The Impact of TRPI
• In 2002, TRPI produced a report on the lack of "college knowledge" by low-income Latino parents. The report led the mayor of Los Angeles to begin a city-wide program to assist Latino parents fill out financial aid forms. This same report has been cited in editorials by the Arizona Republic and the Denver Post, as well as a posting on the White House web site on Hispanic education.
• TRPI's College Knowledge findings inspired The Sallie Mae Fund to commission the largest national survey of Latino parents and young adults' college financial assistance knowledge. Based on these surveys' findings, Sallie Mae began a twenty-two city tour promoting College Knowledge in Latino neighborhoods.
• Sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild, TRPI documented the ethnic stereotypes present in motion picture and television productions. The resulting report, Missing in Action , remains the primary study utilized by media advocacy groups today.
• A TRPI study of the effects of Proposition 187 (the "California Anti-Immigration Initiative") on school administrators was utilized as evidentiary material by MALDEF and ACLU to place a restraining order on the proposition.
• 30,000 more children in Southern California school districts are receiving breakfast as a result of a TRPI analysis of school breakfast programs.
• Eliminating Outreach at the University of California: Program Contributions and the Consequences of their Reductions was the only research report presented at a legislative tri-caucus retreat of African American, Latino, and Asian American California state legislators. Using TRPI research, legislators pressured Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to restore $29.3 million into the fiscal year 2004-05 state budget, helping to maintain the infrastructure of University of California outreach programs.
• In December, 2004, the Institute released The New Latino South and the Challenge to Public Education: Strategies for Educators and Policymakers in Emerging Immigrant Communities. The study received national media attention, and inspired the Associated Press to assign its reporters to a regional study beginning in February, 2005.
• TRPI's survey of Latino voters found a lack of knowledge in the Latino community about California Proposition 54 (the "Racial Privacy Initiative"). Based on this report, civil rights advocates allocated $700,000 in campaign dollars to buy media ads that targeted minority voters. As a result of their action, an overwhelming number of Black and Latino voters (75%) voted against this initiative.
• The Institute's report on child care access and cultural considerations for Latino working families was utilized by over fifty Latino child care organizations to justify their funding requests to local governments and foundations.
• At the height of California's Proposition 209 debate, our report on Latino voters' perceptions and lack of knowledge of the anti-affirmative action initiative mobilized Latino civic leaders to conduct public education outreach campaigns on the measure.
• The California Hispanic Legislative Caucus used TRPI's report on minority children's lack of enrollment in public health insurance programs to advocate for increased funding for outreach and enrollment efforts for the health of vulnerable minority populations.
• Closing the Digital Divide: Enhancing Hispanic Participation in the Information Age was cited by the U.S. Department of Commerce as the best study on the topic to date.
• TRPI is the only organization that continues to compile and disseminate a series of periodic reports on the impact of the University of California (UC) Regents' decision to eliminate racial and ethnic preferences on the application rates and admissions of Latino and African American undergraduates.
• The Institute served as the lead research partner for a consortium of educational organizations in the development of a "Latino scorecard" that documented the educational status of Latino students in Los Angeles County. TRPI identified exemplary schools and supported a successful district-wide initiative to assess exemplary practices district-wide.
• TRPI revealed the inequity of Advanced Placement (AP) courses in California public schools, which led the American Civil Liberties Union to file a lawsuit against the California Department of Education for equitable relief. The Institute is cited in the first page of the legal brief.
• TRPI, in conjunction with the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL), developed an education agenda for Latino state legislators. The work, titled Closing the Achievement Gap, was unanimously adopted by the NHCSL.
The Institute's research has been cited and utilized by the Clinton and Bush administrations, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators, the California Latino Legislative Caucus, the California State University's Provost, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, and local educational advocacy groups such as the Alliance for a Better Community (ABC) in Los Angeles.
