The first-ever “P&R Live” event will feature authors from a recent issue of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council’s Poverty & Race journal, The Interconnection Between School Finance and Segregation. More info below!

UPDATE ON HIGHER ED AND K-12 ADMISSIONS CHALLENGES

NCSD STAFF UPDATES

What We've Been Up to Recently

JOIN US 9/22: NCSD TO SPEAK AT CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS FOUNDATION'S ANNUAL LEGISLATIVE CONFERENCE

NCSD Director Gina Chirichigno will join a panel on September 22 at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 52nd Annual Legislative Conference, alongside Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA 3rd District) and Howard University Dean Emerita and Professor Leslie Fenwick.

The opportunity arose from NCSD's "Leveraging Title II of ESSA and Redressing the Post-Brown Decimation of the Black Educator Workforce in the South to Support School Integration and Educator Diversity" project. NCSD was among six organizations awarded rapid-cycle project grants by American Institutes for Research to conduct research on school integration and equity.

NCSD MEMBER UPDATES

CROSS-MOVEMENT RESOURCES

• According to the 55th Annual PDK Poll, a wide majority (66%) of adults say teachers should have a substantial say in what’s taught in public schools, more than say so about school boards, local residents, or lawmakers. In addition, 67% of respondents support increasing local teacher salaries by raising property taxes.

• The Redress Movement published a new interactive guide on the history of the National Association of Realtors and segregation. The guide covers zoning, redlining, and racially restrictive covenants, among many other tools of segregation, plus their impact on neighborhoods today.

• A new Brookings Institution report explores the dual roles of district policy design and families’ school choices—and the implications of this interaction for segregation in elementary schools in North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System—highlighting both the potential and limitation of controlled choice programs for advancing school diversity goals.

NEWS FROM ACROSS OUR COUNTRY

National -

• Is school integration a path to racial equality? Journalist Laura Meckler on her new book ‘Dream Town.’ (Chalkbeat, August 28) - "The first lesson is that if you want to do this kind of work—if you want to try to address these issues of racial and economic diversity—it takes an enormous amount of work and commitment. This is a year-in, year-out, decade-in, decade-out commitment...It’s something you have to continually work at." 
• Related: Q&A: Meckler on the Long Arc of Voluntary School Desegregation in Shaker Heights; Why Shaker Heights’ Progressive Myth Needs a Second Look; 'Dream Town' examines the link between academic tracking and school segregation

• Supreme Court asked to hear high school admissions discrimination case (CBS News, August 23) - "A group of parents accusing a top Virginia high school of racially discriminating against Asian American students is asking the Supreme Court to weigh in. Sheryll Cashin, law professor at Georgetown, joined CBS News to discuss the issues."
• Related: Parents challenge Virginia high school’s admissions after affirmative action ruling; Supreme Court Is Asked to Hear a New Admissions Case on Race

• 3 Ways Teachers Can Instill Belonging in Students (TIME, August 17) - "Contrary to our cultural biases, the most important factor driving success in school and beyond isn’t IQ, grit, or any other virtue or skill. It’s something outside of students, in their circumstances: The presence of a teacher or mentor who convinces them that they belong and can succeed."
• Related: Belonging Design Principles: A resource guide for building belonging

• Education a Civil Rights Issue for Black Students with Disabilities & Families (The 74, August 9) - "It’s been 69 years since Brown v. Board outlawed school segregation and nearly 60 since additional federal protections were implemented to ensure educational rights for Black children and children with disabilities. Yet, to be a Black child with disabilities in the United States is to face a level of discrimination many would think was a thing of the past."

• How do we teach Black history in polarized times? Here’s what it looks like in 3 cities (Hechinger Report, August 7) - “When we think about the history curriculum, white people have been told that they’re the most historically important people in the world. So when they’re not centered in that narrative, or their ideas are not centered, then they tend to say this is not of educational value.”

Alabama -

• 60 Years Later, Alabama Lawmakers Defy the U.S. Supreme Court Again (Democracy Docket, August 10) - "This is not the first time that Alabama legislators have defied U.S. Supreme Court decisions in order to weaken the constitutional rights of their Black residents. Beginning in 1954, Alabama waged a decade-long stand-off with the nation’s highest court over desegregation in the public school system following the Supreme Court’s decisions in Brown v. Board of Education."

Arizona -

• Column: Why ‘school choice’ was doomed when it became a cover for segregation (LA Times, August 1) - "You should pay attention to Arizona, because its school finance battles could well be used to reopen a national debate about the Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education...Proponents will tell parents it’s about moving kids from failing schools, but the history shows it’s about moving kids from integrated schools."

Arkansas -

• Five of Little Rock Nine on Arkansas’ attempt to erase Black history (Washington Post, August 22) - "Now five of the Little Rock Nine are speaking out...about actions taken by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) and the state legislature to restrict what students can learn about Black history. The Sanders administration said recently that the state would not give credit for the Advanced Placement African American studies because it violates a state law that bans lessons that 'indoctrinate students with ideologies.'"
• Related: They integrated Little Rock’s schools—now they’re slamming restrictions on AP African American Studies; Arkansas rejects AP African American Studies, cites Arkansas law on "prohibited topics"; AP African American studies canceled by Arkansas officials just before school begins; Arkansas Says AP African American Studies No Longer Counts for High School Credit; College Board and others push back on Arkansas’s last-minute ditching of AP African American Studies; Arkansas Warns School Districts Not to Offer A.P. African American Studies

California -

• Lemon Grove mural preserves nearly-lost history of 'José Crow' segregation (KPBS, August 16) - "It’s a fitting location for the publicly-funded mural that depicts the first successful school desegregation case in the U.S. It happened in 1931, 23 years before Brown vs. Board of Education."
• Related: Mural depicting Lemon Grove history reinstalled after being removed to protect them

Colorado -

• Nearly 70 years since school integration, this Little Rock Nine member sees history repeating itself (Colorado Sun, August 30) - "[Carlotta] Walls LaNier graduated in May 1960, the first Black female graduate of the integrated high school...But she worries that progress she’s lived through has unraveled in recent years, with Roe v. Wade being overturned and with many schools, including in Denver, continuing to be segregated."

• Study finds schools within Denver Public Schools remain segregated by race, class and language (Denver 7, August 1) - "A new report shows schools within Denver Public Schools (DPS) are segregated by race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status and language, despite decades of efforts to integrate schools."
• Related: Denver superintendent: Evidence of school segregation is clear, now action is needed; ‘Pervasive’ Denver school segregation harms Latinos, English learners, study finds; Latino students in Denver Public Schools are segregated by race, class and language, according to new study

Maryland -

• Maryland awards $3M to combat racial disproportionality in special ed (K-12 Dive, August 15) - "Three Maryland school districts will receive about $1 million each to help address the overidentification of students of color who receive special education services."

New Jersey -

• ‘I felt like I was lost’: NJ students say school segregation impacted their education (Chalkbeat Newark, August 7) - "At a virtual town hall, students across New Jersey shared the impacts of school segregation on their education."

New York -

• Rochester students take on learning gap ahead of school year (WXXI News, August 24) - "According to a 2020 study by education policy advocacy organization, EdBuild, one the worst cases of school segregation in the country is between Rochester and suburban districts... Rochester’s long history of segregation is one of the reasons there is a significant concentration of poverty in the city of Rochester." 

• Debate over NYC high school admissions heats up at parent meeting (Chalkbeat NY, August 9) - "[M]embers of a parent advisory group called on the city to adopt more stringent academic screening...But some members of the public who spoke at the meeting protested the resolution proposing the changes—arguing the old system was confusing and opaque for families, and that the recommendations could stifle integration efforts in a school system that has consistently been among the most segregated in the nation."

North Carolina -

• NC private school enrollment is soaring, and it could rise even more. Here’s why. (News & Observer, August 2) - "A historic expansion of North Carolina’s school voucher program could come at the same time that enrollment in private schools is rising at near-record levels [which] grew by 11,457 students during the 2022-23 school year. Private schools haven’t added this many students since the 1971-72 school year, when they gained 11,764 kids during the fight over public school integration."

Pennsylvania -

• The new admissions process for elite public schools in Philly isn’t working. Here are five ways to fix it. (Philadelphia Inquirer, August 24) - "The new lottery system for applying to elite schools isn't doing enough to advance the cause...Real equity feels elusive in a city with a deep-rooted history of segregation, and where its four-decade school desegregation lawsuit was settled only in 2009."

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