LAUSD overhauls $120 million program for black students after activists file complaint – 74

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Los Angeles Unified has revised its leadership efforts to improve academic performance for black students after conservative activists in Virginia filed a civil rights complaint accusing the program of using race as an admissions criterion.

District 120 million dollars Black Student Achievement Plan had a clear goal: to improve the academic performance of black students who lag behind other groups on reading and math assessments, to provide additional tutoring for students and additional training for their teachers.

The program is now in doubt after being based in Arlington Parents in defense of education filed a civil rights complaint alleging it violated federal law by using race “exclusively” as a criterion for admissions, prompting the district to change its policy.

“Ultimately, the Black Student Achievement Plan and its benefits are available to some students but not to others — and this exclusion is based solely on an individual’s race,” the group said in a statement. complaint said

In response, LAUSD said it no longer uses race as a factor in selecting participating schools. But the program’s future remains murky even with the changes, as it could still be open to future legal challenges.

Still, it’s a dramatic turn of events for LAUSD’s signature Black initiative, and it shows the powerful influence out-of-town interests have on local politics.

LASUD officials said the district will provide the same resources to BSAP as in previous years, and its programs remain the same; and all students, not just black students, are eligible for aid.

The five-year BSAP program appeared to be successful in targeting black children.

With broad support from LA Unified’s board, teachers and families, the program brought counselors and social workers to about 50 schools that together served about a third of the district’s black students.

And this year, black students in the district achieved success math and reading tests who were ahead of other student groups. Black students in the district also outperformed black students statewide on the annual exams this year.

After PDE filed the complaint, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said LA Unified “was able to reformat the program without compromising the impact.”

“Our solution is to keep funding, focus and resources on the same students and the same schools,” he said. in an interview from the Los Angeles Times.

Representatives for PDEwhich has filed more civil rights complaints against at least ten other school districts across the country, did not respond to requests for comment.

The nonprofit’s website describes it as a “national grassroots organization working to rid our schools of activists who promote harmful agendas,” including critical race theory and restorative justice.

The PDE fee includes Edward Bluma conservative litigator who previously founded an organization that won a Decision of the Supreme Court of 2023 v. Harvard University to end affirmative action in college admissions.

in your complaint along with the federal Office for Civil Rights, PDE argued that BSAP violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by using race to determine which students received supplemental educational services.

After LA Unified dropped race as a formal factor in those decisions, OCR dismissed the group’s complaint, leading to a potential court battle. But PDE can reopen its complaint.

The district’s strategy drew fire teachers’ union, activists and students who protested board meeting on October 22 Online writing of letters campaign calls on LA Unified to “reinstate black student population as BSAP school allocation criteria.”

USC education professor Julie Slayton, without contesting which schools participate in BSAP, said LAUSD will have to use other factors when deciding how to distribute the extra resources to students.

“They’re going to take away the ‘black’ language,” Slayton said. “But it shouldn’t fundamentally change the way they think about the distribution of those resources and the schools that will receive them.”

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