A decade ago, Education Trust-West released Black Minds Matter, which traced the trajectory of education policy affecting Black students — from fugitive slave laws banning Black children from attending California schools in 1852, through the state’s dismantling of affirmative action in the 1990s, to disjointed efforts in the 2000s to begin addressing racial gaps in education. Black Minds Matter 2025 is a follow-up report to track progress since 2015.
“While we’ve seen some movement on education equity in the 10 years since Black Minds Matter was originally released, those efforts are too often piecemeal and performative,” wrote Ed Trust-West Executive Director Christopher Nellum in the report’s introduction. “Now, in the wake of years of contentious politics and rhetoric around the concepts of equity and diversity, California will be pushed to further weaken any efforts that embrace what our state leaders claim to value around progress, justice, and equality. It is not the time to water down efforts to do what’s right, it’s time to shore them up.”
The follow-up report reviews opportunity gaps that are still present for Black students in TK-12 California schools and suggests state policy solutions to help address these gaps.
Opportunity gaps cited in the report include:
- Low levels of inclusion and engagement for Black students and their families: This is illustrated by lower levels of enrollment in transitional kindergarten compared to other demographic groups and by a disproportionate chronic absence rate among TK-12 Black students.
- Lack of affirming, culturally relevant environments: A recent survey on youth behaviors found that about a quarter of Black students in California reported being bullied or harassed in school because of their race. Black students disproportionately experience suspensions at higher rates than their peers.
- Lack of access to fully prepared and experienced Black teachers: Students are more engaged in school and achieve greater academic success when teachers reflect their diversity. Studies have shown the presence of Black teachers significantly reduces the prevalence of harms like chronic absenteeism and toxic school environments. However, Black teachers make up a smaller share of the workforce than the share of Black students in 74 percent of districts. Additionally, California’s Black students are among those most negatively affected by lack of access to fully prepared teachers. Schools with a high concentration of Black students have 6 percentage points fewer fully prepared teachers compared with schools with a low concentration of Black students.
- Inadequate resources: “Although the state has taken a significant step in the direction of fair, needs-based school funding over the past decade by implementing [the Local Control Funding Formula] and spending more per student on districts with a high share of students of color than those with smaller shares, the amount spent on evidence-based practices to support Black students remains woefully inadequate,” according to the report.
The opportunity gaps lead to inequitable student outcomes. “Black students are fully capable of flourishing as young scholars and meeting and exceeding rigorous learning standards. But the opportunity gaps documented in the previous section lay the groundwork for deep and enduring racial disparities in student outcomes like test scores, rates of student learning, and high school graduation rates,” the report states.
Recommendations
The report recommends that the state create a commission on Black student education transformation charged with “guiding, monitoring, and evaluating the immediate implementation of policies and practices to support Black students’ success.” Other recommendations include:
- Modify the state’s funding formula to address racial disparities and provide abundant resources for Black students’ education
- Fully scale comprehensive community school models that create welcoming and affirming environments for Black students
- Invest in and require schools to use proven strategies to recruit, support and value Black teachers
- Require all high schools to make A-G their default curriculum
- Create a universal dual enrollment policy and shift to automatic acceleration
“The simple fact is if we allow our schools to continue neglecting Black students and families, it will take at least until 2089 for all Black students to reach grade-level standards in math and at least until 2070 for the same in reading,” according to the report. “The hundreds of thousands of Black students served by our public schools, colleges, and universities deserve better than for us to settle for the glacial progress that is the status quo.”
