This report captures recent data collected from Black parents navigating their children’s educational experiences in public, charter, private, and independent school settings in California. Our aim is to provide policymakers and education leaders with insight regarding how Black parents define education and envision their children’s educational futures. Data and learnings herein are drawn from two research initiatives: (1) the Black Parent Survey Project, an initiative of the Transformative Justice in Education Center at the University of California, Davis (PI: Lawrence T. Winn); and (2) the Educational Futures of Black Children in California Study, an ongoing collaboration between the Stanford Accelerator for Learning’s Equity in Learning Initiative, Futuring for Equity Lab at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University (PI: Maisha T. Winn).
Through focus group interviews with families who participated in the Black Parent Survey Project and data collected from a series of Educational Futures for Black Children foresight workshops with Black families in Northern California, we explored the following questions:
- How do Black parents conceptualize education? How do their definitions and conceptualizations of education map onto experiences with their children’s schools and educators?
- What kinds of educational futures are Black families dreaming about? What can educators and policymakers learn from these families to expand and inform their ideas for schools and education in California?
Additional questions beyond the scope of this report included: What do parents of African American children in California want for their children’s education? How do they imagine and envision their children’s educational futures?
Context
Black children’s educational futures are under increasing threat due to a range of national developments, including calls to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, the rising cost of college, school closures in urban communities, a deepening shortage of qualified teachers, inequitable access to technology and AI-driven learning, and efforts to eliminate diversity initiatives, culturally responsive teaching, and affirmative action at all levels of education.
In California, the landscape for Black families has shifted significantly since 2000. According to the State of Black California, in 2020 Black residents numbered 2,119,286 out of the state’s 37.7 million people. While the statewide percentage declined from 6.6% in 2000 to 5.6% in 2020, Black populations grew in the Inland Empire and Sacramento, reflecting the emergence of new centers of community life. At the same time, gentrification and rising housing costs have displaced many Black families from historic urban neighborhoods, reshaping the state’s cultural and educational landscape and altering access to community-rooted schools and support systems.
Despite these demographic shifts and move to more affordable and safer communities, Black students continue to face persistent inequities in schooling. Research shows disproportionately high suspension rates compared to their white peers, a pattern documented in Beyond Suspension Decline, a five-year qualitative study examining efforts across California to move away from punitive and exclusionary discipline. Additional data underscore ongoing disparities:
- Black students are suspended at notably higher rates than their peers, with the highest suspension rates in Sacramento County, Contra Costa County, and Los Angeles County (Wood et al., 2018).
- Black teachers comprise less than 3% of California’s teaching workforce (California Department of Education; National Center for Education Statistics, 2023).
- Enrollment of Black students in California public schools declined by 47% from 2003 to 2023 (Whitaker & Nelson, 2024).
In 2024, UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies published The State of Black California: Assessing 20 Years of Black Progress in the Golden State, for the California Black Legislative Caucus, showing that Black students have made progress in meeting eligibility requirements for the California State University and University of California systems, with increased completion of the required coursework. Even so, at this pace it will take approximately 248 years to close the racial equality gap between Black and White communities.
Parents and their children are mobilizing to ensure that Black students’ educational futures are neither overlooked nor marginalized. Across California, families are organizing and partnering with community-based advocacy groups such as the Sacramento Black Parallel School Board, Parents of African American Children in Contra Costa County, the African American Parent Advisory Council in San Francisco, and Families in Action in Oakland. In Southern California there is CADRE in South L.A. schools; the Black Parent Network in L.A county; the Council of African American Parents (CAAP); Parents for Liberation, and BlackECE. These parents and students demand equitable resources, culturally affirming learning environments, and accountability for improved educational outcomes.
