Join NCSD and Learn Together, Live Together on Thursday, November 3 from 5:00-8:00 p.m. for a Brown Lecture watch party. John B. Diamond, professor of sociology and education policy at Brown University and a member of NCSD’s Research Advisory Panel, will deliver the 19th Annual AERA Brown Lecture in Education Research. Diamond’s lecture, "Defending the Color Line: White Supremacy, Opportunity Hoarding, and the Legacy of Brown," will highlight how white supremacy is deeply embedded in U.S. educational organizations and the ways that opportunity hoarding helps sustain it.

This event is free and open to the public, masks are optional but encouraged, and light refreshments will be provided. 

POLICY UPDATE: ED AWARDS $116M TO SUPPORT EQUITY AND INTEGRATION 

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced 19 Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) awards totaling $110 million and four new grant awards for the 2022 Equity Assistance Center (EAC) program totaling more than $6.5 million. 

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

"The EAC awards fund four new regional EACs that each provide technical assistance to public schools and other agencies focused on addressing equity in their community for students and the educators who support them related to race, sex, national origin, gender identity, disability, and religion. This funding also supports regional EACs that provide technical assistance and training at the request of school boards and other governmental agencies in the preparation, adoption, and implementation of plans for the desegregation of public schools. Each center provides training and technical assistance, upon request, in the areas of civil rights, equity, and school reform to school systems within a region comprised of 12-15 states. This assistance helps schools and communities ensure that equitable education opportunities are available and accessible for all children.  

The MSAP awards support efforts to develop and revitalize magnet schools with academically challenging and innovative instructional approaches designed to bring together students from different social, economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. These 19 grantees will implement a variety of curricular focus areas in 62 schools offering programming in all five areas of STEAM learning, career development, leadership skills, and language immersion."

NCSD STAFF UPDATES

What We've Been Up to Recently

REMEMBRANCE: DAVID GLASER, CEO OF ST. LOUIS-AREA INTERDISTRICT INTEGRATION PROGRAM

A sketch of David created to help promote

our 2017 conference in New York City.

David served as a member of NCSD's steering committee from 2019-2021. He was instrumental in bringing students from St. Louis to NCSD's 2015 conference, where they led a plenary highlighting their work in the Gateway2Change program. He authored a chapter in the State of Integration in St. Louis for our State of Integration 2018 report (pg. 61-62). David was quick to lend a helping hand, and ensured our updates consistently reached his network of administrators in VICC receiving districts. When our advocacy efforts involved Missouri, he engaged his network of supporters and they were fast to respond to his calls. Prior to his time at VICC, he served as the chief financial officer in the Rockwood School District and the first mayor of Wildwood, Missouri.

Via the St. Louis Post Dispatch - Rockwood School District issued the following statement: "He will be remembered for his academic and civic contributions as a Rockwood graduate and former central office administrator, as well as an advocate for all students in his role with VICC... Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends and everyone who knew and loved him."

Brenda Shum, NCSD Steering Committee member: "I only met David a few times (once at one of our in-person steering committee meetings in New York) but really appreciated his thoughtful engagement. His commitment to this work was apparent and this is a huge loss to his family, friends and community."

David will be greatly missed. We are grateful for his consistent contributions to NCSD's efforts.

Services will be held Friday, October 28. A live stream option is available. More information here.

SAVE THE DATE: HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAULI MURRAY TWITTER CHAT

“What I very often say is that I've lived to see my lost causes found.” – Pauli Murray (1976)

November 20 marks Rev. Pauli Murray’s birthday, a great poet, writer, activist, labor organizer, legal theorist, and Episcopal priest. But did you know they influenced Brown v. Board of Education? Join NCSD and the Pauli Murray Center on Monday, November 21 at 1:00 p.m. ET for a Twitter chat to learn more about Pauli's role in the school integration movement.

Email Jenna Tomasello at jtomasello@prrac.org for more information.

NCSD LEADS SUCCESSFUL #BANNEDBOOKSWEEK CAMPAIGN

Last month, NCSD was excited to participate in Banned Books Week (September 18-24), an annual event that celebrates the freedom to read. While books on integration are (thankfully) not banned, we joined the #BannedBooksWeek campaign to highlight books that have helped our members understand historical and contemporary segregation and integration. Check out the top tweet and retweet/like here, here, and here.

NCSD MEMBER UPDATES

Via the National Education Policy Center (NEPC): Several members of NCSD's network co-authored a comprehensive new policy brief arguing that the future reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (currently the Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA) should re-focus on racial equity, including addressing systemic inequity and segregation with regional cross-district approaches to funding equity, school integration, and transportation.

Also, check out this Teaching While White podcast episode featuring NEPC director and NCSD member Kevin Welner about the system of tracking, or ability-based groupings, and the large racial disparities in Gifted and Talented and Honors classes.

LAST CALL FOR "INTEGRATION AND EQUITY 2.0" ESSAYS

American Institutes for Research (AIR) put a call out for stakeholders with varied roles and expertise to submit short essays describing a promising strategy for integration and equity that addresses today’s challenges such as housing or transportation systems; law; politics and policymaking; school funding and revenue; or student- and community-related dynamics or needs.

There's still time to submit! Selected essays will be published in early 2023 through AIR. Selected essayists will be invited to participate in a national strategy session, and will be among those invited to apply for an AIR equity grant of up to $1 million each.

View the recording from the AIR Equity Initiative informational Q&A session here.

For more information, contact Robert Kim or Terris Ross at airequityinitiative@air.org.

National -

• Beyond ‘good’ and ‘bad’: Disrupting narratives about school quality (Kappan, October 24) - "[S]ystems intended to strengthen schools and advance equity by holding them accountable for their performance often have the opposite effect. By steering privileged families toward particular communities, and away from others, current measurement and accountability systems exacerbate residential segregation by race and class."

• Turning back the clock: Will fights over curriculum usher in new era of segregated schools? (USA Today, October 20) - "Education policy experts warn that efforts to keep certain books out of the classroom or ban the teaching of sensitive topics such as race and gender risk turning back the clock to a time when segregated schools meant separate – and vastly unequal – forums for learning."

• A Powerful, Forgotten Dissent (New York Review, October 6) - "Stephen Breyer’s dissent in the Supreme Court’s Parents Involved case has proved prophetic about the decision’s consequences for racial integration in public schools."

• Our Segregation Problem (Dissent Magazine, Fall 2022) - "Today, the United States is no longer segregated as a matter of explicit law. But throughout the country – in cities and rural areas, blue states and red ones – racial separation remains a common feature of collective life. Alongside real improvements since the high tide of Jim Crow, recent decades have brought profound backsliding, and many communities and institutions are more segregated now than they were thirty years ago."

Alabama -

• “The chance to right a wrong”: Alabama’s recompiled constitution on the midterm ballot (CBS 42, October 20) - "During the 2022 legislative session, lawmakers unanimously voted to put the reorganized constitution on the ballot.The updated governing document will eliminate racist language dealing with poll taxes, school segregation, interracial marriage and more."

Colorado -

• Nuestro momento de celebracio: Lessons learned from the Maestas case (Valley Courier, October 9) - “The fight for desegregation of Alamosa schools was won by parents in 1914, more than a century ago. Yet, the celebratory atmosphere among the more than 300 people who attended its commemoration – some of whom are descendants of those parents – suggested it is a recent victory."

Minnesota -

• School segregation violates the Minnesota Constitution, whether done on purpose or not (Minnesota Reformer, October 13) - "In Minnesota, school segregation is a problem because segregated schools don’t meet the standards laid out in the state constitution. The constitution’s education clause is focused on ensuring that students and families have access to schools of sufficient quality. Given that, why does it matter if school segregation was caused intentionally? To the child in the classroom of a failing school, all segregation looks the same, regardless of whether some distant policymaker produced it accidentally or maliciously." 

Mississippi -

• On the heels of a mob, James Meredith integrated Ole Miss. He left lessons for today.(Washington Post, September 30) - "As Meredith settled into his dormitory at Ole Miss, a massive crowd attacked the hundreds of U.S. marshals assigned to protect him. The assault lasted for hours and ceased only when President John F. Kennedy mobilized the military. Hours after the mob dispersed, Meredith finally enrolled, officially desegregating the university on Oct. 1, 1962."

Missouri -

• OPINION: Kansas City still suffers the failures of school desegregation experiments (Washington Post, October 21) - "Bewildered and often angry, residents of Kansas City, Mo., recently packed a community meeting to hear the latest plan for the city’s long-troubled public school district. No issue was more contentious than the proposal to close Central High School."

New Jersey -

• Will New Jersey desegregate its schools? Ruling in 2018 lawsuit expected (NorthJersey.com, October 3) - "A much-awaited ruling on a school segregation lawsuit could have historic consequences for New Jersey’s public schools and add more than a wrinkle to a school year that is already politically and culturally polarized."

New York -

• 24 principals in Manhattan’s District 3 sign petition against middle school admissions screens (Chalkbeat New York, October 17) - "In a Manhattan district with a history of contentious battles over school admissions, two dozen principals have come out against the return of academic screens at district middle schools."

• New NYC high school admissions rules could slow pandemic-era diversity gains (Chalkbeat New York, October 14) - "In New York City, where public schools are among the most segregated by race and class in the country, the pandemic upended school admissions: selective schools couldn’t rely as heavily on grades, test scores, and attendance records to screen students. The result at many of the city’s most competitive schools was a freshman class that looked more like the city as a whole."

• OPINION: Mayor Adams, If NYC Schools are ‘Segregated Intentionally,’ Why Increase Segregation with More Admissions Screening? (Gotham Gazette, October 12) - "In my research on historical and contemporary segregation in New York City schools, it became clear to me that students wish to attend a school where they feel a part of a community, and one that has sufficient resources. Finding such a school has long proven elusive for many Black and Latino students."

• NYC overhauls high school admissions, leaves middle school changes up in air (Chalkbeat New York, September 30) - "In a major shift for high school admissions, eighth graders from across the five boroughs with course grades in the top 15% of their class last year will have priority in scoring seats at some of New York City’s most selective high schools."

North Carolina -

• Making history by just showing up wasn’t easy (Rocky Mount Telegram, October 9) - "For the Rocky Mount High School class of 1970 – celebrating its COVID-delayed 50th reunion –  there is truly dynamic history to recall. The class of ’70 was the first to graduate from a fully integrated Rocky Mount High School."



• Wake wins $13.5 million federal magnet school grant. These 4 schools will get the money. (News Observer, October 6) - "The Wake County school system has won a $13.5 million federal school integration grant that will allow it to start two new magnet schools and to overhaul the programs at two existing magnet schools."

South Carolina -

• Fort Mill leaders plan to honor site, memory and impact of segregation-era school (The Herald, October 6) - "Fort Mill schools garner plenty of attention. Now, town and school officials want to honor a school that hasn’t held class for decades, but one with lasting impact...George Fish School was a Rosenwald school, named for philanthropist Julius Rosenwald who with Booker T. Washington built schools for Black children across the South."

Tennessee -

• City honors Memphis 13 on 61st anniversary of district's school integration (ABC 24, October 3) - "The city is honoring the Memphis 13 for their legacy of integrating area schools 61 years ago...In 1961, the 13 children integrated four Memphis elementary schools: Springdale Elementary, Bruce Elementary, Rozelle Elementary, and Gordon Achievement Academy."

Texas -

• Remembering the Blackwell School as it becomes the latest U.S. National Park (Al Día, October 18) - "On Monday, Oct. 17, President Biden officially signed The Blackwell School National Historic Site Act into law, after Congress initially approved the bill back on Sept. 30. The bill will designate the half-acre school campus in West Texas as one of the first national parks in the country that will tell the modern history of the Latino community."

• Hispanic students were once segregated at this school. Now it will be a historic site (NPR, October 5) - "The Blackwell School in tiny Marfa, Texas, was just one of many segregated schools across the southwest where Hispanic children were taught separately from their white peers. Now, the old adobe building is set to become a national historic site that supporters say will explore the often untold story of how school segregation played out in this corner of the U.S."

• A school in rural Texas is telling the story of school segregation in the southwest (NPR, October 1) - "A once-segregated school for Mexican-American children in rural west Texas is being designated a national historic site, highlighting the story of school segregation in the southwest."

• New Report by the Learning Policy Institute: Pushed Out: Trends and Disparities in Out-of-School Suspension "The report looks at out-of-school suspension data from the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), tracking trends over time. It also assess differences in suspension rates of students based on their race and ethnicity, school level, and disability status. Data are presented at national and state levels, with state-level findings focusing on secondary school students because out-of-school suspensions are concentrated in secondary schools. This report explores the ways in which changes in suspension rates may be related to changes in policy, and provides recommendations for additional strategies to reduce school exclusion for all students—in particular for those who have disproportionately experienced its negative effects."

Interviews have begun for the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC)'s Housing Policy Counsel position, will offer some opportunities to collaborate with NCSD staff on housing/schools work! Please share this information with your network via Twitter, Facebook,  LinkedIn, or email. Apply soon if you want to be considered.

Check out our field-wide calendar, which is evolving given the COVID-19 crisis.

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

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 * The Othering & Belonging Institute * 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: The 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 in Metropolitan Equity at Rutgers Law School * Equity Assistance Center (Region II) at Touro College * IntegratedSchools.org * The Office of Transformation and Innovation at the Dallas Independent School District * Live Baltimore * Maryland Equity Project * Center for Education and Civil Rights * National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector * The Center for Diversity and Equality in Education at Rutgers University * Being Black at School * UnifiEd * 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 Desegregation Notebook * Fair Housing Justice Center, Inc. * Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Inc. (METCO) * Learn Together, Live Together * Beloved Community * Chicago United for Equity * Learning Policy Center * Public School Forum of North Carolina * The Bell * North Carolina Justice Center * The Bridges Collaborative at The Century Foundation * South Side Early Learning * Oneonta For Equality * NestQuest * Metis Associates