This month, in celebration of NCSD’s 15th anniversary, we’ve highlighted 15 of our proudest accomplishments. Consider making NCSD part of your end-of-year giving to help us continue our impact! A donation of any size will make a difference, helping us continue to create resources, host critical conversations, and advocate for evidence-based policies that support integration and equity.

POLICY & LEGAL UPDATES

NCSD STAFF UPDATES

What We've Been Up to Recently

NCSD LETTER OF SUPPORT ENCOURAGES ESTABLISHMENT OF ROSENWALD SCHOOLS NATIONAL MONUMENT

NCSD submitted a letter supporting the establishment of the Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Monument, which we believe can (among other things) help build awareness about the harms of segregation and its enduring impact on our nation. The proposed executive action would honor the legacy of philanthropist Julius Rosenwald's partnership with Booker T. Washington during the Jim Crow era to build schools for Black children who previously had little or no access to public education due to racial discrimination. Between 1928-1948, the Rosenwald Fund also awarded nearly 900 fellowships to scholars, artists, and community leaders. In a recent Poverty & Race article (p. 5), author Stephanie Deutsch illuminates connections between the Fund's fellowship program and Brown. v. Board.

To learn about this effort, contact the Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park Campaign.

DEFINING NCSD'S 2025 POLICY PRIORITIES

In collaboration with our members and partner organizations, we've been working hard to outline NCSD's 2025 policy priorities (which will be discussed at #NCSD2025). We'd love to hear what's on your mind during the transition to the 119th Congress and Trump Administration. Please email your thoughts, ideas, needs, concerns, and questions to Gina Chirichigno at gchirichigno@prrac.org.

HANG TIGHT...MORE #NCSD2025 DETAILS ARE COMING SOON!

Register for #NCSD2025, our 5th national conference and the largest cross-sector school integration convening in the nation! We provide space for researchers, advocates, policymakers, educators, students, parents, and other supporters to coalesce around a shared commitment to integrated education. Attendees exchange best practices; discuss and generate tools and ideas to introduce, enhance, or protect school diversity initiatives in their communities; and build supportive relationships.

NCSD MEMBER UPDATES

RESEARCH ADVISORY PANEL (RAP) UPDATES

• New research by sean reardon and Ericka Weathers finds that school segregation continues to widen racial achievement gaps: "We estimate the effects of current-day school segregation on racial achievement gaps using 11 years of data from all U.S. public school districts. We find that racial segregation is strongly associated with the magnitude of achievement gaps in 3rd grade and the rate at which gaps grow from 3rd to 8th grade. The association of racial segregation with achievement-gap growth is completely accounted for by racial differences in school poverty. Thus, racial segregation is harmful because it concentrates minority students in high-poverty schools, which are, on average, less effective than lower-poverty schools."
• Genevieve Siegel-Hawley was quoted in a Washington Post piece about Governor Glenn Youngkin's proposed $50 million for private-school vouchers in Virginia: “[The program] weaponizes the discontent with regular public schools and offers solution that would further drain needed resources from a system that is chronically underfunded, particularly for our most disadvantaged students.”
• Casey Cobb was quoted in an Ed Week piece related to Trump’s Education Secretary pick: “Education plays a role in educating our citizenry to have civic dialogue, to understand each other’s backgrounds, to respect each other’s backgrounds...If we’re not going to be in the same schools together, which is ultimately a consequence of unfettered school choice, not to mention not discussing racism in American schools, or striking fear in teachers to not address racism at all—we’re missing tremendous opportunity to help bring the nation together.”

Learn more about our Research Advisory Panel here.

INTEGRATION & EQUITY RESOURCES

BLACK TEACHER ARCHIVE MICROGRANTS

Via the Black Teacher Archive: "We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Black Teacher Archive Microgrants initiative, aimed at funding projects that amplify, preserve, and produce historical knowledge about the invaluable contributions of Black educators. We are currently accepting letters of interest for project funding up to $40,000. The deadline for submissions is by January 25, 2025."

NEWS FROM ACROSS OUR COUNTRY

National -

• Gerard Robinson offers his perspective on The Strange Career of the U.S. Department of Education, providing an extensive history of the Department and concluding, "Only time will tell if the story of the next chapter in the strange career of the federal education department will be closure, consolidation, or some other approach."

Florida -

• Foundation's grant advances African American Museum project in historic neighborhood (CBS 12 News, Dec. 3) - "A new museum and library is set to revitalize a historic African American neighborhood in West Palm Beach. A $500,000 grant from Quantum Fiber will support architectural planning for the Museum and Library, which will be built on the site of the historic Roosevelt High School." ("Roosevelt High School was an all-black school in the '50s and '60s, at a time when Palm Beach County was segregated...")

Illinois -

• Discussion revisits music of the Civil Rights Movement and integration of America’s schools (IPM News, Nov. 30) - "This year, the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign is marking 70 years since the landmark Supreme Court decision that ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was part of the American Civil Rights movement and was also fueled by music."

Louisiana -

• Concordia Parish School Board voted against Proposed Consent Order from DOJ (KNOE, Dec. 18) - "The Concordia Parish School Board is trying to get a continued desegregation case with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed. A continued desegregation case is when a court continues to monitor and enforce the desegregation process within a school district or other institution."

Maryland -

• MCPS superintendent releases video to explain upcoming school boundary study (MoCo 360, Dec. 19) - "Analyses of boundaries have divided the MCPS community in the past. In 2019, MCPS conducted a countywide boundary analysis. While district leaders said at the time the review wouldn’t result in changes, the analysis sparked debate over the value of school diversity versus students attending schools close to their homes."

Nebraska -

• Norbert Schuerman helped craft model desegregation plan, led OPS for 13 years (Omaha World-Herald, Dec. 9) - "Schuerman, who as OPS leader from 1984 to 1997 served as a dedicated advocate for public schools and for educational equity for children from all walks of life, died on Nov. 27....While Schuerman served as superintendent for 13 years, his most notable achievement may have come during the decade before, when he served as an assistant superintendent. That’s when he headed the task force that crafted the district’s school desegregation plan."
• John Gottschalk, former Omaha World-Herald publisher and civic leader, dies at 81 (Omaha World-Herald, Nov. 4) - "Near the end of his time as publisher, Gottschalk worked behind the scenes to help resolve a public controversy pitting the urban Omaha Public Schools against suburban school districts. The dispute drew intense scrutiny, including in the Legislature, which eventually set up a two-county 'learning community' that required cooperation while retaining each district’s independence. 'John held all of us accountable for getting together and working out a solution,' recalled Ken Bird, then the Westside Schools superintendent. 'He had strong values and beliefs in education, but he did not impose solutions on us. We had to figure it out.'”

New York -

• New York City Approves New Contract for Specialized High School Test (The New York Times, Dec. 18) - "The move marks a major shift for a test that has been the source of fraught fixation for decades. While the specialized schools educate only about 5 percent of New York City high schoolers, their admissions are scrutinized yearly, as they are regarded both as shining examples of the best of the city’s education system and as symbols of entrenched school segregation."
• NYC parents sound off on entrance exam for specialized high schools ahead of high-profile vote (NY Daily News, Dec. 11) - "The specialized high schools, known as crown jewels of the city’s school system, have failed to admit a diverse group of students and been seen as a symbol of school segregation. Some panel members have expressed reservations about continuing to rely on a test—and allocating more funds to Pearson for creating a digital version—in light of the disparate outcomes."

Pennsylvania -

• We interviewed 30 Black public school teachers in Philadelphia to understand why so many are leaving the profession (The Conversation, Dec. 12) - "The Black teachers we interviewed who taught in neighborhoods with a majority of Black residents said they faced systemic racism through lack of resources, including books and classroom materials, for their students. Philadelphia is one of the most racially divided cities in the U.S. Among the nation’s 30 largest cities, it ranks second after Chicago in terms of residential segregation, according to researchers at Brown University. Schools reflect these neighborhood racial divides."

Virginia -

• [University of Richmond] receives a National Park Service grant for research on school desegregation (Legacy, Dec. 18) - "...Professor, Pippa Holloway, Cornerstones Chair in History, has received funding from the National Park Service for an exploration of the history of public-school desegregation in Prince Edward County, Virginia."
• University of Richmond History Professor Receives National Park Service Grant For Research on Virginia School Desegregation

Applications are now being accepted for LDF's Marshall-Motley Scholars Program

Named in honor of Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley, MMSP is a revolutionary and groundbreaking commitment to populate the South with a new generation of civil rights lawyers trained to provide legal advocacy of unparalleled excellence, through scholarship support, legal fellowships, and professional mentoring. Review the Application Guide and Application Brochure . The application period closes February 5, 2025.

The Southern Education Leadership Initiative (SELI) is an intensive, eight-week, paid summer fellowship for emerging leaders ages 20-35 interested in advancing racial equity and improving education from early childhood through college. Placed in nonprofits, school districts, and state education agencies in the South, SELI fellows spend the summer developing as leaders, engaging with valuable stakeholders, and acquiring practical job skills through direct learning experiences.

DCSC2025 INFO AND REGISTRATION

Diverse Charter Schools Coalition's national conference takes place January 29-30, 2025 in Nashville, TN.

The theme is Choosing Diversity, Practicing Justice. Finding solutions to the persistent problem of segregation remains fundamental to justice and opportunity. DCSC2025 is a time to learn, explore, and commune together around leading excellent, intentionally diverse charters.

If you are interested in education and community building with a foundation in anti-bias education, check out Roots ConnectED and their foundational Anti-Bias Education Framework, which aims to build, empower, and support anti-bias communities. Join them on February 6, 2025 for a virtual, 1-day institute Transforming School Culture and Curriculum: Centering Equity.

“What’s the world you want your child to be an adult in? Because you’re building it right now with the choice you make.”

–Courtney Everts Mykytyn, Founder, Integrated Schools (from a 2020 Chalkbeat tribute)

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 * 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