The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law has launched a database that will track and analyze efforts against critical race theory (CRT) that seek to limit the teaching of race and racism in U.S. schools.
Led by the law school’s Critical Race Studies program, the CRT Forward Tracking Project will monitor anti-CRT measures at the local, state, and federal levels. The database will include information on what types of institutions are being targeted, what the regulations entail, how they are being enforced, and more.
“The project was created to help people understand the breadth of the attacks on the ability to speak truthfully about race and racism through the campaigns against CRT,” Taifha Natalee Alexander, the project’s director, said in a UCLA news release.
CRT is an academic theory developed by scholars in the 1970s to explain how systemic racism has shaped the American legal system. Many of the efforts being tracked by the database incorrectly use the term to influence K-12 curricula, according to the release.
As part of the project, the CRT Forward team has reviewed nearly 24,000 media articles since August 2021 and identified 479 instances of activity against CRT. Approximately 94 percent of these measures target K-12 schools and higher education.
The project is funded through a $400,000 grant from the nonprofit Lumina Foundation’s Racial and Equity Fund.
