PRRAC - Grant Reports

Research products of completed projects are available from PRRAC. Bracketed italicized identifiers [e.g. F301] are PRRAC's internal project numbers, used here to match grant descriptions with research products.

Short reports on the research work and updates on the advocacy work this research has supported regularly appear in PRRAC's bimonthly newsletter journal Poverty & Race -- the relevant issues of P&R are noted at the end of each project description. Send PRRAC a self-addressed, stamped envelope for copies of these articles.

+ The Student Advocacy Center studied four alternative models of parent involvement/outreach in low-income communities in Michigan, via participatory research. The results are being used to enhance SAC's capacity to respond effectively to requests for help from community groups and to identify and reach out to communities where school problems are severe but the community has not coalesced. This project supports earlier and current work that led to enactment of legislation banning corporal punishment and introduction of progressive legislation to deal with the various problems of exclusion of students from school.
[F134] Grant amount: $10,000.
Contact: Marcene Root, Student Advocacy Center, 2301 Platt Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48104, 313/973-7860.
See articles in Poverty & Race, Vol. 3, No. 3; Vol. 5, No. 1; Vol. 5, No. 6.

+ The American Civil Liberties Union brought and won Harper v. James (formerly Harper v. Hunt), a suit in Montgomery County, Alabama, with a unique challenge to racially discriminatory education systems. Whereas previous equalization suits have sought, with great success in many cases, to require that gross disparities in per-pupil expenditures by local school districts be ended, this suit was won under a different state constitutional theory. The Alabama constitution (and the constitutions of a majority of states, in some form or other) guarantees students a minimally adequate education. The research documented that this standard is not being met, proposed programs that meet this standard and identified adequate funds to achieve this goal. The ACLU is working with various Alabama groups committed to this vision of school reform to determine how best to implement the court's orders.
[F114] Grant amount: $10,000.
Contact: Chris Hansen, American Civil Liberties Union, 125 Broad St., 18th flr., New York, NY 10004, 212/549-2500.
See article in Poverty & Race, Vol. 4, No. 3.

+ John Brittain is part of a litigation team -- which includes the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Connecticut ACLU, the Hispanic Advocacy Project and Wesley Horton (attorney in the Horton v. Meskill Connecticut school financing case) -- that has brought a state constitutional challenge to de facto racial, linguistic and economic segregation in the Hartford school system (Sheff v. O'Neill). Funding was used to hire Gary Natriello, Columbia University Teachers College, to coordinate the work of the social science expert witnesses assisting in the case. In July 1996, the Connecticut Supreme Court issued a highly favorable decision, and the case currently is in the remedy phase.
[F126] Grant amount: $10,000.
Contact: Prof. John Brittain, Univ. of Connecticut School of Law, 65 Elizabeth St., Hartford, CT 06105-2290, 860/241-4664.
See article in Poverty & Race, Vol. 5, No. 5.

+* James McPartland and Nettie E. Legters of the Johns Hopkins University Center for the Social Organization of Schools undertook a reconnaissance of the availability and quality of educational data used for enforcement of civil rights obligations under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, including Title VI provisions, as well as other data being collected to identify emerging civil rights issues in the education arena. The report is being used as part of a broader advocacy project -- involving parallel PRRAC-commissioned federal- and state-level reconnaissance studies in the areas of housing, health and income maintenance -- to create data collection and dissemination systems more useful to advocates.
[FDR 102] Grant amount: donated in kind.
Contact: James McPartland, Center for the Social Organization of Schools, Johns Hopkins Univ., 3505 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218, 410/516-0370.

+* William L. Taylor and a group of social science researchers (Dennis Judd of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, William Trent of the University of Illinois, Samuel Stringfield and Rebecca Herman of Johns Hopkins University, Michael Puma of Abt. Assoc. and Junious Williams) undertook research used in litigation opposing attempts to end St. Louis' highly successful voluntary inter-district school desegregation program, the nation's largest. These reports, revised as articles, appeared as a special issue of The Journal of Negro Education.
[HS102] Grant amount: Varied.
Contact: William L. Taylor, 2000 M St. NW, #400, Washington, DC 20036, 202/659-5565.

+* The California Budget Project, Alabama Arise, the North Carolina Budget & Tax Center, Voices for Illinois Children & The [Texas] Center for Public Policy Priorities have been commissioned to participate in PRRAC's State Data Reconnaissance Project, which seeks to improve the quantity, quality, relevance and dissemination of data on the impact of education (as well as health, housing and income maintenance) programs on low-income and minority beneficiaries. Each state organization has produced data reconnaissance studies in these four areas and is undertaking advocacy work to remedy defects uncovered. The state-level project will be integrated with PRRAC's parallel Federal Data Reconnaissance Project.
[CADR103, ALDR103, NCDR103, ILDR103, TXDR103] Grant amounts: Varied.
Contacts: Jean Ross, California Budget Project, 921 11th St., #502 Sacramento, CA 95814, 916/444-0500; Kimble Forrister, Alabama Arise, PO Box 612, Montgomery, AL 36101, 334/832-9060; Dan Gerlach, North Carolina Budget & Tax Center, PO Box 27343, Raleigh, NC 27611, 919/856-2158; Jerry Stermer, Voices for Illinois Children, 208 S. LaSalle, Chicago, IL 60604, 312/456-0600; Diane Stewart, Center for Public Policy Priorities 900 Lydia St., Austin, TX 78702, 512/320-0222.
See article in Poverty & Race, Vol. 7, No. 4

+ = Completed Project
* = PRRAC-Commissioned Project
# = Project funded under PRRAC/Applied Research Center California Community Research Initiative

PRRAC Grantee Products and Final Reports

Copies of the following materials, as well as further information on the project, may be obtained by contacting the organization listed. Where available, prices and page length are indicated. Items available from PRRAC, if they are lengthy, may require paying photocopying costs. Project numbers are given to enable cross-reference back to the project descriptions.

A Descriptive Study of the Education Resources of the Hartford Public Schools and Disparities with Other Districts, by Gary Natriello (November 1992, 271 pp.), available from the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, 125 Broad St., 18th flr., New York, NY 10004, 212/549-2500. [F126]

Public Education and Social Change: Advocacy Strategies, Special Education Policies and Practices, and Parent Involvement, by Marcene Root, Ruth Zweifler & Marcia Federbush (December 1995, 62 pp.), available from The Student Advocacy Center, 2301 Platt Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48104, 313/973-7860. [F134]

An October 1993, 22-page, remedial court order addressing educational funding and opportunities for school children in the State of Alabama, stemming from their lawsuit Harper v. Hunt., was obtained by the ACLU Foundation and is available from them, 125 Broad St., 18th flr., New York, NY 10004, 212/549-2500. [F114]

Federal Education Data for Monitoring Civil Rights Obligations, Developing Equity Standards, and Allocating Federal Assistance, by James McPartland & Nettie Legters (October 1994, 29 pp.), available from PRRAC. [FDR102]

The Role of Governmental Policies in Promoting Residential Segregation in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area, Expert Report of Dennis R. Judd in re: Craton Liddell et al. v. The Board of Education of the City of St. Louis et al. (November 1995, 48 pp. + Tables, Maps), available from PRRAC. [HS102]

Research on Effective Instruction for At-Risk Students, Expert Witness Testimony of Samuel Stringfield & Becki Herman (1995, 37 pp.), available from PRRAC. [HS102]
St. Louis Desegregation Plan, report by Michael Puma (December 1995, 48 pp.), available from PRRAC. [HS102]

Report of Analyses of National Survey Data and St. Louis School District Data on Student Achievement, by William Trent (1995, 6 pp. + Tables), available from PRRAC. [HS102]

"The Role of Social Science in School Desegregation Efforts: The St. Louis Example," Vol. 66. No. 3 of The Journal of Negro Education (containing articles based on the above four reports plus excerpts from trial testimony and depositions by Gary Orfield, David Armor, Eric Hanushek & Kern Alexander), available from PRRAC with a self-addressed label and $3 postage [HS 102].

Expert Witness Report on Disciplinary Standards to Assure Equitable Treatment, by Junious Williams (November 1995, 19 pp. + Exhibits), available from PRRAC. [HS102]

A Review of Existing California State Data on Education, by Susan Conklin & Julia Koppich (September 1995, 36 pp.), available from PRRAC. [CDR103]

Review & Evaluation of Existing Data on the Education of Poor & Minority Children in the State of Illinois, by Lee Shumow (Feb. 1997, 43 pp.), available from Voices for Illinois Children, 208 S. LaSalle, #1580, Chicago, IL 60604, 312/456-0600. [ILDR103]

A Review of Existing Alabama State Data on Education, by David Dawson & Stan Johnson (May 1997, 9 pp.), available from Alabama Arise, 207 Montgomery St., #810, Montgomery, AL 36102, 334/832-9060. [ALDR103]

A Review of Texas Education Data Collection & Reporting (April 1998, 9 pp. + Apps.), available from the Center for Public Policy Priorities, 900 Lydia St., Austin, TX 78702, 512/320-0222. [TXDR 103][C101]