Photo courtesy of Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

There's still time to apply for Fostering Diverse Schools funding!

Applications are due to the Department of Education on July 7, 2023.

The recently-announced $10 million grant program is designed to support school integration planning and implementation projects. Check out last month's NCSD update for more details.

NCSD MEMBER UPDATES

CROSS-MOVEMENT RESOURCES

• The U.S. Department of Treasury put out a five-part blog series on racial inequality with the fifth installment on racial differences in educational experiences and attainment. According to the post, "Nearly 70 years after the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that ended legal school segregation, substantial racial disparities in educational opportunity and attainment still exist. Recognizing these disparities and understanding their determinants is important because they have stark implications for labor market outcomes, including employment, wages and earnings, and occupations and job quality, all key factors in individuals’ economic wellbeing."

• In a study published by the American Educational Research Association, researchers David Houston of George Mason University and Jeffrey Henig of Teachers College, Columbia University, found that "providing parents with achievement growth data encourages them to consider schools with greater economic and racial diversity, but only up to a point."

• In a study by WalletHub to determine which states have the "most racial equality in education," researchers compared the 50 states across six key metrics, including the difference between white and Black Americans in areas such as high school and college degrees, test scores, and graduation rates.

• Focusing on racial and ethnic segregation in U.S. public schools, researchers from Cornell conducted "randomized email outreach experiments and surveys to explore how local school districts respond to algorithmically-generated school catchment areas ("attendance boundaries") designed to foster more diverse and integrated schools." Read more.

NEWS FROM ACROSS OUR COUNTRY

National -

• Meet the New Group Promising to Tackle School Funding and Segregation Together (Education Week, June 19) - "Brown’s Promise, launching this month, is a nonprofit sponsored by the Southern Education Foundation that will support litigation and advocacy centered around addressing the roots of school segregation and underfunding of public schools at the same time."

• How School Integration Upended a ‘Most Tolerant Little Town’ (New York Times, June 13) - "[G]iven the constant threat of racism to our democracy, including worsening school segregation in districts across the country and the bans in certain states on books about systemic inequality, who is to say that Martin is wrong to leave her readers so overwhelmed by despair?"



• Undoing Housing Segregation: An Interview with Leah Rothstein (Nonprofit Quarterly, June 7) - "[T]o truly redress segregation, you have to both repair past harm and prevent future discrimination and segregation...we believe that it is our constitutional responsibility to redress the unconstitutional acts of our government, which were race-specific, and the only way to do that is with race-specific remedies."

• There’s Unsettling New Evidence About William Rehnquist’s Views on Segregation (Slate, June 1) - "The late chief justice, who long sought to turn the 14th Amendment on its head, notoriously drafted a 1952 memo as a Supreme Court clerk that defended racial segregation in the South and the disastrous Plessy v. Ferguson decision on which the institution’s legality was based. Although Rehnquist denied during his confirmation hearings that the memo reflected his own views—saying they were meant to reflect those of Robert H. Jackson, the justice he was clerking for in 1952—a newly released court document, not previously reported, lays bare Rehnquist’s abhorrent true position on segregation as late as 1993."

Arkansas -

• Part Two: School desegregation’s future may be hard to predict (Sentinel-Record, June 12) - "As the Garland County School Desegregation Case Settlement Agreement has been the subject of litigation since its federal approval in 1992, case attorney Q. Byrum Hurst Jr. says its future is hard to predict."
• Related: Part One: Desegregation agreement still relevant, backers say

Georgia -

• Holmes v. City of Atlanta: How Golf Led to a Landmark Civil Rights Case (Atlanta History Center, June 5) - "While this newly established [Brown] precedent was an essential step in civil rights history, the ruling only pointed to the unconstitutionality of segregation in public education. Additional cases supported by the NAACP expanded the ruling to desegregate other public facilities in the United States, often at a faster rate than school desegregation. One of these cases was Holmes v. City of Atlanta which argued for the end of segregation on Atlanta’s public golf courses."

Kentucky -

• ‘Massive, systemic and institutional.’ How Lexington intentionally created a segregated city (Lexington Herald-Leader, June 15) - "[H]ere in Lexington, a series of serendipitous events, including a Lexington Public Library exhibit on Lexington’s redlining, a community read-along of one of the most important books about redlining and a detailed new website about Lexington’s history of housing segregation will put unprecedented attention on these topics for the first time."

Lousiana -

• New magnet school in historically Black zone, a step to resolve 1965 desegregation suit (Associated Press, June 12) - "Authorities in a southwest Louisiana school district have agreed to develop a magnet school in a historically Black school zone to draw students of all races from across the district in a step toward resolving a desegregation lawsuit dating back to 1965. The agreement, or “consent decree” involving the St. Martin Parish School District and the U.S. Justice Department was approved last week by U.S. District Judge Erny Foote in Lafayette."



• 'New Orleans Four' project seeks to tell the whole story of 1960 school integration (Times-Picayune, June 8) - "Surrounded by ugly racist chants, four 6-year-old Black girls began the painstaking and frightening process of integrating New Orleans’ public schools in 1960. This historic moment is the focal point of an upcoming three-part docuseries, “The New Orleans Four Legacy,” by filmmaker Diedra Meredith."

Mississippi -

• Dept. of Justice working to ensure Mississippi school districts comply with desegregation orders (Magnolia Tribune, June 28) - "While in Mississippi, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke noted the work of the DOJ as it pertains to the 30-plus Mississippi school districts that remain under federal desegregation orders."
• Related: 32 Mississippi school districts still under federal desegregation orders; What Year is this? In Mississippi The Fight For School Desegregation Continues

• A New Lesson Plan for the Last One-Room Schoolhouse in Shelby County (WKNO, June 21) - "[T]he little schoolhouse finally has a permanent home at the Memphis Museum of Science and History...A classroom born in the age of school segregation will now be used to educate students from all backgrounds."

New Jersey -

• NJCU Announces Partnership with Latino Action Network and LAN Foundation (Insider NJ, June 27) - "In an effort to address issues plaguing Latino and immigrant communities, New Jersey City University (NJCU) has announced a partnership agreement with the Latino Action Network and the Latino Action Network Foundation which will focus on the development of community education, civic engagement, and research initiatives on educational equity and health care access policies...The joint agreement will address six key issues, including: the impact of school segregation."

• Big push for new NJ reparations council (NJ Spotlight News, June 19) - "The [New Jersey Institute for Social Justice] is launching a New Jersey Reparations Council to measure slavery’s impact, to determine how to repair the damage, and to repay the generations who suffered...The council will establish nine committees to examine the wealth gap, disparities in health and incarceration, school segregation and more."
• Related: ‘They owe us.’ N.J. social justice leaders demand reparations for Black families on Juneteenth

New York -

• Black and Latino enrollment in NYC specialized high school integration program still lags (Chalkbeat New York, June 14) - "A program aimed at bolstering the numbers of Black and Latino students in New York City’s prestigious specialized high schools continues to enroll a majority of Asian American students, according to recently released data."
• Related: Only 10% of students admitted to top NYC high schools were Black and Latino; Diversity issues persist in elite NYC high school admissions; Stuyvesant High School Admitted 762 New Students. Only 7 Are Black; NYC school admission offers are out. Here’s what the numbers show

North Carolina -

• Signs of fraud raise major red flags about expanding NC school vouchers (News & Observer), June 28) - "North Carolina is the only state that doesn’t require voucher schools to be accredited, use approved curriculum, hire certified teachers, participate in state testing, or meet minimum instructional time requirements. The new data shows that financial oversight is similarly lacking."

• Recalling ‘Principal’s Row,’ a Whiteville street home to Black educators (Robesonian, June 27) - "Still known as Principal’s Row, the 300 block of West Columbus Street is one block from what was once segregated Whiteville Negro High School and Central High School, now Central Middle School. Many descendants of those educators continue to live there, more than half a century after local schools were integrated in the late 1960s."

Pennsylvania -



• When it comes to magnet school admissions, blame the implementation, not the ‘lottery kids’ (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 22) - "While intelligence and talent can be found throughout our city, access to resources and advanced learning opportunities does not exist at every middle school...Instead of suggesting that some Philadelphia public school students are less deserving of a good education, we should focus on making sure all middle school students in the district receive the support they deserve when they arrive at any high school."

• Inequitable charter school enrollment practices hurt our public schools (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 15) - "When charter schools make school segregation worse, it limits opportunities for all kids. Though there are many excellent schools that serve mostly Black and brown students, in general, students of color who attend segregated schools tend to have fewer opportunities and worse outcomes. On the other hand, students of color and white students benefit from attending diverse schools, including better test scores, graduation rates, and social cohesion."

South Carolina -

• Scott's Branch High School in Clarendon joins National Register of Historic Places (Sumter Item, June 15) - "Scott's Branch High School was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places in May for its association with the Briggs v. Elliott case in the school desegregation movement."

• South Carolina group to ask Supreme Court to rename landmark school desegregation case (Associated Press, May 28) - "Civil rights leaders in South Carolina plan to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to rename the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that outlawed segregation of public schools across the country."
• Related: As some try to rename Supreme Court case, Topeka looks to cement Brown v. Board legacy with art; Should ‘Brown v. Board of Education’ Be Renamed? The Debate, Explained; Separate But Equal’ screening at museum; civil rights pioneer’s son to speak; Recognizing heroes: South Carolina activists fight to reorder desegregation cases for proper recognition

Virginia -

• Spotswood High Students Explore School Integration Tie In Harrisonburg History (Daily News-Record, May 31) - "A partnership between Rockingham County Public Schools and Rocktown History blossomed into a student-made documentary centered around school desegregation following several court cases in schools in the state that were ultimately decided by a figure in Harrisonburg’s backyard."

Washington -

• Why Seattle schools are more segregated today than the 1980s (Seattle Times, May 28) - "As the city’s population grows more diverse, children attend schools markedly more racially isolated than those their parents attended. Black students are just as segregated now as they were during the Nixon administration."
• Related: Seattle schools chose integration. But then it fell apart; Moving teachers is not the solution to more equitable schools

NCSD MEMBERSHIP

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