(NAME-MCE) Arne Duncan Set to Pledge Renewed Focus on Civil Rights

[Anselmo Villanueva]

Arne Duncan Set to Pledge Renewed Focus on Civil Rights

March 8, 2010

Written by guest blogger Mary Ann Zehr

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2010/03/arne_duncan_set_to_pledge_rene.html

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan plans to promise in a speech
today to reinvigorate enforcement of civil rights laws in U.S. schools
by issuing guidance and implementing new compliance reviews.

"The truth is that, in the last decade, the office for civil rights
has not been as vigilant as it should have been in combating gender
and racial discrimination and protecting the rights of individuals
with disabilities," Duncan wrote in a draft of his speech, which was
circulated to members of the press.

Duncan said that compliance reviews will aim to make sure students
have equal access to educational opportunities, including a
college-preparatory curriculum, advanced courses, and STEM courses. In
addition, the speech says that the Education Department will review
whether school districts are implementing discipline policies fairly,
"without regard to skin color." (The Associated Press, The Washington
Post and the New York Times published stories today on Duncan's plans.
The blog Why Boys Fail also picked up on the issue.)

Duncan plans to deliver his speech late afternoon today at the Edmund
Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., to mark the 45th anniversary of "Bloody
Sunday," when several hundred activists faced state troopers on the
bridge to advocate for their civil rights. The state troopers beat the
protesters with billy clubs and used tear gas to disperse them.

I have heard some murmurs lately that the Obama administration
intended to provide more guidance to schools on how to protect
students' civil rights. Russlynn Ali, the Education Department's
assistant secretary for civil rights, told me recently in an interview
that this spring, the department would issue civil rights guidance to
apply to several different areas of education.

When reporting recently on what civil rights law has to say about the
process of identifying English-language learners in schools, I learned
that federal education officials had visited Arizona recently to
discuss civil rights issues with state education officials there. The
office for civil rights is investigating a complaint contending that
changes in Arizona's home-language survey violate students' civil
rights because they lead to underidentification of ELLs.