American Institutes for Research (AIR) published the Integration and Equity 2.0: New and Reinvigorated Approaches to School Integration compendium of essays. The essay authors include researchers, activists, community advocates, professors, and other experts, including several NCSD members. More info below!

POLICY UPDATES

INTEGRATION AND EQUITY 2.0

ESSAYS PUBLISHED

NCSD STAFF UPDATES

What We've Been Up to Recently

NCSD Presents at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual Legislative Conference

Last week, NCSD Director Gina Chirichigno spoke at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's 52nd Annual Legislative Conference, alongside Terris Ross (Managing Director of the AIR Equity Initiative), Leslie Fenwick (Dean Emerita of Howard University's School of Education and Dean in Residence at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education), and Kim DuMont (Senior Vice President of Program at the William T. Grant Foundation). Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA 3rd District) provided opening remarks.

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 AIR to conduct research on school integration and equity.

Upcoming presentation: Members of the project team will lead a workshop on October 7 at the Color of Education Summit in Raleigh, NC.

View the recording: "P&R Live" virtual event on school funding and segregation

On September 28, NCSD and the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) hosted the first-ever "P&R Live" event, "The Interconnection Between School Finance and Segregation: Exploring the Nuances of Property Taxes, School Boundaries, and Educational Inequity." Featuring authors from PRRAC's recent school finance special issue of Poverty & Race and moderated by PRRAC board member Chinh Le, panelists discussed and grappled with important nuances related to local property tax-based funding of schools, school/district boundary lines, and the difference between “equality,” “equity,” and “adequacy” in education.

Upcoming presentation: Select P&R authors from this issue will lead a session on November 16 at the Southern Education Foundation Issues Forum in Charlotte, NC. Guest editor and NCSD member Derek Black will moderate.

NCSD MEMBER UPDATES

CROSS-MOVEMENT RESOURCES

• The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) recently reviewed a Thomas B. Fordham Institute report, challenging the report's overarching theme that the problem of inequality and inadequacy of public school funding has largely been solved. NEPC's review found that "the [Fordham Institute's] report lacks a sound evidentiary base and provides no reliable or useful guidance for policymakers."

• A new Brookings article titled, "The ESSER fiscal cliff will have serious implications for student equity," finds that "staff reductions will bring more churn in high-need schools, and can stymie progress on teacher diversity."

• A recent Urban Institute report, "discusses racist policies that drive residential racial segregation and how limited residential opportunities have manifested for students through school segregation and education inequity." 

NEWS FROM ACROSS OUR COUNTRY

National -

• The Invention of the Gifted Child (JSTOR Daily, September 28) - "A new minority was defined in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision. Academically 'gifted' children, as measured by IQ scores, became a focus of national concern."

• Majority-Black school districts have far less money to invest in buildings—and students are feeling the impact (CBS News, September 14) - "A CBS News analysis of federal data found school districts with more Black students were able to invest far less money in buildings than majority-White districts—and often-unequal funding practices by state governments can make the problem worse."

• You Can’t Judge a School By its Ranking (NEA Today, September 13) - "Research shows that increases in school segregation by race and socioeconomic status over the past 20 years can be attributed to school accountability policies, such as No Child Left Behind."

• Researchers Used AI to Rezone School Districts. Here’s What They Found (Education Week, September 7) - "Updating attendance boundaries using algorithms based on district goals and parent preferences...could reduce the level of segregation between white students and students of color across district schools by 14 percent on average, while slightly reducing travel times and requiring about a fifth of students to change schools."

• Two Documentaries on School Integration Offer New Views of an Old Problem (New York Times, September 5) - "Premiering in September, the films take very different looks at what has and hasn’t changed in the almost 70 years since Brown v. Board of Education."
• Related: Exploring the Complex Legacy of School Desegregation; Atlanta author’s film on desegregation is a schooling on race relations, then and now; PBS docs teach important lessons on school integration; Fight for equality: 'Busing Battleground' and "The Harvest' delve into segregation battle in schools; In a new documentary, a Pulitzer-winning Atlanta journalist examines the integration of his own Mississippi public school; ‘The Busing Battleground’ revisits a painful chapter in Boston’s history, one that still reverberates; Scholar, activist look back at BPS desegregation; Documentary revisits the ‘trauma’ of the busing era; The Decades Long Road To School Desegregation; A look back at school integration in Leland years later. See the impact

• A New Initiative, Brown's Promise, Is Trying to Combat Racial Segregation In Our Nation’s Schools (Essence, August 29) - "Have public schools in our country lived up to the promise of Brown v. Board of Education? The new initiative from the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) says no, and is aiming to change that and make Brown’s Promise a reality."

Alabama -

• Chambers Co. superintendent explains the next steps in merger of schools in press conference (WTVM, September 27) - "Chambers County Superintendent Casey Chambley held a press conference Sept. 27 to explain Judge Keith Watkin’s opinion on the school desegregation case and how the community will move forward. The U.S. District Court upheld the decision for LaFayette High School to remain open while building the new merging high school in June 2023."

• “What I was doing was for more than myself”: Sonnie Hereford IV retraces steps to history of public school integration (WHNT, September 9) - "Sonnie Hereford IV retraced his steps to history Saturday morning as he reflected on the day that changed his life. On September 9, 1963, at the tender age of six Hereford became the first Black child to integrate Alabama public schools when he started attending Huntsville’s Fifth Avenue school."

Arkansas -

• Little Rock Nine express concern over history education in Arkansas, nationwide (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, September 26) - "Members of the Little Rock Nine speaking to high school seniors on the 66th anniversary of the Little Rock Central High desegregation crisis criticized legislation passed in Arkansas and across the nation that restricts what can be taught in public school classrooms."

• NAACP ‘appalled’ at schools’ motion to end deseg agreement (Sentinel-Record, September 7) - "The Hot Springs Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People says it is "appalled" by a motion filed last week by Garland County's seven public school districts seeking to end the county's school desegregation settlement agreement, asking them in a statement to withdraw the filing."
• Related: School desegregation compliance at issue; 7 Garland County districts to court: End desegregation order

California -

• STUDY: The Disinvestment of San Francisco’s Black Community (The Davis Vanguard, September 26) - "Stanford Law School’s Law and Public Lab has collaborated with the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (SFHRC) to examine the history of governmental and private abuses instituted against San Francisco African Americans...Authors mention several challenges faced by Black residents, including gentrification, a high cost of living, and persistent residential segregation."

• KCAL Investigates: Are race, ethnicity and wealth affecting the quality of your kid's school? (KCAL News, September 14) - "KCAL's analysis shows that across California, as the percentage of Black or Hispanic students rises, the amount of school funding from the state actually goes down—dramatically. According to the data, the funding drops from $263 per student to $81."

• Let's shatter stereotypes about what an AP class—and students—look like (EdSource, September 13) - "There’s nothing more gratifying for me than challenging students who for too long have been shackled by low expectations to take my AP classes....I then get to watch them thrive as they develop and practice life skills in research, collaboration and communication."

Florida -

• Black churches in Florida buck DeSantis: 'Our churches will teach our own history.' (USA Today, September 8) - "Friendship Missionary is among the more than 200 mostly Black churches in Florida taking steps to teach Black history in part because of what faith leaders call the restricted and 'watered-down’ versions schools must teach under the state’s new policies. Instead, pastors equipped with a new Black history toolkit are teaching unfiltered lessons during Sunday school, Bible Study or as part of sermons."

Georgia -

• Desegregation at 60: Students Who Integrated Clarke Schools Honored (Flagpole Magazine, September 27) - "Integrating Clarke County’s public schools went relatively smoothly for a Southern city in the Jim Crow era—there were no riots, no National Guard, no governors standing in the schoolhouse door. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t painless, though, especially for the five children tasked with carrying it out 60 years ago this month."

Illinois -

• Interactive Campaign Asks Chicagoans to Explore Impact of Segregation by Running Errands in a Different Neighborhood (WTTW News, September 9) - "[T]he 'Together We Heal' campaign... [is] meant to help Chicagoans explore the effects of segregation in the city and how it continues to perpetuate racial inequities. A vital part of the campaign’s work of encouraging people to be 'segregation disruptors' is asking them to run errands in a neighborhood that is racially different from where they live."

Kentucky -

• School board member and GOP lawmaker clash in tense debate on the future of JCPS (Louisville Public Media, September 13) - "The heated public discussion came as JCPS faces widespread criticism over this year’s transportation meltdown and fends off calls from some local and state leaders to disband Kentucky’s largest district."

Louisiana -

• The trail they blazed: An exhibition about how change happened (WGNO, September 14) - "The Trail They Blazed is a traveling exhibition from The Historic New Orleans Collection, in partnership with the Tate Etienne and Prevost Center. The TEP Center is a cultural hub in the present, but it used to be McDonogh 19 Elementary School, a school integrated by three six-year-old African American young women in 1960."
• Related: Civil Rights Traveling Exhibition Makes Debut

Massachusetts -

• Lessons learned from 1971 Sidetrack desegregation program (WBUR, September 27) - "The two men were part of a radical educational experiment in notoriously segregated Boston in 1971 called Sidetrack. The program brought together white and Black students from largely segregated neighborhoods and split time teaching them in each others' neighborhoods."

• Exploring busing in Boston through one mother-daughter relationship (WBUR, September 19) - "The year 1974 was a crucible in Boston's history. It was a time marked by violent resistance to the forced desegregation of Boston schools. It's also the backdrop of the 2023 novel Small Mercies by best-selling local author Dennis Lehane."

Mississippi -

• Mississippi school district named in desegregation lawsuit is allowed to shed federal supervision (Associated Press, September 12) - "A majority-Black Mississippi school district received a judge’s approval Tuesday to shed federal supervision in a decades-old desegregation lawsuit that included a 2013 order to move away from harsh discipline that disproportionately affected Black students."
• Related: Meridian Schools No Longer Under Federal Supervision Stemming from 1965 Desegregation Lawsuit

New Jersey -

• NJ needs to bump up school aid to meet higher standards, report says (NJ Spotlight News, September 18) - "After falling short for years, New Jersey is getting closer to fully funding its K-12 schools based on the state’s school finance law. But it will need to come up with even more money to keep up with raised expectations for student achievement, a new report says."

New York -

• NYC Council eyes hiring diversity monitor to take on school segregation (Gothamist, September 19) - "New York City would hire a diversity monitor, tasked with confronting persistent segregation in the public school system under a measure pending in the City Council. Legislation creating the position...[was] on a slate of bills with anti-racism themes, aimed at addressing existing racial inequities as well as confronting the city’s history of enslavement and racial segregation."

North Carolina -

• Charlotte civil rights activist who helped desegregate schools dies (Charlotte Observer, September 26) - "Sarah Stevenson, a Charlotte civil rights pioneer who helped create an influential forum for political and social dialogue on the city’s westside, died...She was 97. Stevenson was a leader in desegregating the city’s schools in the 1970s and in 1980 became the first Black woman elected to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board."

• They're heroes': Librarian honoring students who integrated Charlotte public schools (Spectrum News, September 5) - "A Charlotte librarian is helping to educate more people about the four students' roles in integrating the school system.She says it's important to preserve what Counts-Scoggins and the three students did so their stories are never forgotten."

Ohio -

• The Rutters of Athens County An Appalachian school district’s daring experiment in economic integration (New York Magazine, September 8) - "In the winter of 2016, the committee members announced three proposals, all involving combining two or more schools. But the one favored by the majority of committee members involved a complete reset: scrapping the four existing elementary-school buildings and bringing all of the district’s children together in a single, integrated campus."

South Carolina -

• McDonald publishes book on school desegregation in Newberry (Newberry Observer, September 22) - "Dr. Joe McDonald, professor emeritus of sociology at Newberry College, has detailed the largely unknown events of the Civil Rights Movement in Newberry in his new book, 'With All Deliberate Speed’ – School Desegregation in Newberry: A Story of Protest and Resistance."

Tennessee -

• Oak Ridge celebrates anniversary of historic Scarboro 85 school integration (WATE, September 6) - "The Oak Ridge community celebrated the 68th anniversary of the historic integration of local schools by the Scarboro 85...These students were the first to integrate schools in the Southeast. They integrated schools a year before the Clinton 12, two years before the Little Rock Nine and five years before Ruby Bridges."

Washington -

• OPINION | SPS Faces Crucial Equity Decisions That Impact Our Communities (South Seallte Emerald, September 9) - "Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is once again at a crossroads. The issues affecting our education system are a mirror of those affecting our neighborhoods, our city, and society as a whole...SPS faces crucial decisions about equity, integration, and differentiated learning that meets the needs of each student."

Wisconsin -

• The effects of racial inequalities on education in Wisconsin (PBS Wisconsin, September 26) - "Access gaps, economic adversity and school segregation in Wisconsin lead to racial disparities in educational outcomes, with efforts growing to expand learning options for diverse groups of students."

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