NCSD and IDRA hosted a Twitter chat in recognition of the 50th anniversary of San Antonio ISD v. Rodriguez to spark conversation around the link between school funding and segregation (more below). | |
POLICY UPDATES: FY23 MSAP COMPETITION & FOSTERING DIVERSE SCHOOLS PROGRAM | |
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) opened the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) grant competition for fiscal year 2023. The deadline to submit an intent to apply is April 14 (encouraged but not required) and the application deadline is May 15. The ED MSAP Team will also hold open office hours on Microsoft Teams on Thursday, April 6, 13, and 20 from 1-2pm ET.
Also, ED will soon release a request for proposals (RFP) for the new Fostering Diverse Schools Program (FDSP). NCSD’s advocacy helped secure this federal funding to support state and local integration efforts via Title IV, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This voluntary grant program provides more flexible funding to help states and school districts reduce school segregation and strengthen evidence around effective practices for addressing it. Stay tuned for more information regarding the pending RFP!
The President's FY 2024 Budget again includes a request for $100 million for FDSP in addition to a $10 million increase for MSAP (up to $149 million). We hope you'll join us in advocating for these important requests, which are consistent with our School Integration Priorities for a Biden/Harris Administration.
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NCSD STAFF UPDATES
What We've Been Up to Recently
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NCSD Presents at NEA National Leadership Summit
NCSD director Gina Chirichigno and NEA senior policy analyst Christine DonFrancesco presented "Leveraging Real School Integration for Pandemic Recovery" at the 2023 NEA National Leadership Summit on March 10-12 in San Francisco, CA. The theme for the conference was "Joy, Justice, Excellence: The Strength of Educators. The Brilliance of Students. The Power of Community."
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NCSD Participates in Rodriguez 50th Anniversary Commemoration
On the 50th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court school funding case San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, IDRA, Trinity University and its Center for Education Leadership, Edgewood ISD, and NCSD hosted a commemorative event to reflect on the case, its impact, and its legacy of struggle and activism. Panelists shared moving stories of the families and policy experts involved in the case, and discussed what communities can do today to promote fair funding of public schools. NCSD Director Gina Chirichigno joined in person. Watch the video.
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Recap of #RodriguezAt50 Twitter Chat
NCSD and IDRA also hosted a #RodriguezAt50 Twitter chat to spark conversation around the link between school funding and segregation. Check out this recap of the chat, courtesy of Peter Piazza at the School Diversity Notebook.
You can still add your thoughts to our discussion prompts! Access the full chat here (scroll to the bottom to start from the beginning).
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Update:
- Check out IDRA's latest Classnotes Podcast episode for the 50th anniversary of the San Antonio ISD v. Rodriguez U.S. Supreme Court ruling. IDRA's Celina Moreno met with Albert Cortez to discuss the history of the case, its impact, the litigation that followed, and how the case led to IDRA’s founding. Watch the interview here.
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Update:
- Tune in to a recent Integrated Schools podcast episode, “Between The Lines: An EPIC Comeback,” featuring Epic Theatre Ensemble student actor Dilisima Vickers and co-artistic director Jim Wallert, who discuss how the play Between the Lines came to be and what they learned through making it. The episode also includes excerpts from the show, including an original song called "Segregated by Design" and a game show called "The Color Code." Related, check out this Poverty & Race journal article interview with Vickers and two other student creators/actors.
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Update:
- Public Funds Public Schools, a partnership between SPLC and ELC, released a new report, "The Fiscal Consequences of Private School Vouchers," which examines the growth in voucher programs and spending in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2019, a diversion of hundreds of millions of public funds annually by the end of the period studied.
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RESEARCH ADVISORY PANEL (RAP) UPDATES
- Congratulations to Roslyn Arlin Mickelson, recently selected as a member of the National Academy of Education (NAEd), an honorific society consisting of U.S. members and international associates who are elected on the basis of outstanding scholarship on education. Founded in 1965, the mission of NAEd is to advance high-quality education research and its use in policy formulation and practice.
Learn more about our Research Advisory Panel here.
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INDIVIDUAL MEMBER UPDATES
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Cara McClellan recently authored "Evading a Race-Conscious Constitution," a journal article discussing the role of the courts in enforcing desegregation in the face of white resistance. Cara is director of the recently-launched Advocacy for Racial and Civil (ARC) Justice Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. The ARC Justice Clinic provides students with hands-on experience working in civil rights litigation and policy advocacy in the Philadelphia region.
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Kevin Welner is co-editor of Schools of Opportunity, a new book that discusses lessons learned from a National Education Policy Center’s project by the same name, which was designed to highlight public high schools that are using research-based practices for closing opportunity gaps. The book provides case studies of schools that demonstrate key criteria that other schools can emulate, such as inclusive school climate, performance-based assessment, commitment to detracking, and more.
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES | |
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Our Children Can’t Wait is a new podcast by the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools based on a book of the same name about the systems and structures that keep our kids from flourishing. Hosted by the book's author and the center's executive director Joseph Bishop, the series unpacks a host of issues that impact education to develop a new roadmap for education equity. Check out the recent episode "How the Civil Rights Movement is Still Shaping Education Policy Today," featuring John Jackson of the Schott Foundation and Arnold Fege of Public Advocacy for Kids.
- A new journal article "The Magnet-School Wars and the Future of Colorblindness" by Sonja Starr at the University of Chicago "uses recent magnet-school litigation as an entry point to examine the future of colorblindness, arguing that precedent and numerous other considerations argue against extending the principle beyond racial classifications."
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Call for papers: The special series of the Metropolitics journal will focus on efforts for Black political and economic power in the contemporary period, including educational initiatives and schools. If you have any questions, please email James DeFilippis at jdefilip@rutgers.edu or Akira Drake at akirad@upenn.edu. Submissions are due May 1, 2023.
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Call for papers: Early Childhood Research Quarterly journal released a call for papers on equitable access to early care and education (ECE). This special issue aims to advance the knowledge base on policy solutions and practices that improve equitable access to affordable and high-quality ECE from both the family and provider perspectives. Manuscripts are due June 1, 2023.
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NEWS FROM ACROSS OUR COUNTRY | |
National -
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The Racial Makeup of a School’s AP Classes May Perpetuate Within-School Segregation (Housing Matters, March 8) - "This study examines how current within-school segregation affects the likelihood that future Black high school students will take advanced math courses. Using public school data from North Carolina, the authors followed three cohorts of public high school students, totaling more than 240,000 students in more than 500 schools from 100 school districts."
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Blocking Black History Is Just The Beginning (Essence, February 28) - "Tackling and repairing inequities means acknowledging and exploring their roots. That includes the exclusion of Black veterans in the 1944 GI bill, racial redlining, and school segregation, all of which inform discussions on reparations that the College Board has now removed from its AP African American Studies curriculum. History helps us understand our disproportionate representation in unemployment lines, failing schools, jails and prisons. History’s past directly impacts today’s present."
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Minnesota -
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Improving Minnesota education: What does the evidence say really works? (Minnesota Reformer, March 14) - "Minnesota has a long history of residential segregation which impacts schooling and learning. Overwhelmingly student achievement is correlated with poverty. Children who live in high or concentrated poverty neighborhoods generally do worse in school than those who do not live in them... What do we learn from all these studies? If Minnesota really wishes to improve educational quality, it first needs to address the way we fund and structure our schools. We should not fund them based on local property taxes but instead equalize funding across the state."
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Missouri -
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Political activism heats up St. Louis suburban school board races (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 20) - “'There is a long tradition of really fearsome and fractious fights over schools, affirmative action, school prayer, school segregation and teaching evolution. It’s not new that we are fighting over schools,' said David Houston, an assistant professor of education policy at George Mason University. 'What is new is that the fault lines are falling so neatly along party identifications than the fights that happened generations ago.'”
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New Jersey -
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'Segregation' In NJ Schools Focus Of New Rutgers Study (Patch, March 3) - "Large numbers of underserved students are being clustered together in New Jersey according to their race and household income. Resources are being stretched thin. And the problem is getting worse, a recent report on 'school segregation' from Rutgers University-Newark claims."
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2 reports show the damages of school segregation and paths for fixing it (NJ Advance Media, March 1) - "Two reports on the effects of school segregation and how to address them came out Tuesday, almost exactly a year after the state argued that the school system would need to be 'rebuilt brick by brick' to integrate schools...The reports are timely as the state awaits a decision in a 2018 case over whether students should continue to be assigned to schools based on where they live, resulting in the New Jersey schools ranking as the sixth or seventh most segregated in the nation."
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New York -
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Confronting and Addressing K-12 Segregation in New York City Schools (Thirteen, March 6) - "Most importantly, policymakers and media professionals should heed the views, ideas, and activism of New York City students. It is students who are directly impacted by segregation and inequity. As New Yorkers, it is time we take their insights seriously."
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North Carolina -
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CMS and Mint Hill reach détente in long, twisted battle over suburban charter schools (WFAE Charlotte, March 14) - "Five years ago, educators and policymakers across North Carolina watched as Mecklenburg County lawmakers pushed a municipal charter school bill through the General Assembly that some thought would reshape public education across the state. But none of the four towns authorized to create a new type of public school ever pursued that path... Opponents said the municipal charter bill could set a troubling statewide precedent. Leaders of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools said the option undermined long-range planning for building new schools and expanding existing ones. And because the municipal charter schools could preferentially draw students from mostly-white town limits, they could undermine diversity in nearby CMS schools."
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Texas -
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The state takeover of Houston public schools is about more than school improvement (The Conversation, March 17) - "In order to understand the logic of the planned state takeover of the Houston schools, it pays to understand the important role that schools have played in the social, political and economic development of communities of color. Historically, communities of color have relied on school level politics as an entry point to broader political participation. School-level politics may involve issues like ending school segregation, demanding more resources for schools, increasing the numbers of teachers and administrators of color, and participating in school board elections."
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Considering race, class and power in Texas Education Agency’s takeover of Houston Independent School District (Houston Public Media, March 15) - "The Texas Education Agency is seizing control of the largest school district in the state. For both supporters and opponents of the takeover, race and class plays an undeniable central role in the move... For decades, Black community members in Houston had demanded better schools for their children. Policymakers gave in, but they had an ulterior motive: to create segregated residential patterns across the Houston area, where Black and white people were relatively integrated at the dawn of the 20th century."
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Texas state officials take over Houston school system amid contentious political battle (Austin American-Statesman, March 15) - "Texas education officials said Wednesday they will assume control of the embattled Houston school district after a long and slogging legal battle over a proposed intervention. The state announced that it will soon appoint a new superintendent and a board of managers in Texas' largest district and the eighth-largest district in the United States as a debate ensues along political party lines."
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Virginia -
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Isle of Wight School Board states systemic racism does not exist in new policy (Daily Press, March 17) - "The Isle of Wight County School Board last week narrowly passed a revised policy that, among other things, states that 'there is no systemic racism or bigotry perpetuated by the United States or any governmental entity'...Isle of Wight County was one of the first communities in Virginia to face a legal challenge for its failure to comply with school desegregation orders following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling."
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American Civil Liberties Union |
- Chief Equity & Inclusion Officer
- Staff Attorney, Racial Justice Program
- Staff Attorney, Racial Justice Program, Indigenous Justice
- Policy Counsel, Racial Justice (2)
- Senior Policy Counsel, Housing (2)
- View all ACLU openings
| Asian Americans Advancing Justice |
- Director, Anti-Profiling, Civil Rights & National Security
- Assistant Director, Litigation
- Staff Attorney, Litigation
- View all AAJC openings
| Education Trust |
- Vice President, Partnerships & Engagement
- Director of Policy, Early Childhood
- Senior/Policy Analyst (K-12)
- Senior Associate, National & State Partnerships
- Senior/Associate of Research
- Diverse and Effective Educators Research Fellow
- View all EdTrust openings
| Einhorn Collaborative | | Gates Foundation | | Hunt Institute |
- Deputy Director of Early Learning
- Deputy Director of State Engagement
- Senior Policy Analyst - K-12
- Policy Analyst - Early Learning
- 2023 Spring and Summer Intern
- View all Hunt Institute openings
| Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law | | Learning Policy Institute |
- Senior Performance Assessment Specialist
- Principal and Senior Researchers
- Research and Policy Intern
- View all LPI openings
| Legal Defense Fund |
- Deputy Director of Policy
- Thurgood Marshall Institute, Director
- Senior Policy Counsel/Associate
- Thurgood Marshall Institute Library and Research Associate
- View all LDF openings
| Lumina Foundation | | MALDEF |
- Parent School Partnership Assistant
- Staff Attorney (3 positions)
- Legislative Staff Attorney (3 positions)
- View all MALDEF openings
| National Education Association |
- Manager, Human and Civil Rights
- Strategic Campaign Manager
- Senior Program Assistant
- View all NEA openings
| New America |
- Communications Director - Education Policy Program
- Data Manager - Education Funding Equity Initiative
- Program Associate - Teaching, Learning, and Technology
- Senior Policy Analyst, Early Childhood Education
- Senior/Policy Analyst - Center on Education and Labor
- View all New America openings
| Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation | | Yale University | | | |
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Exploring Sense of Belonging: Defining and Taking Action
LearnLaunch Institute
"Over the course of the day, you will have the opportunity to reflect on what sense of belonging means for your district or school, to learn from and with peers from across the state, and to leave with an actionable next step for your context."
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Denver, CO
March 31-April 3
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ASCD Annual Conference
ASCD
"Ignite your passion while you learn from innovative changemakers tackling today’s most pressing education issues. Renew your purpose as you get inspired to explore new thinking. Transform your practice in hands-on learning sessions based on real-world strategies and research-based methods. And, make the most of your time away by recharging and reconnecting. When you thrive, your students flourish."
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The Elephant in the Early Childhood Classroom: Systemic Racism and It’s Impact on Early Education
Center for Early Childhood Innovation
Kathleen Rudasill, senior associate dean for research and faculty affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education, "will describe some of the effects of systemic racism on children in classrooms in the United States, define cultural synchrony and critical race theory, and provide examples of how cultural synchrony and critical race theory may apply in early childhood classrooms."
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ELC 50th Anniversary Celebration
Education Law Center
"Please join us as we commemorate our last five decades of progress promoting education equity and racial justice in New Jersey and other states across the country and set the stage for the next fifty years and beyond."
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National Social and Emotional Learning Conference
Center for the Promotion of Social and Emotional Learning
"This conference is a unique opportunity to deepen your knowledge and practice for powerful social and emotional learning integration in inclusive and diverse environments to support student success."
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76th EWA National Seminar
Education Writers Association
As part of this year’s theme, “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” EWA will examine the history of civil rights in education. The event will also examine the continued aftermath of the pandemic on learning at all levels as well as other education issues making news. Attendees will leave equipped to better cover the 2023-24 academic year and beyond.
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Philadelphia, PA
June 7-9
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National Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference
Institute for Educational Leadership
"This national conference brings together people from across the country who believe all children deserve a safe place to live and opportunities to learn and thrive. Inspired by our theme: Spreading Love & Supporting All Children, the conference is designed to catalyze collaboration, action, and a renewed commitment to transforming our practices, partnerships, and systems."
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Clinton, TN
June 26-30 and
July 10-14 (online)
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Centering Youth Agency in the Civil Rights Movement Summer Institute for Educators
Children’s Defense Fund and Florida A&M University
"This professional development program will serve 25 K-12 teachers of all subject areas and expose participants to new approaches to civil rights history that center the agency of young people. This program is based on innovative scholarship and the culturally relevant pedagogical traditions of Freedom Schools past and present."
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Buffalo, NY
July 21-23 (hybrid)
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6th Annual Teaching Black History Conference
University at Buffalo
The Teaching Black History Conference is the signature program of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education at the University at Buffalo. The conference convenes hundreds of teachers to learn the best curricular and instructional practices surrounding Black history education. This year's conference theme is The Sounds of Blackness, Hip Hop Turns 50. Learn more and submit a proposal by March 4.
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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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