Methodology

The CRT Forward Tracking Project identifies, follows, and analyzes local, state, and federal measures that attempt to suppress truth-telling about systemic racism through a campaign against Critical Race Theory (CRT), diversity, equity, inclusion, antiracism, and antisexism. These anti-CRT measures, in the form of proposed and enacted legislation, regulations, attorney general letters, and other governmental instruments seek to restrict the ability to speak truthfully about racism and sexism in multiple contexts, like in K-12 education, private businesses, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and higher education. 

In the Summer of 2021, with support from the UCLA School of Law and Lumina Foundation, the UCLA School of Law Critical Race Studies (CRS) Program launched the CRT Forward Tracking Project. Since August 2021, the CRT Forward Tracking Project Team of faculty, staff, research librarians, and law school and undergraduate research assistants have gathered, tracked, and analyzed anti-CRT measures at the local, state, and federal levels of government. As of the initial launch, the Tracking Project is the only existing database that tracks and analyzes anti-CRT measures at all levels of government. Our focus is specifically on formally proposed or actually enacted official government policies, not advocacy by non-governmental actors or comments to the media by government officials.

The Project gathers information from multiple sources. To identify anti-CRT measures, we primarily use two complementary approaches facilitated through legal information databases, Lexis and Westlaw. First, we search Lexis databases of state and federal legislation to identify anti-CRT bills. As of our initial March 2022 launch, the most recent search was conducted on March 15, 2022. We also perform progress updates on anti-CRT measures through the Lexis database.

Second, we search over 4,000 U.S. newspapers and other media for coverage of anti-CRT measures. As of our initial launch in 2022, through this process, we have screened over 12,000 media articles, published between September 1, 2020 and November 2, 2021. These media searches enable us to identify measures that are not compiled in any existing, national database. This includes measures at the local level, including school districts. It also includes many forms of non-legislative measures at all levels of government. Because we rely on media coverage to identify these types of measures where no comprehensive national database exists, there may be instances of anti-CRT measures that we cannot detect.

Each media search result is reviewed individually to confirm whether it involves anti-CRT measures. If anti-CRT measures are confirmed, further legal research is conducted to identify the underlying actions from an official source, such as school board meeting minutes or a state legislature’s website. Researchers periodically review each identified anti-CRT measure for progress updates to ensure up-to-date information on all anti-CRT measures in the database. Researchers are alerted to any updates in the state legislative measure through a Lexis database feature. For non-state legislative measures, the ongoing media screening reveals updates. The team codes each action for the targeted institutions, the regulated conduct, like teaching and training, and the targeted content, like training or teaching, among other attributes as listed below. The database is updated on a monthly basis to account for new anti-CRT measures or updates to items already in the database.

As of our initial launch, the CRT Forward Tracking Project includes 370 total instances of anti-CRT measures across 48 states. As detailed further below, each anti-CRT measure has been analyzed to determine:

• The entities the measure is targeting;
• The types of conduct being regulated;
• The specific features of the conduct being targeted; and
• Enforcement mechanisms used to regulate the conduct.

Additionally, for each anti-CRT measure, the database includes links to the official full text of the measure, such as to a statute or legislative record, as well as any publicly accessible source for updates in its status.

Citation for media outlets, policy briefs and online resources: CRT Forward Tracking Project, www.crtforward.law.ucla.edu

Citation for academic publications and research reports: Taifha Natalee Alexander, LaToya Baldwin Clark, Isabel Flores-Ganley, Cheryl Harris, Jasleen Kohli, Lynn McLelland, Paton Moody, Nicole Powell, Milan Smith, and Noah Zatz. CRT Forward Tracking Project [date database was accessed]. UCLA School of Law Critical Race Studies Program, www.crtforward.law.ucla.edu.