Study of Schools Cites Inequities for Minorities

Some of California’s largest school districts are plagued by persistent racial inequities that hurt minority youths’ chances of going to college and force many students to attend substandard facilities, according to a recently released study by Californians for Justice.

The four-month study of school districts in Long Beach, San Diego and San Jose recommends that schools develop college eligibility awareness plans, install community-based oversight boards and review policies to eliminate racial disparities in the application of discipline.

The study, conducted by 50 student researchers, was funded by Californians for Justice, a grass-roots nonprofit organization that seeks more parental and student involvement in school issues.

The study echoes many of the allegations made in a lawsuit filed last year against the state by the American Civil Liberties Union. That legal action accuses the state of denying tens of thousands of minority students equal educational opportunities.

The ACLU’s legal director in Southern California, Mark Rosenbaum, said the study’s findings were not surprising. He said some of it would be used as evidence in the lawsuit, which addresses a problem that he said dwarfs the current power crisis.

“The state and its lawyers cannot cover up these conditions,” Rosenbaum said. “There are hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren that can testify to these conditions.”

A news conference announcing the study results was staged in front of the headquarters of the Long Beach Unified School District. District officials, however, termed the study flawed. They said that the district has made great strides in improving conditions for minority students and that it ranks among the leaders for preparing youngsters for college.

“I would argue strongly [that] if anyone wants to come into this district and examine the data, we can make the case that substantial progress is being made,” said Carl Cohn, the district’s superintendent of schools.

The study surveyed students in the Long Beach Unified, San Diego Unified and San Jose’s East Side Union High School districts. Among its major findings:

* Latino and African American students are being left out of the classes needed to meet the most basic college eligibility requirements.

* African American and Latino youths are routinely left out of gifted and advanced classes.

* School disciplinary actions have an unequal impact on African American and Latino students.

High school student Rommel Mirasol, one of the student researchers who worked on the study, said his experience is typical of many minority youths. A senior at Long Beach’s Cabrillo High School, Mirasol said he wanted to attend Pepperdine University but wasn’t told until his junior year of the necessary course work.

Unable to attend Pepperdine, Mirasol said he had been accepted at Cal State Long Beach. He said that many of his friends, however, weren’t going to college. “The counselors really just focused on telling us what the requirements were for graduating high school,” Mirasol said.