#NCSD2025

5th National Conference on School Diversity

February 27-March 1, 2025

Washington, DC

Register for #NCSD2025, the largest cross-sector school integration convening in the nation! This year's event brings together 300+ advocates, educators, policymakers, researchers, students, parents, and integration supporters from across the country to share strategies, exchange best practices, and strengthen the movement for integrated education.

Together, we will:

• Exchange stories about on-the-ground efforts to advance school integration in today’s complex landscape.
• Engage in skill-building and collaboration to enhance school diversity initiatives at the federal, state, and local levels.
• Celebrate NCSD’s 15th anniversary by reflecting on our wins, learning from challenges, and charting a bold path forward.

Over the course of the conference, attendees will have opportunities to work with Equity Meets Design, whose founder we met during a design challenge she led through the Reimaging Integration: Diverse and Equitable Schools (RIDES) initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Christine and her team have facilitated sessions for us at past NCSD conferences and in Hartford, CT. Learn more below.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27 - OPENING ACTIVITIES

The Morrow Hotel • 222 M St NE, WDC 20002

SKILL-BUILDING WORKSHOPS (3-5pm)

• Listening Through Complexity
• Organizing with a Racial Justice Framework
• Advocating for Integration at the State Level

We can accommodate approximately 70 people for pre-conference workshops. More details and sign-up form to come!

OPENING RECEPTION (6-8pm)

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28 - MAIN CONFERENCE

Georgetown Law • 600 New Jersey Ave NW, WDC 20001

MAIN CONFERENCE SESSIONS (9am-5pm)

• State of Integration Live! (more info below)
• Policy Plenary
• Lunch Workshops
• We will offer sessions on: magnet schools, interdistrict programs, diverse-by-design charters, student assignment/controlled choice policies, housing/schools connections, school finance/integration intersections–all facilitated by leading organizations across the field
• Keynote Conversation with Michelle Adams (more info below)
• Fortifying State and Local Movements: Surfacing Barriers (more info below)

CLOSING RECEPTION AND GALLERY WALK (5-6:30pm)

SATURDAY, MARCH 1 - DESIGN SPRINT (invite-only due to fiscal constraints)

The Morrow Hotel • 222 M St NE, WDC 20002

DESIGN SPRINT (9am-1pm)

In this session, which is invite-only due to fiscal constraints, we will work closely with about 30 people across different geographies and sectors. Please be on the lookout for an invitation to participate. Any questions can be directed to Gina Chirichigno at gchirichigno@prrac.org.

Designing Supports to Fortify State and Local Movements: During the conference, key priorities for NCSD to fortify local and state movements will emerge. In this design sprint, led by Equity Meets Design, teams with diverse experiences within the movement will help NCSD more deeply understand the prioritized set of barriers and needs, identify potential paths forward, and develop a set of immediate next steps.

–more agenda details coming soon–

STATE OF INTEGRATION LIVE!

Activists, advocates, and educators from across the nation will share their work and visions for advancing integration in today’s complex landscape. Speakers will describe the state of integration in their state or locality and any interconnected challenges. This dynamic opening session to #NCSD2025 will connect pressing educational justice issues through storytelling and conscious listening, allowing us to better understand the needs, priorities, aspirations, strategies, and shared goals that define our movement today. Participants will hear inspiring stories of resilience, courage, and innovation while exploring actionable solutions to protect and promote integrated education as a cornerstone of a thriving multiracial democracy.

KEYNOTE CONVERSATION WITH MICHELLE ADAMS

"A new book by Professor Michelle Adams details the history and impact of Milliken v. Bradley, the Detroit school desegregation case that gained national attention and a Supreme Court ruling in the early 1970s. 'Milliken v. Bradley is the case that ended the Brown v. Board of Education era,' Adams said in a recent interview. 'This book is about a very important case, but it’s really about how northern Jim Crow [laws were] created, maintained, and prosecuted.' Written for a general audience, Adams’s book—The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North (Macmillan, 2025)—is the product of more than 10 years of research and writing. As an expert in race and the law who was born in Detroit, Adams had long been interested in the Milliken case."

PROBLEM FORMULATION SESSION LED BY EQUITY MEETS DESIGN

Fortifying State and Local Movements: Surfacing Barriers

While NCSD will continue to lead work at the federal level, we recognize a need to help fortify state and local movements. During this session we will work to leverage our collective intelligence and experience to identify, understand, and prioritize the barriers you face in your local and statewide work that are both most pressing and that NCSD is best situated to provide support in the near term. We specifically seek to surface barriers you face in the following three focus areas: 1) communications, 2) research, and 3) convening and connecting.

About Equity Meets Design (EMD)

At the core of everything we do at EMD is the belief that Racism and Inequity are products of Design. Since they are products of design, they can be redesigned. We believe everyone is a designer, and that we are each constantly designing things as we do our jobs and live our lives. If we can each think of ourselves as designers, and our work as design work, and then use an equity design approach for that work - that will be how we make this world more equitable. We prioritize engagements that allow us to build capacity in folks to be equity designers.

About Christine Ortiz

Dr. Christine Ortiz Guzman is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for innovation through equity-centered design. Her current venture is Equity Meets Design, a think & do tank that builds capacity in folks to use an equity-centered design process to answer the question "How do I do equity?" Their equity by design process supports individuals and organizations to intentionally design their interventions, interactions and institutions for equity and justice.

Christine spent her teenage years creating the national Truth tobacco prevention campaign and launched her first consulting firm at 17, supporting states and other countries interested in implementing the Truth model. The first in her family to have a college degree, Christine has a BS from MIT, Masters in Education and Non-Profit Management, and a Doctorate in Education Leadership from Harvard University. In all her endeavors, she has been motivated to address the barriers innovators face when tackling complex equity-based social issues, leveraging and accounting for the entirety of who she is, especially her experience being a Latina and a mother from the south.

We are grateful to the following sponsors, whose funds we have been holding with care since 2020 (when our conference was canceled due to COVID):

• W.K. Kellogg Foundation
• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
• Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation (VICC)
• American Education Solutions
• Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
• Learn Together, Live Together (LTLT)
• New York Appleseed
• Proskauer Rose LLP
• Bridges Collaborative at The Century Foundation
• NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF)
• William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund
• EducationCounsel
• Fair Housing Justice Center
• Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley

Contact Us

 National Coalition on School Diversity

c/o Poverty and Race Research Action Council

Website: school-diversity.org

Email: school-diversity@prrac.org

Mailing Address: 740 15th St. NW #300 Washington, DC 20005

Phone: 202-544-5066