Standing room only at our recent briefing on Capitol Hill!! Read about it in more detail here.
We'd love your thoughts on a document we presented at the event, which outlines some ideas our policy working group has been generating over the last few months. Email your feedback to school-diversity@prrac.org. We are putting the final touches on an audio recording from this event, stay tuned.
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OUR STRATEGIC PLAN
IS COMPLETE!
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- Serve as the central convener of the school integration field.
- Connect constituents through learning exchanges, information sharing, and peer networks.
- Elevate a critical research agenda that is directly linked to work on the ground.
- Develop a comprehensive and strategic communications agenda.
- Monitor, influence, and protect federal policy.
- Implement a regional outreach strategy to highlight and support grassroots efforts.
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We are deeply grateful to the Ford Foundation for providing support for this process; and to our consultant (Melissa Hewitt, Forward Movement Consulting) and strategic planning committee for all of their hard work on this plan.
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NCSD Welcomes Four New Members
We are excited to announce that four new members joined us this summer:
**NCSD is in the process of revising its membership criteria, so for now we aren't approving new members. We'll make sure to be in touch with applicants once that process is completed.
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Related article:
The Secret Network of Black Teachers
Behind the Fight for Desegregation
(The Atlantic)
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New Book by Research Advisory Panel Vanessa Siddle Walker
In her new book,
The Lost Education of Horace Tate: Uncovering the Hidden Heroes Who Fought for Justice in Schools, Vanessa Siddle Walker "tells the gripping and largely untold story of how black educators in the South quietly
but courageously laid the groundwork for one of the greatest victories of the civil rights movement over the course of nearly a century." The book also "examines what was lost in the integration of public schools--namely, many of the distinctive insights and practices that enabled African American educators to prepare black children not only to succeed academically but to be full and equal participants in American democracy--and how the nation continues to suffer for that loss."
The
Lost Education of Horace Tate is an important contribution to the dialogue on school integration, and we hope to engage with people around it soon. Stay tuned!!
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Share these reports on Twitter (be sure to include @PRRAC_DC
#FairHousingIntersections in your Tweet!)
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Housing/Schools Reports
The Poverty and Race Research Action Council recently released three reports related to housing/schools connections:
PRRAC is looking to connect with anyone making efforts to connect housing/schools work. Contact
Megan Haberle if you have news to share!
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On a related note, in July NCSD and PRRAC co-hosted a roundtable discussion at the Baltimore Regional Housing Partnership to explore potential connections between housing and school integration initiatives in the five-county Baltimore region. Professor Genevieve Siegel-Hawley came up from Richmond to present on recent efforts in Virginia to bring together housing and school leaders. Tanya Clay House shared ideas about how educators might incorporate integration strategies into district-level ESSA plans (we are working on a related toolkit).
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COMING SOON TO A CITY NEAR YOU
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"America to Me"
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There's already
a lot of buzz
about America to Me
, a 10-part docuseries featured on the Starz network. It explores lingering issues of racial equity within a diverse school setting in Oak Park, IL (the site of a decade-long housing integration effort).
NCSD members and supporters are encouraged to participate in some of the opportunities being organized around this series.
We are happy to put you in touch with our ATM contacts if you'd like to get involved.
Each week, the Participant Media team will be in a different city, screening an episode. Here's where they'll visit (we've included cities they've already visited as well):
- Atlanta (8/24)
- Detroit (8/28)
- New York City (9/8)
- NCSD Members New York Appleseed and IntegrateNYC are hosting a watch party 9/8 starting at 3pm (reception) and 4pm (screening) at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Register here.
- Boston (9/13)
- Los Angeles (9/23)
- Washington, DC (9/27)
- Dallas (10/3)
- Charlotte (10/10)
- Oakland (10/18)
- Chicago (10/25)
With each city partner, Participant Media hopes to organize:
- Signing up 100+ watch party leaders who commit to putting together watch groups that will watch all 10 episodes using the America To Me Digital Experience to help guide conversation
- A training workshop led by local partners to give watch party organizers strategies and language to hold authentic and positive conversations
- A city screening and reception with a dynamic panel, moderator and audience participation
- A diverse city audience
- A local high school spoken word poet
- A town hall forum at the end of the series where watch parties/ educators/ influencers can share reflections and calls to action
Even if the Participant Media team doesn't visit a city near you, there are ways to get involved:
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Job Annoucements
- Denver Public Schools recently launched a superintendent search (and click here to learn about the district's "Strengthening Neighborhoods" initiative, an effort to increase integration and inclusion in DPS schools)
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Seeking Board Members
Also, the next LTLT monthly meeting takes place on September 25th in DC.
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| Panorama Education Workshop |
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Beyond Desegregation Conference
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Learn Together, Live Together Launch Event
See LTLT's
blog post about their recent launch event, featuring John King.
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The case for getting white people to voluntarily desegregate public schools
Featuring:
Courtney Mykytyn (@integratedschls)
Patricia Gandara (@CRPatUCLA)
KCRW Radio: "It's been more than 60 years since
Brown v. Board of Education, and research shows that children of all races learn better in integrated schools. But today, most kids will start classes in schools that are highly segregated. Schools in America have been increasingly segregated since the 90s. We find out why, and hear from an activist who says it's up to white parents -- like her -- to voluntarily desegregate."
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| For your reading pleasure... |
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-
In
this op-ed
, Rachel Martin Gary (Sheff Movement) and Cara McClellan (NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund) discuss why a legal challenge to Hartford's desegregation remedies is wrongheaded
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Upcoming Events of Interest
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For the last three years, the Reimagining Integration: Diverse and Equitable Schools (RIDES) Project at Harvard has curated over 150 practices and partnered with a dozen traditional and charter schools, as well as six Boston-area school districts, to develop tools and processes to build more diverse and equitable schools. For the first time, in 2018-19, we are offering what we have learned to schools across the country. On September 25, we will share details of the RIDES Institute, a year-long equity improvement program that brings together a limited number of schools for a blend of face-to-face and virtual learning. The goal of the Institute is to help schools that are "desegregated" - meaning they have diverse bodies in their buildings-become more fully "integrated"- places where all children learn at high levels, feel included, appreciate their own and other cultures, understand racism, and work to dismantle it. At the info session, you will learn about the community expectations, outcomes, and next steps for schools and districts wishing to engage with us this year.
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"Color of Law" Book Tour with Richard Rothstein
Richard Rothstein continues his tour for his recent book,
Color of Law, which
uncovers a forgotten history of how racially explicit policies of federal, state, and local governments created patterns of residential segregation that persist to this day. See tour destinations and dates below.
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