The Century Foundation's Bridges Collaborative launched its school segregation dashboard, which shows how segregated schools in every metro area in the U.S. are—including breakdowns by different types of segregation & what the causes of that segregation are. A report summarizing the findings can be found here. This project was a collaboration between TCF and the Segregation Index, a research team led by Professor Ann Owens from the University of Southern California and Professor sean f. reardon from Stanford University (an NCSD Research Advisory Panel member). WXY Studio developed the interactive dashboard.  News coverage included: Chalkbeat, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Newsweek, and The 74.

POLICY UPDATES

Last Thursday, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona testified before the House Ed and Labor Committee at a hearing examining the policies and priorities of the Department of ED.

Here's what he said about school integration (see 3:42:08-50 or pg. 5 here):

"We're promoting and supporting programs that are aimed at removing those racial isolation, racial barriers between schools, promoting...magnet programs that make integration of students a core tenant of their school's programming, and we're going to continue to do that. But we're also going to make sure that we recognize and we work with our stakeholders that are non-education stakeholders to look at housing patterns that also impact where students attend schools. Students learn best in a diverse community and it's really important that we promote that as a positive thing."

On May 17th, Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) reintroduced the NCSD-endorsed Strength in Diversity Act in the Senate: "This legislation would promote diversity in schools through a federal grant program to support voluntary, community-driven strategies." 

NCSD STAFF UPDATES

What We've Been Up to Recently

Amici Curiae: In Support of Diversity Efforts

We joined an amicus brief with the ACLU, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law (among others), in support of the Fairfax County School Board's appeal to the Fourth Circuit in Coalition for T.J. v. Fairfax County School Board. If you're unfamiliar with this case, please read our past update!

Some highlights from the amicus brief:

"When a single public high school stands in such a position of advantage, the means of access must be open to all students if it is to further the democratic values promoted through public education."

"Plaintiffs’ position in this case and the District Court’s misapplication of the law jeopardize more than the enrollment at TJ. They stand to limit school communities’ ability to further diversity and equity to prepare young people to engage fully and respectfully with one another in an increasingly heterogeneous democratic society. This Court should reverse the ruling of the court below."

Education Requests for Fiscal Year 2023 Appropriations Bill

We led an advocacy letter, joined by over 50 organizations and individuals, requesting that Congress invest in integration in the FY 2023 appropriations.

Introducing Our Newly Formatted Field-Wide Calendar via Notion

We have transitioned to using the web collaboration platform Notion to house and format our field-wide calendar, which includes events from various organizations related to school integration, educational equity, civil rights, and social justice. Going forward, a link to the calendar will be available at the bottom of our monthly newsletter in the "Mark Your Calendar" section and on the front page of our website.

Events are displayable in a calendar or spreadsheet format. 

To submit an event for inclusion, please use this Google form.

For any inquiries, email newsletter@school-diversity.org.

National -

• Why Did US Cities Resegregate?: Georgetown Law Professor Sheryll Cashin’s Latest Book is an Unsparing Accounting of the Collapse of Racial Integration After the Civil Rights Era — and a Plea for Change. by Jake Blumgart (Bloomberg, May 11) - "Integration was a success story. But the Supreme Court in the ’90s basically says it’s time to get out of the business of policing school desegregation. To the extent that neighborhood schools reflect residential segregation patterns [they reasoned], that’s not the school's fault. They get off the hook. In the next few decades, we have rapid resegregation." 

• In Conversation: Why Some Education Policies Fall Short, and What Can Be Done About It by Robert Kim & Terris Ross (American Institutes for Research, May 23) - "In our roles at the Department of Education, we both worked with the Civil Rights Data Collection, which provides longitudinal data about education, including indicators related to access and barriers to opportunity, PreK-12. It’s such a powerful data source and it makes me think about how I wished more state and system leaders knew about the collection and the other tools available to inform policy implementation and improve learning conditions." 

Massachusetts -

• Massachusetts’ Failure to Forestall Growing Segregation (Boston Globe, May 23) - "The state’s failure to provide leadership for the past two decades has left Massachusetts schools highly segregated by race, ethnicity, and income."

New Jersey -

• Education Commissioner Rejects Petition to Sever Absecon-Pleasantville Send-Receive Agreement (Press of Atlantic City, May 27) - “The state has rejected the requested termination of a send-receive agreement between the Absecon and Pleasantville school districts, delivering a win to activists who have argued that ending the agreement would worsen segregation in the area."

New York -

• How Queens Became Segregated (Code Switch podcast, May 11) - “Why did a school district in one of the most diverse places on Earth need a diversity plan? And why were some parents in that district so adamantly opposed to the plan?"

Texas -

• What You Should Know About Plyler, the Case Protecting Undocumented Students’ Education Rights by Matt Barnum (Chalkbeat, May 11) - “'It has been good law — fully enforced law — ever since. Full stop,' said Black, referring to Plyler. 'But since the day it was decided, there has been outrage amongst some regarding the decisions and legislative and other agendas to undermine and reverse it.'”

Highlights from Bridges Collaborative's 5/19-5/20 national convening:

Featured speakers included: Mohammed Choudhury, state superintendent of schools, Maryland State Department of Education; MD Senate President Bill Ferguson (D–Baltimore City); Dr. Stefan Lallinger, director, TCF's Bridges Collaborative; Roberto J. Rodríguez, assistant secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, US Department of Education; Liz Bowie, education reporter, The Baltimore Banner; Mark Zuckerman, president, TCF; Richard Kahlenberg, senior fellow, TCF; Maya Wiley, president and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).

Photo: “Paths forward for Integration in Maryland and Beyond” panel, a conversation about advancing school integration locally and nationally. Speakers included: Mohammed Choudhury, state superintendent of schools, Maryland State Department of Education; and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D–Baltimore City). Moderated by Liz Bowie, education reporter, The Baltimore Banner.

Photo: Richard Kahlenberg, John Brittain, and Michael Alves lead a workshop: "How Best To Promote Socioeconomic and Racial/Ethnic Desegregation."

Photo: As part of the keynote, Maya Wiley, president and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights reflected on the importance of school and housing integration and what can be done to promote it. Moderated by Richard Kahlenberg, senior fellow, The Century Foundation.

• Opinion: What I Want My Kids to About American Racism by Eboo Patel (New York Times, May 10) - "The job of the school is to provide broader context for the facts of the world and to pass along the knowledge and skills so that students can navigate it. That means that a full history of America’s past and present, our ugliness and our beauty, needs to be taught." 

Join the Albert Shanker Institute on June 1, from 6-7:15 pm ET, for the virtual event discussing our new report on segregation and K-12 school funding.

The discussion will be framed by their new report, which will be published the morning of the event. The report presents both national results as well as case studies of seven major metropolitan areas, using data on outcomes ranging from housing values to K-12 funding adequacy to the “redlining” maps used by the federal government to assess lending risk during the late 1930s.

Check out our conferences listing page, which is evolving given the COVID-19 crisis.

Please let us know of upcoming events, by emailing school-diversity@prrac.org.