The Center for Education & Civil Rights Longitudinal School Attendance Boundary System (LSABS): LSABS is a novel data collection effort that aims to collect longitudinal data on school attendance zone boundaries from as many school districts as possible across the country. Co-led by NCSD RAP member Erica Frankenberg and Christopher Fowler, the project will lead to a database of attendance zone boundaries from 1990 to 2020, which will be made available to the public for research. The project has received funding from the National Science Foundation and Penn State University. Watch the short video above and visit their website to learn more.
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MAKING SENSE OF THE BACKLASH
AGAINST ANTI-RACIST TEACHING
& PRACTICE
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Check out (and share!) this one-minute explainer from Kimberlé Crenshaw of the African American Policy Forum. |
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An organized backlash against anti-racist teaching and practice is making its way across the country, disingenuously self-describing itself as “anti-Critical Race Theory" (or "anti-CRT").
This movement has emerged in response to renewed calls for constructive racial discourse and policymaking in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and similar instances of anti-Black violence that have occurred. It is the latest iteration of the longstanding, ever-evolving assault on racial justice and civil rights work.
Check out these related articles and resources:
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WHAT NCSD MEMBERS ARE SAYING |
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In this video, David E. Kirkland of the NYU Metro Center offers commentary on the current assault on racial equity work and explains some basic CRT concepts. |
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"At the heart of every effort to foster greater equity and inclusion in any society is a challenge to traditional hierarchies. This creates a tremendous tension and anxiety in the social order, which is easily manipulated as both a source of opposition to further efforts to promote equity and a source of resentment that can be stoked and manipulated by reactionary politicians. This is why there is invariably a backlash to progress."
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"A nationwide attempt to censor discussions of race in the classroom is underway. These bills don’t just set back progress in addressing systemic issues, they also rob young people of an inclusive education and blatantly suppress speech about race."
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NCSD STAFF UPDATES
What We've Been Up To Recently
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NCSD Urges U.S. Department of Education to Consider the Connections Between Segregation and School Discipline
"We know that discipline and desegregation are inextricably linked: both are intimately tied to the question of who belongs in our schools and communities."
Among other things, the letter asks the Department of Education to: "Review CRDC data for correlations between concentrations of race and poverty with the racially disparate impact of school discipline and school policing, including the presence of police and security staff and equipment (e.g., metal detectors and other security/surveillance technology) on school campuses and education funding spent on police."
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Strength in Diversity Act Advances in the U.S. House & School Integration in 2021 House Appropriations Report
- We're happy to report that the House Appropriations Committee accepted the Biden Administration’s budget request for “Fostering Diverse Schools” -- a $100 million competitive grants program modeled on the Strength in Diversity Act “for competitive grants to local educational agencies and State educational agencies to reduce racial and socioeconomic segregation across and within school districts.” (You'll likely recall that we issued a letter to appropriations staff requesting their support.)
- The House budget report also includes excellent language and directs the Department of Education to prioritize school diversity across multiple programs and funds, including urging action on school district secessions, prioritizing charter schools that promote diversity, and identifying additional sources of funding in ESSA to support school integration planning efforts and transportation to support school integration.
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New from Education Commission of the States: State Policy Options to Promote K-12 Integration
was featured in the Education Commission of the States' new policy guide.
"According to the National Coalition on School Diversity, 'state governments are in the best position to reverse the tide of increasing racial and socioeconomic segregation in our public schools, if the political will is present.' This policy guide provides overviews and policy considerations for states interested in increased integration across districts, between schools in a district and within individual schools."
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NCSD SUMMER INTERN SPOTLIGHT
We've had the pleasure of working with two amazing undergraduate interns this summer: Sayda Martinez-Alvarado and Nina Todd. We asked them to share information about themselves and the projects they've been working on with the NCSD network.
Sayda Martinez-Alvarado is a rising junior at Yale College majoring in Psychology and is an Education Studies Scholar. She has been working to compile submissions for a re-issue of NCSD's State of Integration report, which describes integration efforts throughout the United States. She has also been conducting a series of 1:1 interviews and facilitating a working group with experts in the field of dual-language immersion and NCSD network members. These conversations have focused on how dual-language immersion education can be used as an integration strategy. Growing up as a low-income, native Spanish-speaker student, this internship has allowed Sayda to think critically about her educational experience and how it intersects with the inequities that English Learner students continue to face today. This internship has solidified Sayda's desire to attend law school and become an education policy advocate.
Nina Todd, is a rising senior at Yale College, majoring in Political Science and Education Studies, and originally hailing from Montgomery County, Maryland. She aspires to continue working in education after she graduates, first in the classroom as a high school teacher and eventually in the courtroom as an education lawyer. She is drafting a chapter for NCSD's upcoming State of Integration report focused on challenges to selective enrollment schools (also called "exam" schools). She has helped coordinate a working group of NCSD member s focused on school discipline and restorative justice (this group helped draft our recent letter to the Department of Education). Nina describes the work at NCSD as "extremely meaningful, as I am not only engaging with issues in education I am passionate about, but I am also getting exciting professional experiences!"
THANK YOU, SAYDA AND NINA!
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Updates:
Stephen Menendian, OBI's Assistant Director and Director of Research, spoke with The Guardian this month about their new report, The Roots of Structural Racism Project: "Anyone arguing just for redistribution to equalize equality of opportunity – you’re essentially saying, let’s make things separate but equal. When have things ever been separate but equal? It’s a fundamental fallacy. White people are not going to tolerate spending eight times as much in a black school as in a white school to create equality of opportunity. It’s unsustainable."
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Update:
- PRRAC submitted comments to the Office of Management and Budget in response to a request for input on President Biden’s executive order requiring racial equity assessments across all agencies in the executive branch.
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New Blog Post:
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Ending Modern Day School Segregation, Part 1, Thomas Jefferson Alumni Action Group, - "It’s fascinating to hear the policy proposals of the candidates who participated in the [Ending Modern Day School Segregation] series and compare those against where we’ve come and where we might be headed. Importantly, candidates less sympathetic to school segregation did not participate in this series; so, the proposals below represent the perspectives of those pushing most aggressively for contemporary school integration. What do you find hopeful? What could work for your state? What might be missing?"
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Erica Frankenberg, NCSD RAP member, professor of education (educational leadership and demography) and director of the Center for Education and Civil Rights, and Katharine Dulaney, doctoral candidate in the Department of Education Policy Studies, are quoted in a WITF report on racial inequities in access to in-person learning in Pennsylvania schools during the 2020-21 school year. Additionally, Frankenberg is quoted in an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Pa. and N.J. racial gap in access to in-person learning last year was among the worst in the nation, new report says.”
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Update:
- Members of ERASE Racism’s Student Task Force (STF), along with President Elaine Gross, Community Educator/Organizer Nicole Grennan, and STF Alumnus Joel-Anthoney Bossous, participated in the 6th Annual Reimagining Education: Teaching, Learning and Leading for a Racially Just Society Summer Institute (RESI) from July 12-16th. During this conference organized by Teachers College, Columbia University, ERASE Racism’s student voices addressed the urgent need for culturally-responsive teaching, particularly with respect to integrating current events and student-centered learning into existing curriculum. Thanks to the generosity of the Rauch Foundation, ERASE Racism was also able to sponsor 31 Long Island educators to attend this year’s conference.
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RESEARCH ADVISORY PANEL UPDATES
NCSD RAP member Pedro Noguera was quoted in the New York Times article U.S. Students Ended the Pandemic School Year 4 to 5 Months Behind, a New Report Finds: "'You can’t look at the results in a vacuum,' said Pedro Noguera, dean of the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education, who called on schools to use federal funding to hire additional employees and devise individualized recovery plans for every student."
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NEWS FROM
ACROSS OUR
COUNTRY
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National -
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These Schools Served Black Students During Segregation. There’s a Fight to Preserve Them by Jaclyn Borowski, Daarel Burnette II, & Brooke Saias (Education Week, July 13) - "As Republicans and Democrats today debate what public school students should learn about America’s racist past, historians are attempting to archive how Black parents responded when our country’s school system systemically shut Black students out of their public school system."
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‘Urgent As It Ever Has Been’: Biden Pick Says She’ll Rebuild Civil Rights Office at Critical Time by Kalyn Belsha (Chalkbeat, July 13) - "When asked what role the federal government should play in integrating schools, Lhamon said she thought it was 'crucial' that students are given an opportunity to learn in 'environments that reflect the world' and that she was eager to oversee the federal magnet schools program, which often funds schools meant to attract students from different racial and economic backgrounds."
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Massachusetts -
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School Committee Approves Change to Exam School Admissions by Liz Bowie (Bay State Banner, July 1) - "The ambitious overhaul, known as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, will begin on his watch. And Choudhury will have to navigate a power-sharing arrangement between the state school board that hired him and a new Blueprint oversight board created by the legislature."
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Related: Editorial: School Integration is Back. Congress Should Embrace It. (Boston Globe, July 5) - "Integration should also be top-of-mind as Congress weighs a massive infrastructure bill. If lawmakers include substantial federal dollars for school construction in the package, they should give priority to projects that promote integration."
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CROSS-MOVEMENT RESOURCE LIST |
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Remembering Bob Moses, 1935–2021 by Margaret Burnham (The Nation, July 10) - His leadership ushered in alternative conceptions of gender, race, and political power that would, eventually, shake the world.
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- TCF's Bridges Collaborative is looking for a consultant to help design and lead virtual message training sessions for education and housing practitioners on how to talk about racial and socioeconomic integration. A description of the project can be found here. Contact Halley Potter potter@tcf.org to learn more.
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The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools |
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Public School Forum of North Carolina |
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African American Policy Forum (AAPF) |
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MAGNET SCHOOLS OF AMERICA
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE & TRAINING CONFERENCE
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Oct. 13-15 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
Join MSA in person on October 13-15 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for their conference. The theme this year is Navigate the Future of Magnet Together.
As many schools reopen fully for the upcoming school year, and a shift to the “new” normal, important questions include:
- Can we bring back what we use to have?
- Do we want to go back to how things were?
- How will teaching and learning look as we move forward?
- Can we continue to close the achievement gap in an equitable and practical way?
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COLOR OF EDUCATION SUMMIT |
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Color of Education seeks to build deeper connections across the fields of research, policy, and practice and bring together communities, educators, policymakers, experts and other key stakeholders focused on developing action-oriented approaches for achieving racial equity in education across the state of North Carolina.
The conference is a partnership between the Public School Forum of NC, The Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity, and the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
Stay tuned...the keynote speaker will be announced soon!
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The African American Policy Forum
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National School Board Association (NSBA)
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Arts Education Partnership (AEP) - Arts and education leaders from across the nation will convene virtually on Sept. 14-15 to explore solutions aimed at ensuring all learners receive a well-rounded education that includes the arts.
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NSBA - Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) - CUBE has convened school board members from across the nation for the past 53 years to network and share the continually evolving strategies they are using to address the unique educational challenges that exist in our nation's urban centers.
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National College Attainment Network (NCAN) - A premier professional development event in the field of postsecondary attainment for students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, and first-generation-to-college students.
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Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender Annual Conference (OSCLG) - The conference will feature interdisciplinary scholarship, performances, and activism around the theme of Witnessing.
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Contact Us
National Coalition on School Diversity
c/o Poverty and Race Research Action Council
Mailing Address: 740 15th St. NW #300
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-544-5066
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