P-20 Pipeline Educational Project (P-20)

P-20 Pipeline Educational Project (P-20)

The P-20 Educational Project ("the Pipeline Project") is an outgrowth of LatCrit's concern about the lack of racial diversity in the legal profession. LatCrit's focus on this issue is, and has been, theoretical as scholars systematically analyze the barriers for entry into the profession as well as practical as faculty institutionalize more inclusive practices to recruit, hire, mentor, tenure and promote faculty from under-represented communities. The doctrines, policies and activities that fall within the rubric of affirmative action have been aimed at increasing the number of students who qualify for admission to professional and graduate studies. This strategy has, however, largely neglected the more pressing problem facing communities of color, namely the high drop out rates and low achievement of students from middle school through the undergraduate years. Pipeline projects aim to inter-connect the now fragmented systems of educational institutions to stop the leakage of students, improve graduation rates and increase the numbers of students of color in post-graduate studies.

Medical schools have developed pipeline programs over the last decade, using federal funding to link with public schools, community colleges, undergraduate programs, community organizations and policy makers. Legal organizations, such as the ABA, AALS and LSAC, are now engaged in such projects in law schools. For information about ABA/LSAC initiatives, see:

http://www.abanet.org/op/pipelineconf/home.html

LatCrit has much to contribute to these efforts and can benefit greatly from the resulting collaborations. While low educational attainment is a problem of national dimensions for communities of color, Pipeline Projects are local; they are LatCrit praxis informed by LatCrit theory, values and techniques. For a description of one P-20 Pipeline Project underway at the University of New Mexico, see Margaret Montoya, Defending the Future Voices of Critical Race Feminism, UC Davis L. Rev.

 
 
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