Current Position: Assistant Secretary for the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education (since May 2009)
Credit: Department of Ed
Why She Matters
For most of her career, Ali has held prominent positions at organizations whose mission is to highlight the achievement gap in public education. Now, she has the authority to do something about it.
As assistant secretary for the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education, Ali oversees the enforcement of all anti-discrimination laws as they apply to education. That includes Title VI and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act.
She takes a pragmatic approach to education, willing to consider any policy that might help disadvantaged students, however unpopular in education circles. She has supported standardized tests and merit pay. And as the vice president of Education Trust, a non-profit advocate for poor and minority students, Ali was a surprising supporter of No Child Left Behind.
"No Child Left Behind is an unfunded mandate, surely,” she said. “But Brown vs. the Board of Education, the decision that prompted desegregation of schools, was an unfunded mandate and we did it anyway. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was underfunded and we did it anyway. Now we are required to educate all kids to the highest level, and we must do it anyway."
At a Glance
Current Position: Assistant Secretary for the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education (since May 2009)
Career History: Executive Director of The Education Trust-West and vice president of The Education Trust (July 2001 to April 2009); President’s liaison for Children’s Defense Fund (2000 to 2001); Assistant director for policy and research at The Broad Foundation (1999 to 2000); Deputy co-director of The Advancement Project (1999 to 2000); Attorney at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton (1997 to 1999)
Birthday: N/A
Hometown: N/A
Alma Mater: Spelman College, attended, 1989 to 1991; American University, B.A., 1993; Northwestern University School of Law, J.D., 1997
Spouse: N/A
Religion: N/A
DC Office: N/A
Email N/A
Web site
Path to Power
Ali, a first-generation American, grew up in a single-parent home. She spent two years at Spelman College before transferring to American University in Washington D.C. She earned a B.A. in law and society, took a year off to teach on the Caribbean island of Antigua, and then enrolled at Northwestern University School of Law.
During school, she interned at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles and worked as a summer associate at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter, and Hampton in L.A. She graduated from Northwestern in 1997, having spent her third year as a visiting student at the University of Southern California Law Center.
After graduating, Ali spent three years as a corporate and civil-rights lawyer at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter, and Hampton.
In 1999, she took a job as the co-director for The Advancement Project, a California legal organization in California dedicated to increasing educational opportunities for underprivileged minorities. While working for The Advancement Project, Ali was also a contract attorney for the law firm of Bird, Marella, Boxer & Wolpert and taught trial advocacy at the University of Southern California Law Center. She was also the assistant director of policy and research at The Broad Foundation, which focuses in part on public-school reform.
The Education Trust
Ali spent less than a year at the Children’s Defense Fund from 2000 to 2001, and then became the vice president of Education Trust and executive director of Education Trust-West in Oakland, Calif., where she worked until President Barack Obama nominated her in March 2009 to be assistant secretary for the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education. Education Trust is a non-profit that was created in 1990 by the American Association for Higher Education. It defines its mission as improving education at all levels, in particular for those from low-income backgrounds.
In Their Own Words
“I am acutely aware that poor kids and kids of color get less of everything that research says makes a difference,” Ali said. “Many believe that, because we give them less of everything, we shouldn't stretch poor kids or kids of color, or their teachers, very far. … But, in the end, I will stand with the black and brown parents who support the [California exit] exam because they know their kids have to demonstrate higher levels of knowledge and skills to pursue their dreams."
The Issues
As the head of the Office at Civil Rights, Ali will oversee the enforcement of all civil-rights laws as they relate to education. That includes Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, and Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on gender. The Office of Civil Rights also enforces the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act as it relates to education and the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act, which says any school that allows one group to meet on school grounds cannot prohibit another from equal access.
The majority of the Education Department’s work is done by 12 regional enforcement offices, which are located around the country and respond to complaints of discrimination. But the national office also funds “partnerships designed to develop creative approaches to preventing and addressing discrimination.”
Ali’s new job gives her the legal authority to do what she has stressed for most of her career: ensuring all children have access to a quality education. As the head of Education Trust, she commissioned a 2005 study to look into the disparity in pay between teachers at wealthier and poorer schools in the same school districts. The study found that teachers who taught at school where the majority of students received free or reduced-price lunch were paid less on average than those who taught in schools with fewer reduced lunches. Free or subsidized lunches were used as an indication of income.
Ali’s Education Trust wanted to mandate that all schools release their average teacher salary. School districts were required to post salary averages, but Ali said those numbers don’t tell the whole tale because many school districts contain both rich and poor schools. “It's as if we had two pots of water, one ice cold and the other boiling hot, and concluded that the average water temperature is warm,” Ali said.
Standardized Education
Ali has occasionally taken positions out of step with the typical liberal view of public education. She supported President George W. Bush’s federal education plan, No Child Left Behind, and was in favor of standardized exit exams in California, which required students to pass a test of basic skills in order to graduate from high school.
“I am acutely aware that poor kids and kids of color get less of everything that research says makes a difference,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle, explaining her position on the exam. “Many believe that, because we give them less of everything, we shouldn't stretch poor kids or kids of color, or their teachers, very far. … But, in the end, I will stand with the black and brown parents who support the exam because they know their kids have to demonstrate higher levels of knowledge and skills to pursue their dreams."
Ali says that she will accept programs based on results, and she has chastised the teachers’ unions for taking proposals like merit pay off the table at the start of negotiations.
The Network
As assistant secretary for the Office of Civil Rights, Ali will report to the Education Secretary
Arne Duncan as well as Under Secretary
Martha Kanter.
Campaign Contributions
Though a registered Democrat, Ali is not a prominent campaign donor. She donated $750 to
Barack Obama in the 2008 campaign cycle, but hasn’t donated elsewhere this decade.
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