By Meira Levinson (Click here to view the entire P&R issue) Each semester I taught eighth-grade “Civics in Action” in the Boston Public Schools (BPS), students were required to take a standardized End-of-Course Assessment. One question asked them to select an issue “of importance to your school, your community, the country, the world and you.” Students were … [Read more...] about “Education as a Civic Right: Using Schools to Challenge the Civic Empowerment Gap” by Meira Levinson (May-June 2013 P&R Issue)
Browse School Diversity at PRRAC
PRRAC strongly supports federal, state and local efforts to increase racial and economic integration in K-12 education. We do this work primarily with and through the National Coalition on School Diversity (NCSD), which we helped to found in 2009 along with former staff from the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute at Harvard Law School, and leadership of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the ACLU. Members of the NCSD Steering Committee include the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, PRRAC, ACLU, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, MALDEF, AALDEF, Kirwan Institute, NY Appleseed, UNC Center for Civil Rights, and the UCLA Civil Rights Project, along with a small group of prominent legal scholars. Since 2009, PRRAC has served as the primary staff and fiscal agent for the NCSD, with active support from many of the NCSD member organizations for specific advocacy campaigns, and volunteer contributions by members of the NCSD Research Advisory Panel.
For more on PRRAC’s work on education and school diversity, visit our page on the Housing-School Nexus.
Do Federally Assisted Households Have Access to High Performing Public Schools? (Ingrid Gould Ellen & Keren Mertens Horn, November 2012)
A PRRAC Report (November 2012). By Ingrid Gould Ellen & Keren Mertens Horn. Excerpt: Existing research on the residential outcomes of assisted households finds that on average assisted households live in disadvantaged neighborhoods (Newman and Schnare, 1997; Pendall, 2000; Freeman, 2003; Galvez, 2011). This analysis pushes the question a step further and probes whether … [Read more...] about Do Federally Assisted Households Have Access to High Performing Public Schools? (Ingrid Gould Ellen & Keren Mertens Horn, November 2012)
“What Are We Holding Our Public Schools Accountable For? The Gap Between What is Measured and What is Needed to Prepare Children for an Increasingly Diverse Society” by Amy Stuart Wells (September-October 2012 P&R Issue)
By Amy Stuart Wells (Click here to view the entire P&R issue) In 2011, for the first time, less than half of the babies born in the U.S. were white and non-Hispanic. Instead, the majority of newborns were Latino, African American, Asian and/or Native American, a sign that the identity of our nation is changing, as are the social and cultural skills needed to … [Read more...] about “What Are We Holding Our Public Schools Accountable For? The Gap Between What is Measured and What is Needed to Prepare Children for an Increasingly Diverse Society” by Amy Stuart Wells (September-October 2012 P&R Issue)
Diverse Charter Schools (PRRAC & Century Foundation, May 2012)
A PRRAC & Century Foundation Report (May 2012). By Richard D. Kahlenberg & Halley Potter. Excerpt: The education policy and philanthropy communities to date have placed a premium on funding charter schools that have high concentrations of poverty and large numbers of minority students. This report asks: Might it make more sense for foundations and policymakers to … [Read more...] about Diverse Charter Schools (PRRAC & Century Foundation, May 2012)
“Segregation and Exposure to High-Poverty Schools in Large Metropolitan Areas: 2008-09” by Nancy McArdle, Theresa L. Osypuk & Dolores Acevedo-Garcia (November-December 2010 P&R Issue)
By Nancy McArdle, Theresa L. Osypuk & Dolores Acevedo-Garcia (Click here to view the entire P&R issue) Schools are a key environment influencing child development, and research has documented the negative effects of concentrated-poverty schools as well as the advantages of racially/ethnically diverse learning environments. Yet minority children continue to … [Read more...] about “Segregation and Exposure to High-Poverty Schools in Large Metropolitan Areas: 2008-09” by Nancy McArdle, Theresa L. Osypuk & Dolores Acevedo-Garcia (November-December 2010 P&R Issue)