The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Paul Basken
Washington
March 8, 2010
The Obama administration promised on Monday expanded enforcement of civil rights in education, saying that gender and racial discrimination still hinders far too many students from grade school through college.
In an initiative tied to the 45th anniversary of the civil-rights marches in Selma, Ala., Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited that city and announced plans to open "compliance review" investigations at more than 30 school districts nationwide and six colleges.
The department will also take a more aggressive approach in seeking out civil-rights enforcement matters and warning institutions about problem areas, Mr. Duncan said. The department's Office for Civil Rights "has not been as vigilant as it should have been" over the past decade in confronting discrimination involving race, gender, and physical disability, he said.
The actual effect of the administration's promised initiative was not fully clear, as its promised number of compliance-review investigations was similar to the numbers in the final years of the Bush administration, and department officials gave limited details of how their approach would differ.
Mr. Duncan said he would not identify the school districts or colleges facing the intensive investigations before they are notified. The assistant secretary for civil rights, Russlynn H. Ali, said only that the investigations on the college level would involve topics that include athletics, sexual violence, and people with disabilities.
Full Story: http://chronicle.com/article/Education-Department-Promises/64567/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
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