving their schools, Secretary Arne Duncan said in a speech on Tuesday.

He added that 10 to 15 of those states are expected to win money from the federal stimulus-funded program known as “Race to the Top.”

The program is President Barack Obama’s pet project, offering federal grants to states for improving education and supporting semi-autonomous charter schools – in what Duncan called the “quiet revolution” in education.

The money primarily covers adoption of standards and assessments, boosting of low-performing schools, creating teaching jobs and building better data systems.

The finalists are competing for $3.4 billion left in the program fund after $600 million was sent to Delaware and Tennessee in the first round of funding earlier this year.

Duncan dispelled earlier concerns over Congress possibly taking $500 million away from the program to help pay for a $10 billion schools measure folded into the U.S. House of Representatives’ defense spending bill.

“This money is going to be there for the finalists, and this money will be committed by September,” he said.

With education funding facing cuts as states grapple with the withering of federal stimulus dollars, the 19 finalists have requested more than $6 billion in their Race to the Top applications – but only half of that money is available.

In fact, the program has come under fire for effectively creating a grand incentive for reforming the schools without appropriate financial support for longer-term implementation and with only some states benefiting.

“Education reform faces impossible odds when schools face massive budget cuts,” said Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers president, in a statement.

The 19 states selected as finalists in this round include those that made it to the final round of the program’s first phase. Depending on the size of the winners, Duncan said between 10 and 15 states will share what’s left of the program’s total $4.35 billion fund.

Part of that original pool, $350 million, has been set aside in another competition between groups of states.

Ohio and Maryland, touted as two of the nation’s best-performing states in terms of their public school systems, are among the second-round finalists.

Also on the list are the financially struggling states of California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh)

Government taps 19 states for education grant finals (Reuters)

Government taps 19 states for education grant finals (Reuters)

Eight civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, contend in a document released Monday the Education Department is promoting ineffective approaches for failing schools. They also claim the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” grant competition — a program with a goal of spurring innovative reform in states — leaves out many minority students.

“We want to be supportive, but more important than supporting an administration is supporting our children across the country and ensuring that they have an opportunity to learn,” said John Jackson, president of the Schott Foundation for Education, one of the groups that developed the document.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan and a White House adviser met with the groups Monday, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and the presidents of the National Urban League and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The groups distributed the document to members of Congress last week.

Duncan has called education “the civil rights issue of our generation,” and many of the reforms the administration has pushed aim to improve educational opportunities for the most vulnerable students.

“The administration is dedicated to equity in education and we’ve been working very closely with the civil rights community to develop the most effective policies to close the achievement gap, turn around low performing schools and put a good teacher in every classroom,” Education Department spokesman Justin Hamilton said.

The Obama administration’s education reforms have drawn criticism from education advocates, including prominent teachers’ unions like the American Federation of Teachers, which gives money to many of the groups that signed the civil rights document. AFT President Randi Weingarten said she supports the proposal but that her organization had nothing to do with writing it.

“I think the civil rights movement has done something really important here,” Weingarten said. “They are setting a very different prescription for how to ensure quality education for all.”

The proposal calls into question many of the Education Department’s initiatives, including the $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition and the $3.5 billion to turn around low performing schools.

Citing federal data, the groups say just 3% of the nation’s black students and less than 1% of Latino students are impacted by the first round of the Race to the Top competition, which awarded about $600 million for Tennessee and Delaware to undertake innovative reforms. Finalists for the second round of grants are to be announced Tuesday.

“No state should have to compete to protect the civil rights of their children in their states,” John Jackson said.

The document also proposes creating standards for equal access to early childhood education, effective teachers, college preparatory curriculum and quality resources. And it takes a critical viewpoint of the administration’s approach to turn around failing schools, including closing them or replacing much of the staff.

“Low-performing schools will not improve unless we also change the resources, conditions and approaches to teaching and learning within the schools or their replacements,” the assessment states.

But the plan has one glaring omission: no Hispanic groups signed on to support it.

Raul Gonzalez from the National Council of La Raza said his organization decided not to endorse the document because there were concerns with how the groups see charter schools. The civil rights groups want charter schools to focus more on attracting diversity than the needs of the children in their community, Gonzalez said.

“To suggest that a charter school started by community members who want to help kids in their community cannot serve 100% Hispanic kids in a community that’s 100% Hispanic — that they should be penalized for that or they shouldn’t be allowed to open up — that doesn’t make sense,” he said.

But he applauded the civil rights groups for pushing for more financial support for programs that would help increase parental involvement in schools.

Civil rights leaders, Sec. Arne Duncan talk education reform

Civil rights leaders, Sec. Arne Duncan talk education reform

Civil rights leaders are criticizing Obama administration education reforms aimed at turning around low performing schools and closing the achievement gap for minority students.

Eight civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, contend in a document released Monday the Education Department is promoting ineffective approaches for failing schools. They also claim the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” grant competition — a program with a goal of spurring innovative reform in states — leaves out many minority students.

“We want to be supportive, but more important than supporting an administration is supporting our children across the country and ensuring that they have an opportunity to learn,” said John Jackson, president of the Schott Foundation for Education, one of the groups that developed the document.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan and a White House adviser met with the groups Monday, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and the presidents of the National Urban League and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The groups distributed the document to members of Congress last week.

Duncan has called education “the civil rights issue of our generation,” and many of the reforms the administration has pushed aim to improve educational opportunities for the most vulnerable students.

“The administration is dedicated to equity in education and we’ve been working very closely with the civil rights community to develop the most effective policies to close the achievement gap, turn around low performing schools and put a good teacher in every classroom,” Education Department spokesman Justin Hamilton said.

The Obama administration’s education reforms have drawn criticism from education advocates, including prominent teachers’ unions like the American Federation of Teachers, which gives money to many of the groups that signed the civil rights document. AFT President Randi Weingarten said she supports the proposal but that her organization had nothing to do with writing it.

“I think the civil rights movement has done something really important here,” Weingarten said. “They are setting a very different prescription for how to ensure quality education for all.”

The proposal calls into question many of the Education Department’s initiatives, including the $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition and the $3.5 billion to turn around low performing schools.

Citing federal data, the groups say just 3 percent of the nation’s black students and less than 1 percent of Latino students are impacted by the first round of the Race to the Top competition, which awarded about $600 million for Tennessee and Delaware to undertake innovative reforms. Finalists for the second round of grants are to be announced Tuesday.

“No state should have to compete to protect the civil rights of their children in their states,” John Jackson said.

The document also proposes creating standards for equal access to early childhood education, effective teachers, college preparatory curriculum and quality resources. And it takes a critical viewpoint of the administration’s approach to turn around failing schools, including closing them or replacing much of the staff.

“Low-performing schools will not improve unless we also change the resources, conditions and approaches to teaching and learning within the schools or their replacements,” the assessment states.

But the plan has one glaring omission: no Hispanic groups signed on to support it.

Raul Gonzalez from the National Council of La Raza said his organization decided not to endorse the document because there were concerns with how the groups see charter schools. The civil rights groups want charter schools to focus more on attracting diversity than the needs of the children in their community, Gonzalez said.

“To suggest that a charter school started by community members who want to help kids in their community cannot serve 100 percent Hispanic kids in a community that’s 100 percent Hispanic — that they should be penalized for that or they shouldn’t be allowed to open up — that doesn’t make sense,” he said.

But he applauded the civil rights groups for pushing for more financial support for programs that would help increase parental involvement in schools.

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Dorie Turner reported from Atlanta and Christine Armario reported from Miami.

Ed Dept, civil rights leaders discuss reform (AP)

Ed Dept, civil rights leaders discuss reform (AP)

David Blackwell, a statistician and mathematician who wrote groundbreaking papers on probability and game theory and was the first black scholar to be admitted to the National Academy of Sciences, died July 8 in Berkeley, Calif. He was 91.

David Blackwell, 91, Statistician and Mathematician, Dies