The U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced the first-ever Fostering Diverse Schools (FDS) Demonstration Grants Program grantees. NCSD’s advocacy helped secure this new federal funding to support state and local school integration efforts. Congratulations to the 14 states and districts with brand new funding for school integration planning and implementation! More info below.

POLICY UPDATES

NCSD STAFF UPDATES

What We've Been Up to Recently

NCSD Presents at U.S. Department of Education "Equity in Opportunity" Conference

Last week, NCSD Director Gina Chirichigno shared information about NCSD's work at the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) first Conference on Equity in Opportunity in Denver, CO. The event brought together researchers, practitioners, and policy leaders to discuss and catalyze progress on educator diversity.

NCSD also recently presented at the Color of Education Summit in Raleigh, NC, attended the 20th annual Brown Lecture in Education Research in Washington, DC, and organized a panel session for the Southern Education Foundation's Issues Forum in Charlotte, NC on November 16. The panel session, "The Interconnection Between School Finance and Segregation," is based on the latest Poverty & Race special issue and will be moderated by guest editor and NCSD member Derek Black.

Meagan Comb of the Wheelock Educational Policy Center facilitates a Philanthropic Fireside Chat featuring Patrice Dawkins-Jackson of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and John Travis of the Barr Foundation at ED's recent Equity in Opportunity convening.

The video of Leslie Fenwick's AERA lecture, "Otherwise Qualified: The Untold Story of Brown and Black Educators’ Professional Superiority," can be found here.

NCSD MEMBER UPDATES

CROSS-MOVEMENT RESOURCES

• The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland published an economic commentary using data from Ohio to show that "Black and white students attend largely separate K-12 schools that provide unequal educational opportunity."

• According to a new commentary by The Century Foundation,"[i]f the nation fails to replicate and improve on the results of race-based affirmative action through other programs, there will be severe and far-reaching impacts that reverberate through historically marginalized communities as students from these communities are further excluded from the talent pipelines serving critical fields of employment."

NEWS FROM ACROSS OUR COUNTRY

National -

• For Book Fairs, Scholastic Will Separate Titles That Deal With Race and Gender (New York Times, October 16) - "Scholastic, the children’s book publisher, said that its elementary-school book fairs would now have a separate section for titles that deal with race, gender and sexuality...Those organizing book fairs can include—or exclude—that set of books, known as the 'Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice' catalog...[which include books that] contain basic history, such as 'I Am Ruby Bridges,' about school integration."

• Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department. (New York Times, October 10) - "[T]he schools are more socioeconomically and racially integrated than many in America. Children of junior soldiers attend classes alongside the children of lieutenant colonels...That reflects a history dating back to 1948, when President Harry S. Truman ordered the military to desegregate its forces. In the years that followed, the military established integrated schools, primarily in the South, at a time when local public schools remained segregated."

• How corporate America is forgoing growth to avoid diversifying its workforce (Fortune, October 10) - "Today, our country continues to stymie the full potential of Black Americans and other underrepresented communities at a greater scale as they continue to be denied equitable access to the tools of economic mobility."

• The Roots of Today’s Authoritarianism Come From a 19th Century Supreme Court Ruling (Politico, October 9) - "Had the Court not blocked integration then, habits of supremacy and its attendant 'segregation-forever' politics might have been broken long ago. Instead, white supremacy became the central organizing principle of southern politics for nearly a century and any southerner that disliked segregation suffered under one-party autocratic rule."



• How an 8-year-old Hispanic girl paved the way for desegregation (Washington Post, October 9) - "Though the case never went to the Supreme Court, Mendez v. Westminster would have far-reaching consequences and help pave the way for Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 ruling that ended legal school segregation nationwide."

California -

• Berkeley successfully integrated its schools. Now California is studying its playbook. (Berkeleyside, October 17) - "The California reparations task force proposes allowing students to transfer within and between school districts, citing Berkeley as a rare example of successful integration."

Colorado -

• Researchers bring renewed attention to Colorado school's desegregation case (Denver 7, October 13) - "Martinez, Guzman and others have sought to bring more light to the Maestas case and its significance in the history of school segregation. A memorial now stands at the Alamosa County courthouse, and another sculpture has traveled throughout the state."

Florida -

• Parents’ Rights, Sex, and Race in 1970s Florida (JSTOR Daily, October 13) - "Save Our Children is remembered as an effort to keep gay people out of public life. But it was also rooted in the movement against school integration."

Illinois -

• Getting village, schools in sync on racial equity (Wednesday Journal, October 3) - "The numbers of African American children in Oak Park and the relative balance of integration of schools became paramount data on whether the Oak Park vision of racially integrated housing was on the right track. Today, we may be witnessing a reversal of Oak Park’s early measurement of success as the percentage African American students is declining significantly at Oak Park and River Forest High School."

Maryland -

• WGU Announces Scholarships to Boost Teacher Diversity in Maryland (Southern Maryland Chronicle, October 27) - "Western Governors University’s (WGU) School of Education is set to unveil two scholarship programs, 'WGU Loves Teachers' and 'Become a Teacher,' aimed at supporting current and aspiring educators in Maryland. These scholarship initiatives, each valued up to $4,000, are designed to enhance the teacher pipeline and promote greater diversity within the teaching profession."

Massachusetts -

• Challenging ‘Up South’ Boston: Roxbury forum recalls the city’s school desegregation movement (Dorchester Reporter, October 4) - "They marched, they protested, and they gathered detailed proof that the Boston Public Schools were racially separate and unequal...Overshadowed by the turmoil and strife that came after the ruling, that earlier history took the spotlight in a forum last month at Roxbury Community College sponsored by the Boston Desegregation and Busing Initiative."
• Related: Before filing lawsuit, Black leaders pressed for better schools in 1960s

Mississippi -

• 'The Harvest': First-hand perspectives of school desegregation in Leland, MS (WUWM, October 24) - "In its landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court found school segregation unconstitutional. But the path to desegregating schools hasn’t been straightforward. In the following decades, states that had resisted desegregation were forced to follow the law. New segregation academies popped up in small towns throughout the south, like Leland, Mississippi—a town of about 6 thousand people in the Mississippi delta."

Missouri -

• Former All-Black School in Rural Missouri To Be Turned into Cultural Center (Daily Yonder, October 3) - "This abandoned one-room schoolhouse in West Plains, Missouri, was recently purchased by a couple who plans to use the space to host community conversations about the segregated history of the Ozarks."

New Jersey -

• Judge’s segregation ruling could impact future of education in N.J. (NJ.com, October 6) - "The state Superior Court judge in the five-year-old lawsuit over the high rates of segregation in New Jersey schools issued a decision late Friday that paves the way for a possible trial to address the problem." (See Policy Update section above for more related news coverage.)

• Wildwood schools seek to bridge educational equity gap (Press of Atlantic City, October 3) - "In 2019, the district established its own equity goal to increase the number of minority students who enroll in and successfully complete honors and AP classes. The aim is for the demographics in the advanced coursework to reflect the demographics of the high school."

New York -

• As NYC middle school applications open, selective programs surge in one Brooklyn district (Chalkbeat New York, October 11) - "The number of middle schools across New York City using academic screens to sort fifth grade applicants continues to remain well below pre-pandemic levels—but in one Brooklyn school district, they’re growing dramatically...While some have called for more screened options and the inclusion of other measures of student performance, like state test scores, others warn the practice harms integration efforts in a school system that is already among the most segregated in the nation."

• Selective middle school admissions return to one Manhattan district after fierce debate (Chalkbeat New York, October 5) - "A Manhattan school district is reversing course, allowing some schools to screen middle school applicants for accelerated programs in the upcoming admissions cycle, according to a letter its superintendent sent to families this week...Some families argue the elimination of screens reduces academic rigor in some classrooms, while others say practices like screened admissions harm integration efforts in a school system that remains among the most segregated in the nation."

North Carolina -

• Sylvia Mendez Newcomers School in High Point is the first NC school named for a Latina person (WFDD, October 5) - "Guilford County Schools hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Sylvia Mendez Newcomers School on Wednesday. Sylvia Mendez is a civil rights pioneer who, as a child, was part of a federal case that ended school segregation of Hispanic children in California and paved the way for integration across the country."
• Related: Guilford County Schools unveils newest newcomer school and names it after a national civil rights activist; First school in North Carolina named after a Latina

Ohio -

• Never Stop Trying: Dream Town Author on Shaker Heights’s Quest for Racial Equity (The 74, October 11) - "Washington Post reporter Laura Meckler goes home again to tell the story of her school district’s decades-long pursuit of integration."

Tennessee -

• MTSU Albert Gore Research Center awarded grant to fund Brown v. Board of Education Oral History Project (WGNS News, October 12) - "Middle Tennessee State University’s Albert Gore Research Center has been awarded a $213,000 federal grant to fund the Brown v. Board of Education Oral History Project. Funded by the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Park in Topeka, Kansas, the 30-month research project will allow Gore Center staff to conduct extensive oral history interviews documenting the impact of the 1954 Supreme Court decision to end school segregation."
• Related: MTSU receives $213K for civil rights project

• Rachel Louise Martin Chronicles the Battle to Desegregate an East Tennessee High School (Nashville Scene, October 5) - "A few chapters into 'A Most Tolerant Little Town,' Rachel Louise Martin tells what happened on a Sunday morning in the fall of 1956, a few days after 12 Black students attempted to desegregate Clinton High School in East Tennessee."

• Final Memphis 13 mural unveiled at Gordon Achievement Academy (Local Memphis, October 3) - "The final installment of the Memphis 13 murals is now up at Gordon Achievement Academy, where four of the students attended school. 62 years ago...the Memphis 13 enrolled into predominantly white schools, integrating the city’s public school system."

• Tennessee Judge Richard Dinkins, who paved the way for desegregating Nashville schools, has died (WLPN News, October 2) - "The first Black member of the Tennessee Court of Appeals, Judge Richard Dinkins, has died. He began his career as a law clerk, before later winning a Nashville school desegregation case."
• Related: Judiciary Mourns The Loss Of Former Judge Richard Dinkins; LDF Mourns the Loss of Judge Richard H. Dinkins, Pioneering Advocate for Civil Rights

South Carolina -

• A leading SC public schools group sues state over new school voucher program (Post and Courier, October 26) - "One of South Carolina’s top public school advocacy organizations is suing the state over its recently implemented school voucher program, arguing it violates the constitutional prohibition on public dollars funding private schools...'It is unacceptable to send public dollars to schools that discriminate against children and families,' Brenda Murphy, president of the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. 'In addition to violating our state constitution, we know that vouchers exacerbate school segregation, harm educational outcomes and undermine our public schools,' she said."

Virginia -

• Fairfax County moves forward with plan to change W.T. Woodson High School name (DC News Now, October 16) - "The Fairfax school...is named after William Tucker Woodson. He was the county’s superintendent from 1929 to 1962. A 1959 memo from W.T. Woodson showed his thoughts on school desegregation."
• Related: Opinion: Woodson High School’s renaming should be a ‘pure’ commercial transaction

• Harrisonburg wins grant to improve connections between Northeast and downtown (WMRA, October 3) - "Harrisonburg is one of 15 cities across the country that was selected to receive a Community Connectors grant, which aims to repair the damage caused by infrastructure that divided communities...In the 1950s and early '60s, Harrisonburg was one of hundreds of communities in America that used federal funding for so-called 'urban renewal' projects."

Wisconsin -

• Milwaukee has prominent role in new book chronicling rise of school choice (WUWM, October 18) - "Fitzpatrick explains that vouchers were initially used in a handful of southern states, as a tool of white flight during the years leading up to and following Brown v. Board of Education, which ordered the desegregation of public schools...Fitzpatrick says Milwaukee was 'the perfect place' for school vouchers to make a comeback in 1990."

Founded in 2009, the National Coalition on School Diversity is a cross-sector network of 50+ national civil rights organizations, university-based research centers, and state and local coalitions working to expand support for school integration. NCSD supports its members in designing, enacting, implementing, and uplifting PK-12 public school integration policies and practices so we may build cross-race/cross-class relationships, share power and resources, and co-create new realities.

NCSD MEMBERSHIP

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund * Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund * American Civil Liberties Union * Poverty & Race Research Action Council * Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law * Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund * Magnet Schools of America * One Nation Indivisible * Southern Poverty Law Center * Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School * Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA * Campaign for Educational Equity, Teachers College, Columbia University * University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights * Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University * Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley * Education Rights Center, Howard University School of Law * Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota Law School * Education Law Center * New York Appleseed * Sheff Movement Coalition * Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation * ERASE Racism * Chicago Lawyers' Committee * Empire Justice Center * IntegrateNYC * Intercultural Development Research Association * Reimagining Integration: Diverse and Equitable Schools Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education * Institute for Social Progress at Wayne County Community College District * Center on Law, Inequaliy and Metropolitan Equity at Rutgers Law School * Integrated Schools * The Office of Transformation and Innovation at the Dallas Independent School District * Live Baltimore * Maryland Equity Project at the University of Maryland College of Education * Center for Education and Civil Rights at Penn State College of Education * National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector * Diversity Education Network at Rutgers University * Being Black at School * Unified Community Connections * The Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy * Public Advocacy for Kids * The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools * The School Diversity Notebook * Fair Housing Justice Center, Inc. * Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Inc. (METCO) * Learn Together, Live Together * Beloved Community * Learning Policy Institute * Public School Forum of North Carolina * The Bell * North Carolina Justice Center * The Bridges Collaborative at The Century Foundation * SproutFive * Oneonta For Equality * NestQuest Houston * Metis Associates