October 29, 2019

Focus: 65 Years After Desegregation: Where Are We Now?

Dear Colleagues:

I had a driveway moment this morning. The StoryCorps episode, "We Missed Knowing Each Other," is a recorded conversation between Natalie Guice Adams and Eli Brown, former classmates who lead surprisingly similar, and yet eerily separate, lives while attending an integrated school in Louisiana in 1970. As with most StoryCorps broadcasts, Guice Adams' and Brown's story is incredibly poignant and provides a window into their lived experience with segregation. I felt compelled to sit in my "driveway" - aka my parking spot along the loop - until I heard the musical notes marking the end of the program. [Note: the StoryCorps introduction highlights this week as the "fiftieth anniversary of desegregation," which will puzzle those who recall that Brown v. Board of Ed. occurred in 1955. It wasn't until 1969, however, and after fifteen years of continued segregation in many districts, that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Alexander v. Holmes that school districts must immediately end all segregated school systems.]

Although our students likely think of the Supreme Court decisions as ancient history, by some measures, segregation has worsened in the last twenty years. As UCLA's Civil Rights Project points out, segregation for black students has increased everywhere in the U.S. except for the midwest. These and other problems related to inequality and racism, moreover, are not limited to public schools. Faithful readers of Monday Musings know that I've already addressed the debates surrounding Mayor de Blasio's efforts to decrease segregation in New York City's elite public schools; this article from the New York Times demonstrates that debates around educational inequality rage in private schools as well.

Here on our Island we've made great strides toward increased diversity on our campus, thanks in large part to the Admissions Office, the deans of faculty, and the increased financial aid budget. As Sheila drove home in her summer letter, however, work remains regarding increasing the inclusivity of our curriculum and our courses. And, as we were reminded by the most recent swastika incident, we are not immune to the uptick in hateful and racist acts across the U.S. But as Langston Hughes wrote in "Freedom's Plow," "Out of the darkest days for people and a nation, [...] There was light when the battle clouds rolled away." The event in the chapel last Thursday, during which Webb read from Hughes' poem, was a beautiful reaffirmation of our community values, and I am deeply grateful to the organizers, to those who spoke and performed, and to all those who attended. I was reminded of the healing power of poetry and music and of the importance of communing after a dark moment such as this.

I'll conclude with the final stanza from Hughes' "Freedom's Plow":

A long time ago,

An enslaved people heading toward freedom

Made up a song:

Keep Your Hand On The Plow! Hold On!

The plow plowed a new furrow

Across the field of history.

Into that furrow the freedom seed was dropped.

From that seed a tree grew, is growing, will ever grow.

That tree is for everybody,

For all America, for all the world.

May its branches spread and shelter grow

Until all races and all peoples know its shade.

KEEP YOUR HAND ON THE PLOW! HOLD ON!

Rachel, on behalf of the Kravis Center, @kravisteaching

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Resources for Addressing Segregation and Educational Inequality in the Classroom

The following resources are incredibly rich and could be of use across the disciplines.

The New York Times offers six lesson plans featuring interactive maps, links to databases, case studies, economic and legal considerations, and explorations of "voluntary segregation" such as Afrocentric schools and yeshivas.

Propublica offers a database with statistics about access to AP courses, graduation rates, and more for public schools in each U.S. state.

Teaching Tolerance's "Toolkit for 'Segregation by Design'" includes lesson plans for using primary sources to "help students uncover the realities of racial segregation and how it was deliberately perpetuated in the United States."

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Upcoming Internal PD

Open Classroom Week! November 4-8

Follow-up casual discussion on Thursday, November 7 (The Lyon's Den) after dinner

November 4-8: Open Classroom Week (OCW).As someone recently so wisely described OCW "it's the best, freest, PD that you can get." We are looking forward to an OCW gathering in the Lyon's Den on Thursday evening November 7 after dinner. Please sign up here.

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Resources to bookmark

Vanderbilt's Center for Teaching is an invaluable resource which includes a plethora of topics ranging from grading student work, to teaching statement to student evaluations of teaching, to writing good multiple choice questions. Check it out!

Deans for Impact and the pdf of The Science of Learning - a must read on teh neuroscience of learning.

Academic Tenacity by Dweck, Walter, and Cohen The New Faculty Cohort (NFC) read excerpts for orientation. A must read on creating a sense of belonging and increasing classroom motivation.

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CAIS PD opps

Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) professional development opportunities for November - Click here to access all event information

On November 15, there will be a People of Color in Independent Schools (POCIS) meeting at Westover School.

On November 7, Fairfield Country Day is hosting an event for all CT Art Teachers.

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External PD Options:

Harvard Graduate School of Education has a plethora of online professional development opportunities on a wide range of topics.

Reminder! The link to the external PD opportunities is always available. Once in the document, click on the bookmark to find conferences that may interest you. Don't forget to add a comment/feedback next to a conference that you attended. Please excuse the "expired" dates. Most conferences do not update dates until January.

researchED national conference

November 16, Philadelphia

researchED is an organization designed to promote the research literacy of teachers.

Learning How to Learn - Learn & the Brain

November 22-24, Boston