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NCSD member John Brittain discusses strategies for contemporary desegregation challenges with Robert Kim (Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Operations and Outreach, DOE Office for Civil Rights) and Willis Hawley (Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland) at the Magnet Schools Assistance Program's annual Project Directors Meeting in Washington, DC (October 2014). NCSD Research Advisory Panel member Genevieve Siegel-Hawley also participated in this panel, but is not pictured above.
UPDATES
Socioeconomic Integration Pilot Program in New York State

New York State's DOE recently announced a new $10 million pilot program that will utilize federal Title I School Improvement Grant funds to promote socioeconomic integration. Up to 25 Title I Focus or Priority schools will be funded during the pilot period.

The Socioeconomic Integration Pilot Program will provide funding to implement choice and educational models designed to support the achievement of low-SES students and to deconcentrate poverty. Districts may apply for grant funds using three models: 1) Individual Magnet School Model; 2) Coordinated Grants Model; and 3) Community Innovation Model.

Eligibility Requirements: 
  • Only Title I Focus Districts with poverty rates of at least 60% and at least ten (10) schools in their district are eligible to apply for pilot funding. These districts are: New York CIty, Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, Syracuse, Schenectady, Mount Vernon, Albany, Utica, Newburgh, Binghamton, and Hempstead.
     
  • Only Title I Focus or Priority Schools with a poverty rate of at least 70% are eligible for this program.

Deadline for applications is February 13, 2015.

 

See Education Week's coverage, quoting NCSD's Phil Tegeler.  

NCSD's "Tools for Teachers" Webinar Available Online
View related resources here.

Over 150 people participated in NCSD's first webinar, Tools for Teachers: Strategies for Addressing Racial Dynamics in the Classroom, on December 15th. Rachel Godsil (Seton Hall University School of Law) and Linda Tropp (UMass Amherst) discussed their new report from the Perception Institute 
(coauthored with john powell and Phillip Goff), focusing on findings related to implicit bias, racial anxiety, and stereotype threat in education. 
 
WATCH the webinar and SHARE your thoughts! 
Proposals for ESEA Reauthorization Introduced

On January 12, Senator Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee released a 400 page draft reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which has not been revised since No Child Left Behind was enacted in 2001.

Senator Alexander's proposal includes multiple testing options allowing local districts to implement alternatives to state standards, as well as provisions that would allow Title I funding to follow students to their public school of choice. 

Senator Patty Murray has also outlined her priorities for the law's reauthorization, which include new funding for early childhood education programs.

In his Washington Post op-ed, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan expressed apprehension about relaxed testing standards and changes to Title I funding.
MEMBER ORGANIZATION UPDATES
  • January 5, 2015: NCSD submitted comments on new regulations for the Charter Schools Program.
    • On a similar note, the NEA submitted thoughtful comments on the new CSP regulations, citing the recent Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) Shadow Report submitted to the United Nations' CERD Committee by several NCSD members.
SCHOOL DIVERSITY IN THE NEWS
DOE UPDATES

Earlier this month, the Department of Education and Department of Justice released joint guidance to ensure English Learners (ELs) have equal access to high quality education. In addition to the guidance, DOE/DOJ released fact sheets regarding schools' legal obligations to EL students and their parents/guardians and a toolkit to help districts identify EL students.

UPCOMING EVENTS OF INTEREST
Feb. 4-6, 2015
Washington, DC
Policy Training Conference: Promoting Opportunity and Excellence
Magnet Schools of America
Feb. 26-28, 2015 San Diego, CA
National Conference: Celebrate Public Education in America
American Association of School Administrators
Mar. 14-17, 2015
Washington, DC 
Annual Legislative Conference
Council of Great City Schools

April 16-20, 2015
Chicago, IL

Annual Conference: "Toward Justice: Culture, Language, and Heritage in Education Research and Praxis"
American Educational Research Association

 

QUOTATION 
"Sixty years after the Supreme Court's decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, far too many of our students remain trapped in lower-performing schools as a result of their socioeconomic status....The Court in Brown found that 'separate educational facilities are inherently unequal' - yet more than half a century later, we still see tremendous disparities in our schools along socioeconomic lines. New York will reach its full potential only when all students have equal access to exceptional schools." 
 

Issue

January 2015

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About NCSD

The National Coalition on School Diversity (NCSD) is a network of national civil rights organizations, university-based research centers, and state and local coalitions working to expand support for government policies that promote school diversity and reduce racial isolation. We also support the work of state and local school diversity practitioners. Our work is informed by an advisory panel of scholars and academic researchers whose work relates to issues of equity, diversity, and desegregation/integration.

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 NCSD Member Organizations 



 Membership

 

Organizational membership in the NCSD is free and open to national, regional, and local organizations that are working to support racial and economic integration in public schools. Member groups will be listed on the NCSD website, and will be asked to help publicize NCSD publications and events, and to support NCSD advocacy efforts, as appropriate, at the U.S. Department of Education, in state governments, and in Congress. NCSD policy decisions are made by an established steering committee of national civil rights organizations and several academic advisers.

 

LEARN MORE

 

 Updates from Research Advisory Panel Members 

 

 

A new book edited by RAP member Roslyn Arlin Mickelson and her colleagues Stephen Samuel Smith and Amy Hawn Nelson provides a compelling analysis of the forces and choices that have shaped the trend toward the resegregation of public schools. By assembling a wide range of contributors--historians, sociologists, economists, and education scholars--the editors provide a comprehensive view of a community's experience with desegregation and economic development. Here we see resegregation through the lens of Charlotte, North Carolina, once a national model of successful desegregation, and home of the landmark Swann desegregation case, which gave rise to school busing. 

   
CONTACT US

National Coalition on School
Diversity

c/o Poverty and Race Research Action Council (PRRAC)

Website: www.school-diversity.org

Email: school-diversity@prrac.org 

Phone: 202-544-5066 

Mailing Address: 1200 18th St. NW #200 Washington, DC 20036