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NCSD Strategic Planning Commences
Since
it
s
founding in 2009, the National Coalition on School Diversity
has been at the center of federal advocacy and public discourse on issues of school integration. While building a national community and achieving significant policy successes, NCSD has become a strong coalition that provides members a place to act on their commitment to integration from a legal, policy, and research perspective.
Given the abrupt change in leadership
and direction
at the federal level, NCSD
is using this moment to refocus on how to
preserve and strengthen
policies it has helped advance over the last eight years
,
as well as how to continue build
ing
momentum
and expand
ing
the
school diversity field. With support from the Ford Foundation, NCSD is embarking on its first-ever strategic planning process in 2017.
The goal of this process is to engage and hear from members, advocates, and allies so that the Coalition can formulate a clear strategic roadmap
. Over the next 6 months, we will be engaging members through survey
s
, interviews, focus groups and more to collectively think, share ideas, and articulate
a
unified vision of the NCSD moving forward.
NCSD has hired Melissa Johnson Hewitt, Founder and Principal of Forward Movement Consulting to lead
this process. To assist the staff support of the Coalition, a strategic planning committee will be formed to be a touch point and strategic guide for this process.
We hope that by the NCSD conference we will begin to share and engage with the membership and broader field the emerging strategic direction of the Coalition.
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Registration Opens for the 2017 NCSD National Conference
A Struggle We Must Win: Advancing School Integration through Activism, Youth Voice, and Policy Reform
Registration for NCSD's 2017 national conference went live this month. Join us October 19th and 20th in New York City, the nation's largest school district, to meet, mingle, discuss and learn with some of the nation's foremost experts in education policy, practice, advocacy, and organizing. To learn more about the upcoming conference, click here.
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On July 13th, Representatives in the
House Appropriations Subcommittee on labor, health and human services, education, and related agencies voted to approve a budget that cuts over $2 billion from the U.S. Department of Education's overall budget.
While the spending bill drastically reduces resources available under Title II for teacher training and class size reduction, there are a few bright spots for school diversity advocates and public school supporters. Specifically, t
he bill reintroduces support for the Magnet Schools Assistance Program, proposing $96.4 million in funding, and does not include the $1.25 billion requested by the Trump Administration to support Title I portability and private school voucher programs.
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Over the summer, the Department of Education has released feedback for states regarding their proposed plans to comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act. However, observers have noted inconsistent feedback from the Department in the first round of feedback for Arizona, Delaware, and New Mexico.
Feedback from the Department is now available for ESSA plans from Connecticut, New Jersey, Louisiana, Oregon, and Tennessee.
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Concerned by
actions and reports regarding the Department of Education's plans to scale back civil rights enforcement and rescind key civil rights guidance documents, 34 Democratic Senators recently sent a
letter urging Secretary DeVos to provide information regarding the impact of policy and enforcement changes within the Office of Civil Rights, and to ensure the Department's of Education's consistent, vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws and protections for all students.
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NCSD Member Updates
- Adam Fernandez, of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, recently penned an op-ed for Education Week regarding little-noted regulatory changes made by the Trump Administration concerning accountability under the Every Student Succeeds Act.
- NCSD members Philip Tegeler (Poverty & Race Research Action Council), Erica Frankenberg (Center for Education and Civil Rights), and David Tipson (New York Appleseed) were all recently quoted in an article from The American Prospect regarding the enduring significance of the Supreme Court decision Parents Involved in Community Schools v. School District No. 1 (PICS). While the Court's holding may be frequently misunderstood, the PICS decision does not stand for the principle that schools cannot constitutionally consider race in student admissions.
- The Center for Education and Civil Rights, and co-director Erica Frankenberg, were profiled in the Penn State News following a well-attended conference hosted by the organization at Georgetown Law School in Washington, DC.
- Outgoing New York City high school seniors, including IntegrateNYC4me's Hebh Jamal, recently published letters to the schools they are leaving behind, focusing on the persistent issues of skewed racial demographics and overall educational inequality.
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New School Diversity Research
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A recent report from the Center for American Progress highlights the origins of private school vouchers as a tool to perpetuate inequitable access to educational opportunities and the racial segregation of students. The brief cautions against several major proposals contained in the education agenda put forth by President Trump and Secretary DeVos, which would channel $1.25 billion in federal funds to private school voucher programs and Title I portability and likely foster significant resegregation of students impacted by those programs.
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In what may be a first-of-its-kind analysis, Johathan Rothwell from The Brookings Institution shows that multi-racial students, while hailing on average from a lower socioeconomic background than the average white student, perform as well on standardized math, writing, and science tests as white students, and outperform all other groups of students in reading comprehension. This research suggests that racial achievement gaps in academics are the result of inequitable educational opportunities and can be closed under more equitable political, social, and economic arrangements.
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The National Center for Youth Law's
Education Civil Rights (ECR) Alliance is a diverse and growing alliance of educators, community groups, organizers, professional associations, civil rights organizations and government agencies formed to protect the civil rights of vulnerable students. We believe schools should serve, educate, empower and be safe for all students.
The educational enterprise depends on the polity. This search seeks scholars who focus on understanding how politics and policy shape the organization and performance of schools, and what the consequences ultimately are for students and the larger society. These scholars can come from a broad range of fields including, but not limited to, such fields as education, political science, law, and economics.
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The Community Advocate will perform extensive outreach to current and prospective clients, interact with community organizations, perform field investigations, and engage in advocacy. He or she will also assist the Center's attorneys with case management and support, conduct research and writing, and organize information related to litigation, case development, and legislation. The position will involve overnight travel within the state and potential travel outside of Mississippi.
The Graduate School of Education is launching a vibrant PhD program in Race, Inequality, and Language in Education. This search, chaired by the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Arnetha Ball, seeks a scholar who can contribute to our understanding and capacities to address education's responsibility to provide opportunity and means to all people.
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Upcoming Events of Interest
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National Coalition on School Diversity
c/o Poverty and Race Research Action Council
Website: school-diversity.org
Email: school-diversity@prrac.org
Mailing Address: 1200 18th St. NW #200 Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-544-5066
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