SAN JOSE, Calif. — Stanford is backing away from a program designed to support teachers of color after accusations of racial discrimination led to a federal investigation announced this week.

The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights will determine whether Stanford violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act — a federal law that prohibits schools and educational programs that receive federal funds from racial discrimination.

The investigation comes as the Trump administration has cracked down on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at universities across the country, including race-based admission practices.

It centers around Stanford’s National Board Resource Center. Founded in 1998 within the Graduate School of Education, the center supports schools, educational agencies and teachers seeking National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certification — a prestigious achievement for educators, often considered the “gold standard” in teacher certification.

The Office of Civil Rights investigation specifically focuses on a National Board partnership program with Stanford that prioritizes Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) teachers in low-income schools in an effort to increase the diversity of National Board certified teachers.

The program was created in 2022 in partnership between the California Teachers Association, the UC Los Angeles National Board Project and Stanford’s National Board Resource Center.

The BIPOC program is free to cohort members and funded by the California Teachers Association and the National Education Association, although cohort members must pay for their own certification — about $2,000.

Stanford has begun winding down the program and is no longer accepting new participants, Luisa Rapport, Stanford University’s director of media relations, said Wednesday after the announcement of the investigation.

Stanford’s BIPOC board certification program is no longer on the National Board Resource Center’s website. The UCLA program description says “the program centers and uplifts educators who identify as BIPOC, while participants of all backgrounds who support this mission can apply.”

The Trump administration said Wednesday that “all students, regardless of their skin color, should have an equal opportunity to succeed.”

“Instead of helping students achieve their goals through merit, Stanford appears to be conditioning access to National Board Certification programs based on skin color,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey. “It is unconscionable that an institution which claims to be a pinnacle of educational excellence would deny opportunities based on race. If the allegations are true, Stanford is engaged in discrimination – pure and simple.”

Rapport said Wednesday that the BIPOC cohort program is within a larger effort of Stanford’s National Board Resource Center.

“The Center is open to any primary or secondary teacher, regardless of their race, who is pursuing the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification,” Rapport said. “All teachers in the Stanford NBRC get access to mentors, research, seminars and other resources to help them pursue certification.”

The investigation comes about a month after the conservative advocacy organization Defending Education filed a complaint against Stanford’s National Board Resource Center claiming the BIPOC cohort program violates Title VI. The complaint did not mention the California Teachers Association or the UCLA National Board Project, which have partnered with NBRC on the cohort.

It also follows a federal investigation into Stanford’s compliance with a landmark Supreme Court decision two years ago that outlawed race-based affirmative action in college admissions. Stanford is also one of 60 universities facing civil rights investigations into alleged antisemitism on their campuses.

©2026 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at mercurynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.