Background:
After the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Strength in Diversity Act in September 2020, we began to think about which school districts might benefit the most from these resources. The reintroduced Strength in Diversity Act - H.R. 729, if passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law, would provide planning and implementation grants to districts, groups of districts, and states for efforts to increase racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic integration or to stabilize existing diversity. Importantly, the Act is structured to be flexible to local needs.
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"The results of our analysis demonstrate the need and tremendous potential for the Strength in Diversity Act to help advance integration and educational equity in districts across the country."
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NCSD STAFF UPDATES
What We've Been Up To This Month
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New Bill in North Carolina Proposes to "Add Segregation Score to School Report Cards"
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NCSD Offers Testimony on Connecticut's Comprehensive School Choice Plan
"We ask that the CSDE focus on proactively creating structures and processes that demonstrate a longer-term commitment to holistic school integration that goes beyond mere compliance with the Sheff v. O’Neill legal mandate and that are rooted in decades of research that confirms that students directly benefit from school integration."
Read the full letter here.
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Request for Proposals: Strategic Planner for NCSD (Deadline: July 1, 2021)
We're soliciting proposals from consultants experienced in strategic planning for racial/social justice organizations to lead our staff, steering committee, and network members through a process to revise its current strategic plan. Deliverables should be a clear, easily consumed, strategic planning roadmap accompanied by a timeline, implementation, and evaluation methodology.
Learn more and how to apply here.
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School Integration Asks Remain in President Biden's FY22 Budget
" The Administration’s Fostering Diverse Schools proposal would provide $100.0 million for competitive grants to LEAs to develop and implement comprehensive plans for improving school racial and socioeconomic integration in preschool through grade 12. Funds would support grants for planning and for implementation. In addition, the Administration requests $149.0 million for Magnet Schools Assistance to LEAs to establish and operate magnet schools that are part of an approved desegregation plan and that are designed to attract students from racially and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds." Read the education budget here.
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NCSD WELCOMES 3 NEW MEMBERS
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NCSD Welcomes New Members
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BROWN & PLESSY ANNIVERSARIES
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This month marked the 67th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education and the 125th anniversary of Plessy v. Ferguson. Now more than ever, we must stamp out the lingering discrimination and inequity of Plessy's legacy for a fuller embrace of Brown's original promise.
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The NAACP LDF commemorated the 67th anniversary of Brown with a virtual roundtable discussion on the intergenerational power of student activism that featured Louisiana community activist Leona Tate and students from Teens Take Charge.
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Additional programming:
- The Coalition for Asian American Children+Families, IntegrateNYC, New York Appleseed, nycASID, NYU Metro Center, and Teens Take Charge presented "In Solidarity for Integration Town Hall."
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On May 19, Harvard Law Today published the article Plessy v. Ferguson at 125: "In 1896, the Supreme Court officially sanctioned 'separate but equal.' Harvard Law School Professor Kenneth Mack explains what the shameful decision meant, and why it still matters in 2021."
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Updates:
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Bridges Collaborative’s Student Contest on Segregation aims to shed light on the history of segregation in communities across America and to propose potential solutions to this problem. Submissions will be accepted through Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at 11:59 PM PT.
- Halley Potter: We Must Seize the Opportunity for Integration in Universal Pre-K (The Century Foundation, May 25) - "The American Families Plan would provide an important and overdue public investment to help make this happen through expanding funding for child care and creating universal pre-K. But funding alone is not enough to ensure quality and equity. Racial and socioeconomic integration must be a goal and a design principle as our nation’s leaders expand and build early learning opportunities..."
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Update:
- On the anniversary of Brown, the LDF announced the first cohort of the Marshall Motley-Scholars Program. Scholars pledge to devote the first eight years of their career to practicing civil rights law in service of Black communities in the South.
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Update:
At its National Conference this month, RIDES announced that the Harvard-based project will be ending in June. Some additional info:
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The free tools and resources developed by RIDES will continue to be available on the Harvard website for at least a year.
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Most of the RIDES team, including Lee Teitel and Darnisa Amante-Jackson, co-developers of the Equity Improvement Cycle, and experienced RIDES equity coaches Mary Anton, Adrienne Bailey, Isaiah McGee, and Circe Stumbo have started a new nonprofit, Schools Transforming, to sustain the direct work they do with schools and districts, and continue to develop related tools and other resources.
- They are excited about continuing to work with members of the larger NCSD community and anticipate that as a nonprofit, they will be nimbler in responding to school and district needs and will be able to offer a fuller array of services and support activities than they could while at Harvard.
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Via the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute's newsletter:
It is bittersweet to announce that David J. Harris, Managing Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School (CHHIRJ) since its inception in 2006, is retiring effective May 28.
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NEWS FROM
ACROSS OUR
COUNTRY
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Racial Equity Work Under Attack
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What Is Critical Race Theory, and Why Is It Under Attack? by Stephen Sawchuk (Education Week, May 26) - “'It’s because they’re nervous about broad social things, but they’re talking in the language of school and school curriculum,' said one historian of education. 'That’s the vocabulary, but the actual grammar is anxiety about shifting social power relations.'”
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Texas Educators Worry Bill Limiting the Teaching of Current Events and Historic Racism Would “Whitewash History” by Kate McGee (Texas Tribune, May 26) - “Part of his bill that kind of makes me freeze up is like feeling like I can’t talk about race or feeling like I’m going to say something that’s out of my lane, out of my professionalism as a teacher,” Foshay said. “If kids aren’t able to make those connections [about] why this [lesson] matters to them here sitting in the classroom right now ... we’re really losing a piece of making school matter to kids.”
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Tennessee Governor Signs Bill Restricting How Race and Bias Can be Taught in Schools by Marta W. Aldrich (Chalkbeat, May 24) - "Diarese George, executive director of the Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance, which spearheaded the letter, said the new law will be disheartening and discouraging to both educators and students. 'This not only perpetuates harm and hurt for many marginalized students and students of color, but it is an indictment on our ability to humanize lived experiences with healthy civil discourse,' George said Monday night."
NCSD Member Group Statements:
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Indiana -
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IPS, Gary Dominate Charter School Demographics by Steve Hinnefeld (School Matters blog, May 13) - "Considerable research shows that integrated schools benefit students, however, both academically and socially/emotionally. In the latter category, they especially benefit white students. It’s unfortunate that, in Indiana, one in five students attend schools where more than 90% of students are white."
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New York -
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NYC’s School Algorithms Cement Segregation. This Data Shows How by Colin Lecher and Maddy Varner (THE CITY, May 13) - “'The way I always think about this is, the legacy of racist housing policies laid out the groundwork for segregation,' said Matt Gonzales, director of the Integration and Innovation Initiative at New York University’s Metro Center [and NCSD Steering Committee member]. 'The school admissions policy, particularly the most egregiously racist ones, basically uphold and reinforce and replicate those patterns of segregation.'”
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Brooklyn Tech's Sophomore Class President Says the SHSAT Exam Should Go by Jillian Jorgensen (Spectrum News NY-1, May 13) - "'Do you think that Harvard is not a prestigious school because they don't use a single exam for admissions? Mind you, and they don't have these ridiculously low numbers of Black and Hispanic students,' he said. 'Do you think that what it means is that if you admit Black and Hispanic students that all of a sudden makes your school less prestigious? Because if that's what you think, then I'm sorry but that's racist.'"
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Pennsylvania -
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On Brown Anniversary, Education Advocates Say Pennsylvania Schools are Still Separate and Unequal by Dale Mezzacappa (Chalkbeat, May 17) - "The ELC and the Public Interest Law Center are representing six school districts, as well as several parents and organizations including the state NAACP. The suit argues that Pennsylvania’s system for funding education violates the state constitutional mandate to guarantee a 'thorough and efficient' system of education for all children. It was filed in 2014 and is scheduled to go to trial in September."
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Virginia -
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Alexandria Will Remove Police from Public School Hallways by Hannah Natanson (Washington Post, May 16) - "The council voted 4 to 3 on May 3 to reallocate nearly $800,000 used for the School Resource Officer program, which sent five officers into Alexandria’s one public high school and three public middle schools to patrol the hallways and keep order. The money will go instead toward initiatives meant to boost students’ mental health, although city officials are still working out the fine details with Alexandria City Public Schools. They have until July to come up with a spending plan, which will be subject to approval by the council."
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NEW: Two Reports on School Segregation in VA
By Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Kendra Taylor, Erica Frankenberg, and Kimberly Bridges via Penn State's Center for Education and Civil Rights & VCU College of Education (April 2021)
Segregation Within Schools: Unequal Access to AP Courses by Race and Economic Status in Virginia: This brief reveals extensive racial/ethnic and socioeconomic gaps in AP course-taking among Virginia’s high school students. These gaps are related to numerous barriers to access that include facets of both first- and segregation-generation integration. For instance, in terms of second-generation segregation, wide racial disparities in AP course-taking exist even in the most racially and economically advantaged Virginia schools.
Double Segregation by Race and Poverty in Virginia Schools: "We find an important and nuanced relationship between race, poverty, schools and locale in Virginia, with particularly detrimental trends for Black students. Black students experience the highest exposure to school poverty at all grade levels and across all locales. Deep racial disparities in exposure to school poverty, regardless of socioeconomic status, hold for Black students. Indeed, Black NED students experience poverty exposure levels that almost match those of white ED students. Substantial numbers of Black students also enroll in schools of concentrated racial and economic disadvantage."
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CROSS-MOVEMENT RESOURCE LIST
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What Introverts and Extroverts Can Learn From Each Other by Arthur C. Brooks (The Atlantic, May 2021) - "Beyond the specifics of introversion and extroversion, there is one important lesson in all this: Watching and learning from people very different from you is a great way to learn to be happier. Indeed, a love of human diversity of all types, from culture to character to politics, is required for a full education in well-being."
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The Real Reason American Parents Hate Each Other by Anna North (Vox, May 19) - "Essentially, the culture and politics of parenting in America all but guarantee unending conflict by setting up impossible (as well as racist and classist) standards for good parenting and then giving people absolutely no help to meet them."
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Monopolizing Whiteness by Erika K. Wilson (Harvard Law Review, May 10) - "Despite the material consequences and symbolic meaning of maintaining predominantly white school districts, a limited amount of scholarship addresses racial segregation in schools from the vantage point of white students. This Article fills that void in the school-desegregation legal literature. It analyzes white-student segregation through a sociological framework called social closure, a process of subordination whereby one group monopolizes advantages by closing off opportunities to other groups."
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Poverty & Race Research Action Council
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Vanderbilt University: Peabody College of Education and Human Development
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Bridges Collaborative National Convening: Keynote and Panels
The movement for integration in education and housing is taking place amid unprecedented challenges facing our country. That’s why The Century Foundation’s Bridges Collaborative (NCSD member organization) is proud to launch its second national convening as we attempt to promote integration in 2021 and beyond.
The Bridges Collaborative is inviting the general public to join three virtual talks during their national convening (June 3-4):
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June 3 - 12-12:45pm ET
History as Liberation: Diverse Perspectives on the Past and Present of Segregation
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June 4 - 11:30am-12pm ET
A Chat with Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond on School Integration
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June 4 - 12:05-12:45pm
Segregation and Desegregation in the Twentieth Century: Lessons for Today’s Efforts
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Learning Policy Institute (LPI), Education Policy Initiative , & New America will host a webinar "focus[ed] on long-term federal policy solutions to build a comprehensive, equitable, and integrated early learning system, drawing from the work of [LPI] and New America, as well as the authors of Cradle to Kindergarten: A New Plan to Combat Inequality."
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Rising Organizers - "New to organizing? We will bring you into the world of community organizing—working with people to build power and create change—for FREE!"
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Virtual Book Conversation: A Brief History of the Subordination of African Americans in the U.S.: Of Handcuffs and Bootstraps by Alexander Polikoff and Elizabeth Lasser
"Alden Loury (Senior Editor—Race, Class and Communities Desk, WBEZ Chicago) and Alexander Polikoff will explore how understanding our racial history, and the persistence and currency of the nation’s mistreatment of African Americans, might help make this third chance the successful one, enabling the nation to achieve at last the racial justice that has so long eluded it."
RSVP to [email protected] with your name, email address and organization to receive a link to the conversation.
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Contact Us
National Coalition on School Diversity
c/o Poverty and Race Research Action Council
Mailing Address: 740 15th St. NW #300
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-544-5066
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