Shows
The Integrated Schools PodcastReflections on Season 11As Season 11 comes to a close, we wanted to spend some time reflecting on the lessons we've learned from this season and what we hope for in Season 12. We'll be off for the summer with a few possible bonus episodes, and back for real in the fall. In the mean time, we want to express our deepest appreciation for a number of people who make this podcast run. Firstly, to all of our guests, thank you for joining us, for sharing your stories and your wisdom with us. Being in conversation with each of you is a true...2025-06-1130 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastThe Intersection of Private Decisions and Public Responsibility“Having my children in public school was something that I wanted to do with people in my community. It was a commitment that we were making together. And then when I saw folks leaving, it felt like a betrayal.” – Stephanie Foreman.Where we send our kids to school is, for many, a complicated decision. We struggle to weigh multiple factors- curriculum and teachers, diversity of the student body, the commute and hours, not to mention what role we want to play in supporting the institutions where our kids spend 8 hours a day. Drs. Stephanie Foreman and Lisa Sibbett...2025-05-2854 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastUnearthing Joy: Gholdy Muhammad on Teaching with Love"If we're not centering children’s humanity through love, there's no strategy, no professional book or instructional method in the world that can prepare the teacher to elevate the child." - Dr. Gholdy MuhammadIdentity, skills, intellectualism, criticality, and joy. These are the five pursuits that Dr. Gholdy Muhammad argues are key to education. Our educational system focuses most of its attention on skills while often overlooking the other pursuits to the detriment of all kids. All people need to know who they are and whose they are, need to put the knowledge they gain into action...2025-04-3054 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastFinding Hope, TogetherLast month, integration advocates from around the country gathered for the National Coalition on School Diversity's National Conference to discuss where we find ourselves in this difficult moment.From policy makers to researchers, school leaders to equity advocates, the conference featured many of the brightest minds focusing on how we build up and support an education system that serves all children well. Despite the challenges to education, especially public education, not to mention multiracial public education, attending the conference was inspiring and sustaining. To see several hundred people gather in the face of pushback...2025-04-0238 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastSchools and Race: Eve Ewing on the Construction of American RacismPublic education is touted as the bedrock of democracy, a leveler of playing fields, and our best tool to create active, engaged citizens. And while that vision is powerful, Dr. Eve L. Ewing argues that it was never intended to be those things for Black or Native students. In fact, her new book, Original Sins: The (MIs)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism, maintains that schooling in America was created to prepare White kids for leadership, Black kids for subjugation, and Native kids for erasure. She joins us to discuss these thre...2025-03-191h 04
The Integrated Schools PodcastLies and Moral Deficiencies: Greg Jarrell on Whiteness"To be White is, is to be raised on lies. Lies that are passed down, generationally that a lot of White folks don't always know that they're passing down." - Greg Jarrell Our guest today, Greg Jarrell is an ordained minister, a cultural organizer and the author of Our Trespasses: White Churches and the Taking of American Neighborhoods. Through many years of building community while engaging in anti-racist learning, he has come to realize that he also has a stake in ending White supremacy, advancing racial justice, and building loving, multi-racial communities. He joins us to discuss the...2025-03-0557 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastMicro Activism: Making a Difference One Step at a Time Omkari Williams believes deeply in the power of people to change their environments - that through the power of the human spirit, and small, concrete actions, anything is possible, and that true changes requires all types of people. Her recent book, Micro Activism: How You Can Make a Difference in the World Without A Bullhorn, is a testament to this idea. In it, she lays out four activist archetypes - The Headliner, The Producer, The Organizer, and The Indispensable. All movements need all four types of activists, and everyone can find themselves in one or more of the arc...2025-02-1947 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastGratitude and Validation: One Family's Journey Through Integrated Schools Every parent and caregiver wants a crystal ball. We want to see how the choices we make for our kids, from screen time to activities to where they go to school, will impact them when they're older. Choosing an integrating school can feel like a risky choice, and even if we believe that it is the right choice, both for our kids, and our community, it's easy for doubt to creep in.Susan, a White mom in Lancaster, PA, and her husband, made that choice for their son, Elias in kindergarten. When he was 15, he was at a tr...2025-01-221h 00
The Integrated Schools PodcastReflections on the 2024 ElectionIn the wake of the election results, Dr. Val and Andrew sit down to reflect on what it means for ourselves, for the Integrated Schools movement, and for the institution of public education. Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org.The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowi...2024-11-1330 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastDeny, Defund, Divert: Janel George on Race and Justice in EducationJanel George, a Georgetown Law professor, who explores race and justice in education, recently wrote a paper that moved us here at Integrated Schools. Called "Deny, Defund, and Divert: The Law and American Miseducation", the piece outlines historical and modern systemic educational inequalities faced by Black communities, linked to legislative actions and adaptations of White supremacy. She joins us to talk about legislative lawyering, the importance of community engagement when making public policy, and the ongoing role of systemic racism in our legal and education systems. Ms. George shares her vision for a racially just education system, a...2024-10-0950 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastSeason 11 Kickoff: RecommittedWe're back!! We hope you had a wonderful summer! We're excited to be back in your feeds as a new school year gets underway. As we kick off season 11 of the podcast, we are recommitting to the mission and vision of Integrated Schools, and using the podcast as a platform to invite you in to the conversation.Mission: Integrated Schools prepares families with racial or economic privilege to commit to integrating our children, driving new narratives about education, and advocating for justice in our public schools.Vision: Integrated Schools envisions a racially and socioeconomically integrated public school system whe...2024-09-2526 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastReflections On Season 10Nineteen episodes later, Season 10 comes to an end, and we are reflecting on an incredible season. Our themes for the season were the importance of public schools, the power of storytelling, the importance of community, and stamina, and we had 19 incredible episodes going deep on all of those themes, and more. Plus, we had our first ever live show!
Thanks to everyone who makes the Integrated Schools work possible, from our Board of Directors, to our chapter and network contacts, our leadership team, and bookclub moderators, we are so grateful to all of you. Special thanks to Darci and Jennifer for help...2024-06-1234 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastThe 70th Anniversary of Brown v Board - Do It Live!Dreams really do come true . . . We have wanted to do a live show for quite some time, and finally had the opportunity thanks to The National Coalition for School Diversity, The Century Foundation, and the American Institutes for Research,who invited us to facilitate their event marking the 70th anniversary of Brown v Board. Hosted at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, on the Oprah Winfrey Stage, we were honored to facilitate three panel discussions grappling with the challenges we face today in fulfilling the true promise of Brown.
Joined by an amazing group of speakers, all deeply co...2024-05-291h 21
The Integrated Schools PodcastA Tipping Point for Change 70 Years After Brown v BoardMay 17th, 1954 the Supreme Court handed down its famous decision in the Brown v Board of Education of Topekacase. So much of the work of Integrated Schools is about trying to live into the promises made through that unanimous decision. On May 17th, 1973, a girl was born in Woodbridge, Virginia. That girl, Courtney Everts Mykytyn, would go on to found Integrated Schools in 2015, calling in parents and caregivers with privilege to work towards fulfilling the vision extolled by the court nineteen years to the day before she was born.
Tragically, Courtney was struck by a car and killed on Dec 29th, 2...2024-05-1720 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastLocal Stories of Desegregation: CharlotteIn 1954’s Brown v Board decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal. However, the Brown II decision a year later said that fixing our separate education system should happen with “all deliberate speed.” The deliberate speed in most places was glacial, leading many local communities to file law suits demanding action. These local desegregation cases happened across the country following similar patterns, but varying due to local contexts. We started with a three-part series on Denver. This is our second deep dive into one of those stories, this time focusing on Charlotte, NC.
In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled in Swann v C...2024-05-011h 00
The Integrated Schools PodcastRebuilding The Black Educator PipelineIn 2021, 80% of teachers in our country's public schools were White, while just 6% were Black. That same year, 54% of public school students were students of color, and 15% were Black. We also know of the extensive research showing the positive impacts of Black teachers on all kids, but especially on Black kids. However, as we learned last episode from Dr. Leslie Fenwick, we lost over 100,000 Black teachers in the wake of desegregation attempt, and the Black teacher pipeline was crushed through explicit and implicit government action. In 2019, Sharif El-Mekki founded The Center for Black Educator Development to do something about it. With a commitme...2024-04-1759 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastJim Crow's Pink Slip with Dr. Leslie FenwickSeventeen years after the Brown v Board decision, in 1971, US Senator Walter Mondale chaired a number of Select Committee hearings on Equal Educational Opportunity. One of these hearings focused on what was happening to Black teachers and principals as the country begrudgingly worked to desegregate our schools. The hearing featured testimony and supplemental documentation calling attention to the vast number of Black teachers who were losing their jobs in the Southern, dual-system states. Despite Brown's promise of desegregated schools including faculty and staff in addition to students, districts across the South were finding ways to remove Black teachers and principals, rather t...2024-04-031h 00
The Integrated Schools PodcastLocal Stories of Desegregation: DENVER (Part 3)PART 3 of 3
In 1954’s Brown v Board decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal. However, the Brown II decision a year later said that fixing our separate education system should happen with “all deliberate speed.” The deliberate speed in most places was glacial, leading many local communities to file law suits demanding action. These local desegregation cases happened across the country following similar patterns, but varying due to local contexts. We are going to dive into several of these local stories in the coming months, and we are starting today with Denver, CO.
In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in favor...2024-03-2059 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastLocal Stories of Desegregation: DENVER (Part 2)PART 2 of 3
In 1954's Brown v Board decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal. However, the Brown II decision a year later said that fixing our separate education system should happen with "all deliberate speed." The deliberate speed in most places was glacial, leading many local communities to file law suits demanding action. These local desegregation cases happened across the country following similar patterns, but varying due to local contexts. We are going to dive into several of these local stories in the coming months, and we are starting today with Denver, CO.
In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in f...2024-03-1358 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastLocal Stories of Desegregation: DENVER (Part 1)In 1954's Brown v Board decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal. However, the Brown II decision a year later said that fixing our separate education system should happen with "all deliberate speed." The deliberate speed in most places was glacial, leading many local communities to file law suits demanding action. These local desegregation cases happened across the country following similar patterns, but varying due to local contexts. We are going to dive into several of these local stories in the coming months, and we are starting today with Denver, CO.
In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of t...2024-03-0634 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastParenting to Create the World We WantWe are fortunate to have many guests whose work is focused on research, policy, and the broader school integration movement. However, we know that most of our listeners are parents and caregivers, and many of our favorite episodes share the perspectives of those raising kids and making decisions about how to show up in schools, in communities, and in the country. Today's conversation with Jon Tobin (and his wife Amanda) is just that - an exploration of how one family continually finds ways to make decisions that reflect their values, that support their kids, and that work to make the wo...2024-02-2152 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastThe Importance of BelongingThere's a difference between feeling like you belong in a space and that that space belongs to you. That true sense of belonging, of feeling seen and heard and respected in a space, has profound educational impacts. Dr. Shanette Porterhas studied schools that have created that sense of belonging, and found that not only are strictly academic measures improved (test scores, etc), but other benefits come as well. From increased graduation rates, to decreased disciplinary incidents, to increased attendance, schools that focus on creating a sense of belonging do better for the whole child.
Dr. Porter joins us to share some...2024-02-0748 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastA Conversation with the Assistant Secretary of EducationLocal control of schools is long tradition in the US. The result is a patchwork of over 13,000 local school districts. This creates a challenge for The Federal Department of Education to enact change across the country. Roberto Rodriguez is the Assistant Secretary of Eduction for Planning, Policy, and Evaluation at the US Department of Education, where they recently awarded $10 million of grants through the Fostering Diverse Schools program, a grant designed to supporting voluntary efforts to increase school socioeconomic diversity throughout the country. He joins us to discuss the grant, as well as the Federal government's role in pushing policy...2024-01-2438 min
The Integrated Schools Podcast2023 In ReviewAs 2023 comes to a close, we just wanted to take a brief moment to reflect on the year, talk about our hopes for 2024, and hear from you! We share listener voice memos, an update on Integrated Schools, including our new board of directors, and tease a few of the episodes coming in the new year!
LINKS:
Blog post about our new board of directors
Send us your voice memos! -http://speakpipe.com/integratedschools
If you'd like to volunteer, send us an email - volunteer@integratedschools.org
Check out our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of...2023-12-1330 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastICYMI: Teaching Hard HistoryWe were thrilled to have two interns working on the podcast over the past summer. One of them, Jaden González, found an episode of the Teaching Hard History podcast from Learning for Justice that spoke to him, so he joined us to talk about it and play a portion of it. In it, we hear from Dr. Aisha White who has studied how children, especially young children, understand and learn about race. It dispels the myth that children are ever too young to learn about race, and has helpful suggestions for how to have conversations that build a healthy raci...2023-11-2944 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastTaking Just Action for Integration with Richard and Leah RothsteinLike many of you, we were blown away by Richard Rothstein's The Color of Law for the ways it unveiled institutionalized racial segregation and its lingering impacts on our country. His methodical unmasking of the explicitly racist policies that led to the creation of the suburbs, the wealth gap, educational disparities and more helped expose the idea of "de facto" segregation, or segregation that occurs naturally, as a myth. The ways that we are segregated today were caused by intentional governmental policies, and we have yet to redress the harm caused.
While The Color Law presented compelling stories about how we g...2023-11-151h 07
The Integrated Schools PodcastManaging an Increasingly Diverse and Unequal Education System with Dr. Erica TurnerOur focus on this show is often on parents and caregivers and the choices we make, from where to send our kids to school, to how we show up in those communities, to how we advocate for our kids and all kids. We have also talked about students and teachers, and national level policies. However, we have not previously spent much time talking about the district level decision makers, from school board members, to superintendents, to central office staff. Due to the decentralized nature of our education system, these leaders have tremendous power to affect change, and often find themselves on...2023-11-0159 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastThere Goes the Neighborhood with Jade AdiaGentrification sucks . . . yet change is inevitable. We're joined today by Young Adult author, Jade Adia, whose first novel, There Goes The Neighborhood takes place in a fictional neighborhood in South LA being wracked by gentrification. Through a story of friendship, found family, and coming of age, Jade invites us in to a neighborhood deeply worth saving, and three friends who set out to save it in a deeply problematic way. We discuss Jade's personal story and how it led to her writing this novel, and we discuss ways of getting involved and finding connection in our neighborhoods.
LINKS:
There Goes The Nei...2023-10-1858 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastThe Demands and Promises of Integration with John BlakeThe son of a Black father and a White mother, John Blake grew up in a deeply segregated, Black neighborhood in Baltimore with a great mystery - who was his mom? Until he was 17, all he knew about her was that she was White, her name was Shirley, and her family hated Black people. Meeting her, at age 17, began a journey of racial understanding and changed his life. Mr. Blake has been writing about race and religion as a reporter for over 25 years, and over those years he has come to discover that facts don't change people, relationships do. His rel...2023-10-041h 06
The Integrated Schools PodcastSeason 10 Kick Off: ReconnectingWe're back!!
After a wonderfully busy summer, we are back with a whole new season and we have some great stuff planned. To kick things off, we're talking about where we find ourselves as this school year starts, and the themes we are focusing on this season. These themes feel relevant in this moment and will guide us through the season. They are:
The importance of public schools
The power of storytelling
The power of proximity and the importance of being in community
Stamina - the importance of finding hope and relationships to sustain the work
We also talk about a v...2023-09-2038 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastReflections on Season 9As Season 9 comes to a close, we reflect on some of the amazing conversations we had over the past 16 episodes, and hear from you about what you're grappling with. From the Heather McGhee's episode in the very beginning of the season through Episode 15 on school lunches, we tried to focus on solidarity and elevating voices that have been missing from our conversations.
Cathryn and The Saviors focused on the experience of one low-income parent, The Segregated Lives of Preschoolers focused on our youngest learners, The Intersections of Disability, Race, and Segregation began unpacking the needs of disabled students and caregivers. And, of cou...2023-05-3122 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastSchool Lunch: Justice On The MenuDo you remember waiting in line at school for square pizza and chocolate milk? This seemingly everyday ritual holds the key to significant and meaningful change within our education system. Today, we delve deep into the fascinating world of The School Lunch Program and its potential for transformative impact.
We're joined by Dr. Jennifer Gaddis, an associate professor at The University of Wisconsin-Madison, known for her compelling research on school food and the systems and politics surrounding it. With over 30 million students participating in school meal programs daily, we explore the historical context and the challenges faced by these programs, su...2023-05-171h 02
The Integrated Schools PodcastThe Intersections of Disability, Race, and SegregationWe often talk about school segregation from a racial and /or class perspective, but an equally concerning issue is the segregation of kids based on dis/ability. And while many disabled students are marginalized by our educational system, it is particularly true for students of color. It's an overdue conversation for us on the podcast, and it's an important one, because, as the conversation makes clear, all forms of oppression are linked together, and destroying one will require them all to fall.
We are joined for the conversation by Joyner Emrick, a disabled person with two disabled kids, and Shubha Bal...2023-05-031h 23
The Integrated Schools PodcastThe Segregated Lives of PreschoolersThe schools conversation happens everywhere - the playground, work events, even in line at the supermarket. However, it is often focused on K-12 education. The pressures of getting your kid into the "right" school, moving somewhere with "good" schools, and playing the system to gain as much advantage as possible, usually revolve around K-12. However, despite the lack of guaranteed preschool in many places across the country, there are plenty of opportunities for families to make decisions that reflect their values and support their communities even for our youngest learners.
In this episode, we dive into the topic of preschool...2023-04-191h 03
The Integrated Schools PodcastSchool Safety: More Than One DimensionWhen you think of school safety, it's hard not to think of school shootings. And there is no question that gun violence in schools is tragic, harrowing, and gut wrenching. It shatters our vision of schools as a sanctuary. And yet, gun violence, while way too common, is still exceedingly rare, and there are many ways that kids are harmed in our schools on a daily basis that don't generate the same attention.
Dr. Meg Caven, a passionate educational researcher, focuses on issues of safety and equity in the educational landscape. With particular attention on school discipline and its impact on...2023-04-051h 03
The Integrated Schools PodcastShow Up, Listen, Stay Put, Speak UpFor a long time, we at Integrated Schools encouraged parents to "Show up, shut up, and stay put". This was a pushback to the ways that White and/or privileged parents often interact with global majority schools. And yet, simply showing up and shutting up, while an important first step, isn't enough. We have to speak out against the inequities that plague our schools. However, knowing when to speak up, and what to speak up about can be tricky.
We're joined by education consultant and Black parent, Dr. Toutoule Ntoya, and political strategist and White parent, Becky Boll, both of whom c...2023-03-221h 07
The Integrated Schools PodcastBetween the Lines: An EPIC ComebackHousing and school segregation are closely intertwined, yet the story of how that came to be is rarely taught. The students at EPIC Theatre Ensemble were commissioned to write a play about this topic through the EPIC Next Program. Through extensive research, starting with the Segregated by Design website (an exploration of Richard Rothstein's The Color of Law), and including interviews with over 30 stakeholders in education and housing, the students created Between The Lines, an original play exploring the connections between America’s housing policies and educational segregation. They set out to answer the questions, how have we managed to parcel out...2023-03-081h 03
The Integrated Schools PodcastCentering Civil Rights in the Fight for EducationFor many, the words "civil rights" conjure images of the past, focusing on politicians, lawyers, activists. However, our guests today ask us to consider the civil rights implications we face today in the fight for a quality, 21st century education for all kids. Dr. Kia Darling-Hammond was recently commissioned to write about the importance of civil rights in the fight for educational equity, particularly the importance of the data collected by the Civil Rights Data Collection. Through that work, she enlisted her mother, Dr. Linda-Darling-Hammond, to co-author a new book, The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning: Five Essentials for...2023-02-221h 00
The Integrated Schools PodcastICYMI: Teaching While WhiteWhile we're on break, we wanted to bring you an episode from the Teaching While White podcast that we really enjoyed. We've been following Teaching While White for a long time, and have appreciated their focus on the role of White teachers in creating equity driven spaces for students. Three quarters of teachers are White, and they have an important role to play in antiracism. In this episode, they speak with Dr. John Diamond, and Dr. Amanda Lewis about their book Despite the Best Intentions. We had Dr. Lewis on the podcast several years ago on our Brown v. Board series, a...2023-01-1156 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastThe 100th Episode!We're celebrating 100 episodes! Over the past 4.5 years we've shared 100 conversations ranging from parent conversations to experts. Today, we reflect on what we've learned, we share clips from past episodes, and talk about what we hope for the future. If you're new here, this is a great place to start, if you've been with us since the beginning, you'll recognize some clips.
We share, hopes and dreams, tears and laughter, and deep gratitude for all of you for listening over these past 100 episodes.
Happy holidays and THANK YOU!!
LINKS:
The first episode of the podcast - Ep 1 – Intro to The Integrated Sc...2022-12-1457 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastLanguage, Power, and WhitenessBack in 2020, we had the opportunity to have writer and linguist JPB Gerald on the podcast to talk about all the things. It was a great conversation and if you haven't had a chance to listen, we encourage you to go back and check it out!
Well, JPB (now Dr. Gerald) is back with Val and Andrew to talk about his new book, Antisocial Language Teaching: English and the Pervasive Pathology of Whiteness. In addition to expanding on much of what we talked about in his first time on the show, the book, and this conversation highlights his thoughts on...2022-11-301h 04
The Integrated Schools PodcastCathryn and the SaviorsSchool integration can be a powerful force for improving schools for all kids, but what is it like to be in a school community when newly arriving parents set out "save" your school? When the "nice White parents" arrive to remake the school in their image of what a "good" school should be? When the "haves" try to take over from the "have nots"?
We're joined by Cathryn, a low-income parent from Los Angeles, who witnessed the arrival of well meaning and well resourced parents into the school where her 3 kids attended. She shares the harm caused, as well as h...2022-11-161h 04
The Integrated Schools PodcastWhat's up with the suburbs?: Organizing, Building Relationships, and VotingDr. Jasmine Clark is a microbiologist by training, but in the wake of the 2016 election, as she says, she went from a scientist to a mad scientist. She felt called to get involved, first with the Atlanta March for Science, and then to actually run for office. As the first Black woman elected to represent a solidly suburban house district in Georgia, her perspective on the ways the suburbs are changing is invaluable. She joins us to discuss the disconnect between the mostly White vision of the suburbs baked into popular conception, and the reality of our suburbs today.
Plus...2022-11-0243 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastPTA So White with Dr. Brittany MurrayResearch shows that parent engagement can improve outcomes, yet the existing research relies on a very narrow definition of "parent engagement", and is inconclusive about who benefits from that engagement. It is clear that already advantaged students benefit from the presence of PTAs and other forms of parent engagement in schools. However, those benefits do not flow to all students equally.
Dr. Brittany Murray's research focuses on race, families, and school inequality. Following in the footsteps of scholars who have begun to problematize the question of parental engagement, Dr. Murray asks us to consider if parent involvement is the universal...2022-10-261h 11
The Integrated Schools PodcastFinding Hope in Solidarity with Heather McGheeIn February of 2021, Heather McGhee’s book, The Sum of Us came out. With a focus on the ways in which racism harms everyone, and the potential good that can come from cross-racial coalitions, the book was exciting to us. When we realized that Integrated Schools, and leadership team member, Ali Takata, were featured prominently in the chapter about education, we were blown away.
The book is based around three main concepts. The first is the “zero-sum lie of racial hierarchy”, or the idea that progress for people of color necessarily has to come at White folks' expense. The second is the id...2022-10-121h 00
The Integrated Schools PodcastBack to School Transitions - Season 9 Kick Off!We're back!! Kicking off Season 9 with a conversation between Val and Andrew about transitions.
We have just transitioned back to school, and this year feels the most "normal" in quite some time. Additionally, we both have kids who have transitioned to new schools, including the transition to middle school for Andrew's oldest, and high school for Val's oldest. We reflect on new forms of parent engagement in these new schools, how we are thinking about empowering our kids to make their own choices while still upholding our family values, and the importance of continuing conversations about race with our kids a...2022-09-2854 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastParenting to Win: Who Pays for the Helicopter? (FROM 2019)FROM 2019
Intensive Parenting – helicopter, lawnmower, snowplow, free-range – is often pursued by White and privileged parents as a way to protect kids from failure and to ensure that they end up on the “winning” side of the vast economic inequality in our country. However, the ways that White and privileged parenting norms impact entire school communities often end up perpetuating existing disparities.
We’re joined by Dr. Jessica Calarco, Associate Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, who studies inequity in family life and education. Her recent book, Negotiating Opportunity: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School, highlights many of the challenges that...2022-08-2452 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBetween We and They - Part 5 (Re-Release)FROM 2019: Beth is a mom of two grappling with race, parenting and her own privilege in America. Looking back over the past year, we follow Beth as she learns how the choices she makes for her daughters’ schooling shapes how she lives in her city… where she belongs, who she calls “WE.”
Part 5 finds Beth starting her second year at the school across the interstate. Meanwhile, her district, like many across the country, is in the midst of some upheaval – declining enrollment, school closures, consolidation. Being a part of the new school community has allowed Beth a different vantage point through wh...2022-08-0351 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBetween We and They - Part 4 (Re-Release)FROM 2019: Beth is a mom of two grappling with race, parenting and her own privilege in America. Looking back over the past year, we follow Beth as she learns how the choices she makes for her daughters’ schooling shapes how she lives in her city… where she belongs, who she calls “WE.”
Beth and her daughters reflect back on the year at their new school — the challenges, the differences, the joys. The transitions may not have been easy, but they all have felt a personal growth… and are learning about different ways to be.
Let us know what you think of this epis...2022-07-2734 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBetween We and They - Part 3 (Re-Release)FROM 2019: Beth is a mom of two grappling with race, parenting and her own privilege in America. Looking back over the past year, we follow Beth as she learns how the choices she makes for her daughters’ schooling shapes how she lives in her city… where she belongs, who she calls “WE.”
In part 3, we look back at a year that has been transformative for Beth — but not necessarily in the ways she expected. From thinking about her role in the PTA, to her racial identity, to how she relates to her former school community, Beth finds herself very much in-between...2022-07-2025 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBetween We and They - Part 2 (Re-Release)FROM 2019: Beth is a mom of two grappling with race, parenting and her own privilege in America. Looking back over the past year, we follow Beth as she learns how the choices she makes for her daughters’ schooling shapes how she lives in her city… where she belongs, who she calls “WE.”
In part 2, we find Beth two months into the school year grappling with the differences between the new school and the former one, trying to make sense of how she and her family fit into these two communities.
Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future t...2022-07-1333 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBetween We and They - Part 1 (Re-Release)FROM 2019: Beth is a mom of two grappling with race, parenting and her own privilege in America. Looking back over the past year, we follow Beth as she learns how the choices she makes for her daughters’ schooling shapes how she lives in her city… where she belongs, who she calls “WE.”
In Part 1 – Something feels very wrong… Beth wonders about her choice to send her two kids to the highly sought after school in her neighborhood. What does it mean for one family to make a different kind of decision?
Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest futu...2022-07-0632 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastRace, Class, and Power in Our Schools: Mark and Max from School ColorsLargely considered to be one of the most diverse places in the world, Queens is heralded by its residents for the multitudes of ethnicities, languages, cultures and ways of life that exist there. But diversity isn't the whole story, especially not in District 28.
Mark and Max are back with Season 2 of School Colors. Season 1 was set in Central Brooklyn and focused on gentrification, Black self determination, and dug deep into the history of Bedford-Stuyvesant. Season 2 finds Mark and Max in Queens and School District 28, a district with a very distinct North side and South side- the further North you go...2022-06-241h 01
The Integrated Schools PodcastReflections on Season 7As Season 7 comes to close, Val and Andrew reflect on 17 episodes and share our most valuable takeaways and thoughts from this season, then we get into some juicy listener questions, as well as some announcements! Spoiler alert! Val has agreed to return for Season 8!!
As we reflect on the season, we have to take a moment to say thank you to a bunch of people who have made this season possible. First of all, all of our guests, who have shared their research, their stories, and their personal reflections. We are humbled to be in conversation with you all:
Sarah an...2022-05-2536 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastAnti-CRT, Book Bans, and A Call to HEALWhen the backlash against "CRT" started, we thought it would blow over. It felt as though the attacks were in such bad faith that they didn't even deserve a response. With nearly 35 states at least considering some type of classroom censorship bill, clearly, we were wrong. And yet, the question of what to do about it felt daunting to take on. And then, we found HEAL Together, an initiative from Race Forward.
H.E.A.L. (Honest Education Action & Leadership) Together, is building a movement of students, educators, and parents in school districts across the United States who believe that an honest...2022-05-1158 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastExamining Anti-Blackness: A Multiracial Parent RoundtableSome of the most meaningful episodes we record for this show are the conversations we have with parents and caregivers reflecting on the choices they make for their kids and their own learning journeys. Our last episode with Dr. Chantal Hailey examined the role of anti-Black racism in school preferences across racial identities. One of the themes was the many ways that anti-Blackness shows up in White communities, but also in communities of color. We deeply believe in the power of multiracial dialog and so thought we would pair that episode with a conversation with a multiracial group of parents reflec...2022-04-271h 03
The Integrated Schools PodcastUnpacking the Racial Hierarchy in School ChoicesDr. Chantal A. Hailey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research is at the intersections of race and ethnicity, stratification, urban sociology, education, and criminology. She is particularly interested in how micro decision-making contributes to larger macro segregation and stratification patterns and how racism creates, sustains, and exacerbates racial, educational, and socioeconomic inequality.
Her recent paper, Racial Preferences for Schools: Evidence from an Experiment with White, Black, Latinx, and Asian Parents and Students uses the New York City High School Admissions Process as a case study to understand how indiv...2022-04-131h 07
The Integrated Schools PodcastThe Debrief: Carol Anderson on White RageLast episode, Carol Anderson on White Rage, was a lot, so we're taking today's episode to discuss.
LINKS:
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide
We Are Not Yet Equal – a young readers version of White Rage
One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy
The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America.
Eye’s Off The Prize – Dr. Anderson’s 2003 book on the shift from a fight for human rights to civil rights at the NAACP
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion...2022-03-3031 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastCarol Anderson on White Rage"Since the days of enslavement, African Americans have fought to gain access to quality education. Education can be transformative. It reshapes the health outcomes of a people; it breaks the cycle of poverty; it improves housing conditions; it raises the standard of living. Perhaps, most meaningfully, educational attainment significantly increases voter participation. In short, education strengthens a democracy."
Dr. Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation's Divide, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy, and The Second: Rac...2022-03-161h 06
The Integrated Schools PodcastA Framework for Antiracist EducationFounded in 2021, the Center for Antiracist Education’s (CARE) mission is to equip antiracist educators with the knowledge and curriculum to create schools and classrooms that push back on the destructive legacy of racism. Our co-host Val, serves as their academic director in her day job.
They recently released a framework for antiracist education that provides teachers and school leaders with concrete, actionable steps to take in their journey towards being antiracist. These steps are organized by the five CARE Principles- the core areas that CARE believes require attention in order to move towards antiracism. They are:
Affirm the dignity and humanity...2022-03-0254 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastAn Overdue Reckoning on Indigenous EducationWe keep a running list of ideas for episodes - topics to cover, guests we'd like to interview, conversations with parents we'd like to have - and near the top of that list, for far longer than we'd care to admit, has been a conversation about Native and Indigenous education. Finding the right voices to tell the right stories is always a challenge, but, if we're being honest, it felt somehow acceptable that we hadn't gotten to it yet. The conversation we haver to share today completely changed that for us, and is a great opportunity to recommit ourselves to...2022-02-161h 03
The Integrated Schools PodcastRevisiting Heather McGhee on How Racism Hurts Us AllHeather McGhee has been in public policy for the past 20 years, largely focused on economics. After nearly 16 years at Demos, a "think-and-do" tank, including four years as president, she realized that despite incredibly compelling economic research, at times, decision makers made decisions counter to what the best evidence showed. She took a leave of absence as president, and embarked on a journey to try to answer a simple question - Why can't we have nice things? We, being all Americans, and nice things being things that most developed nations have managed to provide for their people - health care, parental leav...2022-02-081h 05
The Integrated Schools PodcastParenting for Racial JusticeAngela Berkfield, a White woman living in Brattleboro, Vermont, was deeply committed to social justice. In 2013, she was a co-founder of The Root Social Justice Center, a hub for social justice organizing in Vermont. From food insecurity, to youth empowerment, they have been focused on racial justice organizing, community advocacy, and relationship building for nearly a decade.
In 2014, a friend of Angela’s, Annique, asked her if she would be willing to do trainings for parents about how to talk with their kids about topics like racial microaggressions, gender-neutral pronouns, and Black Lives Matter — topics she was discussing on the regu...2022-02-0256 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastYear End: Listener QuestionsListeners regularly reach out with questions - things that they are seeing in their own neighborhoods, things that we haven't addressed, but should, etc. For the final episode of 2021, we thought we'd answer as many as we could. Thank you to everyone who sent in questions. If we didn't get to your question, or if there is something else on your mind, let us know so we can include it in a future "mailbag" episode - hello@integratedschools.org.
As we enter the holiday season and folks are thinking about year-end giving, we'd like to ask for your support of...2021-12-1554 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastTeacher Check-In RevisitedBack in April of 2020 we had a conversation with two teachers, Kara in the Minneapolis area, and Zoe in Philadelphia. They shared their struggles with shifting to remote school, trying to reach their students to provide devices, hot spots, and food, and the challenge of supporting the students with the greatest needs through the early days of the COVID crisis.
Today, it's easy for parents to feel like things are almost back to normal in schools. However, in many ways, teachers are feeling the cost of the crisis more acutely now than at any point in the past two years...2021-12-0149 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastNot Your Model MinorityDr. Sarah-Soonling Blackburn is an educator, speaker, and professional development specialist. Growing up in a mixed race, Asian and White family, and spending most of her childhood in various countries in Asia, ideas of belonging have always had salience for her. From the classroom to Learning for Justice, her work has focused on the things that help students feel seen and included. She joins us to discuss the myth of the Model Minority and helps contextualize the role of Asian American identities in our collective understanding and education about race and America.
With a bit of a history lesson, Dr. Blackb...2021-11-1756 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastRedrawing the Lines: Undoing the History of SegregationIf you think about a "segregated school", what image comes to mind? Quite often, the cultural narrative says that that is a school with almost exclusively students of color. What about a school with 98% White students? Is that a "segregated school"? While we don't often think of it that way, it is clearly segregated. Tomás Monarrez is an economist by training. As he was studying the question of school and housing segregation at the Urban Institute, he was struck by the ways that the field of economics falls into the same traps that we fall into as a culture - segrega...2021-11-0358 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastGenerational Work: Stefan Lallinger on IntegrationIn 1954, Louis Redding, Delaware's first Black attorney, joined the legal team at the NAACP to argue the Brown v Board case. Having agued two of the lower court cases that were incorporated into the Brown case, he was a key member of the team, along with Thurgood Marshall, who won perhaps the mostly widely known and celebrated court case ever. Sixty years later, his grandson, Stefan Lallinger, found himself teaching at school in New Orleans with over 90% students of color. This segregation wasn't caused by explicit, legal requirements for segregated schools, and yet it still happened. Lallinger's curiosity led him to get...2021-10-2058 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastMoving and Choosing A SchoolThe very first episode of the Integrated Schools Podcast featured a conversation between our late founder, Courtney Mykytyn, and two mothers who were early in their journeys toward anti-racist school integration. Since then, Anna and Sarah have continued to be influential members of the Integrated Schools community, and both found themselves moving over the past 18 months. While both of their families had moved in the past, this was the first time they engaged in that process with a deep commitment to anti-racist school integration.
They share their process, and the challenges they faced, as they grappled with what it means to...2021-10-0659 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastNew Season, New Perspectives . . . New Co-Host!!In 2016, Val Brown recognized a silence in the education community regarding issues of race, and a gap in learning opportunities for educators. In response she founded #ClearTheAir, a platform for educators to learn about the intersections of history, racism, and education.
In 2019, she reached out to Integrated Schools to see if we might walk this road towards anti-racist school integration together. However, she had a question - as a Black mom, she asked, "do I belong at Integrated Schools? Is there a place for me?"
This is a question we have been wrestling with internally for some time. Leadership team membe...2021-09-2232 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBvB@67- Greg and Carol RevisitedIn the fifth episode in our Brown v. Board at 67: The Stories We Tell Ourselves series, we step away from scholarship to take a moment to listen. I Hope They Hear it in Our Voices is a conversation with two Black parents who live in different parts of the U.S. and who have had very different -- yet very similar -- school experiences. Greg and Carol tell us a lot about how far we have come since Brown v. Board, about how much work we still have to do, and the very real costs of “access to resources”. With deep...2021-05-1453 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBvB@67 - David Hinojosa RevistedFor the fourth episode in our Brown v. Board at 67: The Stories We Tell Ourselves series, we talk with Civil Rights attorney David Hinojosa. School segregation is too often painted as binary issue between Black and White people; learning other histories shows that this is far from true. Complicating the picture of what preceded and came as a result of Brown v. Board, Mr. Hinojosa shares a history lesson on the segregation of Latinx communities across the US since the late 1800s. We discuss the politics of race and language, the importance of shared experiences and the deep fights for...2021-05-1343 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBvB@67 - Amanda Lewis RevisitedDr. Amanda Lewis (Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools, co-authored with John Diamond) joins us for this third episode of our Brown v. Board at 67: The Stories We Tell Ourselves series. Dr. Lewis’s research takes her to a school that is desegregated on paper but segregated within the building. It is a school, like many, with “race neutral” policies that hide the very real racialized practices in the building. Add to that a dose of opportunity hoarding, and equitable policies become very difficult to institute. Brown v. Board focused on desegregating schools rather than integr...2021-05-1245 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBvB@67 - Noliwe Rooks RevisitedFor the second episode in our Brown v. Board at 67: The Stories We Tell Ourselves series, we talk with Dr. Noliwe Rooks (Cornell). Her book, Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education, as well as some of her more recent research around the pushback to school desegregation from communities of color and the decimation of the Black teaching corps following Brown v. Board, provide context in which to understand the full range of outcomes from the court decision.
While Dr. Rucker Johnson, in part 1, showed us some of the many benefits of desegregation, Dr. Rooks reminds us o...2021-05-1137 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBvB@67 - Rucker Johnson RevisitedAs we approach the 67th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education (1954), we are revisiting our series looking at the stories we tell ourselves about Brown v. Board. The way we understand this case and its legacies do the work of making sense of our past and mapping out our future.
In this first episode, we are joined by Dr. Rucker Johnson (UC Berkeley). Dr. Johnson shares some of the research and findings in his book, Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works. Using a longitudinal study of the children and grandchildren of Brown v...2021-05-1035 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastChecklists and Merit Badges: JPB Gerald on WhitenessJPB Gerald began his career as an English language teacher. Bothered by the inherent racism he saw in the field, and reflecting on his own upbringing in predominantly White, "good" schools, he broadened his academic interests to race and Whiteness. Currently a doctoral student at CUNY — Hunter College, JPB has been writing and doing interviews for many outlets in the midst of conversations about school in the fall. While he has great insights into the challenges to equity presented by COVID, he also brings a deep understanding of many of the issues we address at Integrated Schools.
This conversation was going...2020-08-1949 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastReopening Schools and EquityDr. Shayla Reese Griffin is the co-founder of The Justice Leaders Collaborative, an author, educator, and mother. As the challenges of school for the fall have come into focus, finding solutions based in equity has been a struggle. Dr. Griffin has written about it, calling for space in buildings to be prioritized to those with the highest needs, for us to consider where our time and energy might best be spent in this moment of crisis, and for parents to be paid to stay home to take care of their kids.
She joins us for a conversation about the fall, but...2020-08-0554 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastRevisiting Not In My Suburbs: Milliken v Bradley @46July 25th will mark the 46th anniversary of the SCOTUS ruling on the Milliken v. Bradley case. Today, we revisit our episode from a year ago about this important and under-appreciated case. Joined by Michelle Adams, Constitutional Law Professor at Cardozo School of Law, who is writing Soul Force: Detroit, The Supreme Court, and the Epic Battle for Racial Justice in America, we discuss the case and its implications for today.
Based in Detroit, the Milliken decision functionally halted the promise of Brown v Board of Education at the city limits, allowing all-white suburbs (created through policies like redlining) to m...2020-07-2247 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastIntegrateNYC: Youth Voice for Real IntegrationWe're joined by Karla and Jedidah - two high school students in New York City who are leaders at IntegrateNYC. This youth led organization fights for integration and equity in all NYC schools. From protest to policy, they center student voice because students are the ones most directly impacted by the segregation, and the ones with the most at stake.
Recognizing that desegregation alone isn't enough to solve for equity, IntegrateNYC developed the 5 Rs of real integration. They are:
Race and Enrollment
Resources
Relationships
Restorative Justice
Representation of teachers and staff
They argue that schools need to address all 5 Rs to ac...2020-07-0939 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastWhite Supremacy and Black Educational Excellence: Hidden Stories of the Integration MovementThe National Coalition for School Diversity serves as the hub of the school integration movement. While their annual conference was postponed due to COVID, the keynote panel was held virtually. A conversation conceived in honor of Integrated Schools founder and former podcast co-host, Courtney, it offers a chance to better understand the history of desegregation so that we might better conceive of how to move forward. A chance to know better, so that we might do better.
Through a conversation facilitated by journalist Dani McClain, Dr. Vanessa Siddle-Walker tells the story of the excellent, robust, and holistic Black schools and edu...2020-06-101h 00The Integrated Schools PodcastRaising White Kids with Jennifer HarveyThe Reverend, Dr. Jennifer Harvey is a parent, a writer, an educator, and an activist. Her 2018 book Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America offers age-appropriate insights for teaching children how to address racism when they encounter it and tackles tough questions about how to help white kids be mindful of racial relations while understanding their own identity and the role they can play for justice.
We discuss the book, but also her personal journey from elementary school, where she was bussed under a court ordered desegregation plan to a predominately Black school, to her time at...2020-05-2158 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBrown v Board at 66 (BONUS)Last year, leading up the 65th anniversary, we put together a 6 part mini-series called "The Stories We Tell Ourselves - Moving From Desegregation to Integration". It is in no way a comprehensive history, but hopefully it complicates the stories we tell about Brown v Board. These stories and others about our past desegregation efforts have a huge impact on how we interact with school today, Our hope is that a more honest assessment of the history can be a first step towards real integration.
LINKS:
Part 1 - With Rucker Johnson, author of Children Of The Dream: Why School Integration Works
Part...2020-05-1703 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastCOVID-19: Matt Gonzales on EquityMatt Gonzales is an educational justice advocate and Director of the Integration and Innovation Initiative at the NYU Metro Center. We are incredibly fortunate to have him as a member of the Integrated Schools Advisory Board. We had a chance to sit down with Matt this week and talk to him about the implications of COVID-19, what building equity could look like now and in the future, and why anti-racist integration matters now more than ever.
Please join us for the NCSD Virtual Keynote on May 14th at 2pm EDT. Free registration is available here.
LINKS:
Grading for Equity Recommendations...2020-05-1351 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastCOVID-19: Teacher Check-InTeaching with an equity mindset is a challenge in the best of times, but this crisis has added another layer of challenge to an already daunting task. We're joined by two high school teachers - Zoe from Philadelphia, and Kara from Minneapolis. They discuss the challenges of moving to online learning while trying to keep equity at the forefront.
We discuss the ways that White and/or privileged parents can be helpful in this moment, and how we might think about what comes when this is all over.
LINKS:
For more on Zoe's school - check out this article.
To read...2020-04-2255 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastCOVID-19: Finding Community in IsolationGiven the reality of social distancing, how do we reconcile a desire for educational justice, a drive for anti-racist education, with the fact that we're stuck at home trying, or maybe not, to educate our kids in vastly inequitable circumstances. This is not a How-To guide, but a conversation about trying to live our values in challenging times. Garrett Bucks joins us, along with Anna, to talk through how we are thinking about this moment, for ourselves, our kids, and our communities. What do we want our kids to remember from this time, and how can we focus our attention, our...2020-04-0350 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastChoosing a School: Values, Privilege, and ResponsibilityIf you listened to The Impacts of Testing Our Kids and Measuring Our Schools (Parts 1 and 2), you heard about some of the issues with using test scores or data aggregators to judge the quality of a school. But if not test scores, then what? Making a choice about school is a privilege, and with that privilege, comes a responsibility. How do you bring your values to that decision, when the information available is so problematic?
We're joined by two mothers, Dana from Brooklyn and Meredith from Minneapolis, who both have kids entering elementary school next year. They talk about how they...2020-03-1853 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastThe Impacts of Testing Our Kids and Ranking Our Schools (Part 2)Many local communities are engaged in conversations about how school quality should be determined and how that information should be shared. Those conversations take place in the shadow of GreatSchools.org - who provides a 1-10 rating for nearly every public school in the country. These ratings have a major impact on everything from curriculum to housing prices.
Matt Barnum (Chalkbeat) wrote about the ways GreatSchools ratings can nudge families towards schools with fewer Black and Brown students. He joins us to discuss his reporting as well as what current education research can tell us about just how malleable people are...2020-03-0456 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastThe Impacts of Testing Our Kids and Ranking Our Schools (Part 1)In the first of two parts looking at how we measure and communicate school quality, and how that impacts our educational system, we’re joined by Professor Jack Schneider. He has been thinking about school ratings, and school quality for many years. He started the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Educational Assessment, a coalition of school and district leaders working to reimagine school assessment and accountability by including multiple measures of student engagement, student achievement, and school environment, and emphasizing performance assessments in the classroom to measure students' deeper mastery of content and skills.
We dig into what we are measuring, an...2020-02-1939 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastEducational Justice Through Reparations with Justin HansfordHoward University Law School is often called the launching pad for Brown v Board. Thurgood Marshall taught there, Charles Hamilton Houston, who was, in many ways, the architect of the multi-year legal strategy that led to BvB, was a dean. Yet here, in 2019, the work that Howard launched is still incomplete. By many measures, our schools are as segregated, if not more, than they were before the unanimous Brown v Board decision. The historical and ongoing segregation is core to educational and racial injustice, and constitutes a breach that our guest, Professor Justin Hansford, argues is in need of repair...2020-02-0538 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastGentrification and School SegregationWe're joined by Dr. Kfir Mordechay, Assistant Professor at Pepperdine University and a research fellow at the UCLA Civil Rights Project to talk about gentrification and school segregation. This kick of to season 5 is a return to our usual podcast format of casual conversations, and this is one we've been wanting to tackle for quite some time. Gentrification comes up in discussions of school segregation all the time and we are fortunate to have Dr. Mordechay to help us think about the possibilities and pitfalls.
Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to...2019-11-1345 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBetween We and They: A School Integration Story (Part 5)Beth is a mom of two grappling with race, parenting and her own privilege in America. Looking back over the past year, we follow Beth as she learns how the choices she makes for her daughters’ schooling shapes how she lives in her city… where she belongs, who she calls “WE.”
Part 5 finds Beth starting her second year at the school across the interstate. Meanwhile, her district, like many across the country, is in the midst of some upheaval - declining enrollment, school closures, consolidation. Being a part of the new school community has allowed Beth a different vantage point through whi...2019-10-1838 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBetween We and They: A School Integration Story (Part 4)Beth is a mom of two grappling with race, parenting and her own privilege in America. Looking back over the past year, we follow Beth as she learns how the choices she makes for her daughters’ schooling shapes how she lives in her city… where she belongs, who she calls “WE.”
Beth and her daughters reflect back on the year at their new school -- the challenges, the differences, the joys. The transitions may not have been easy, but they all have felt a personal growth… and are learning about different ways to be.
Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessio...2019-10-1734 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastBetween We and They: A School Integration Story (Part 3)Beth is a mom of two grappling with race, parenting and her own privilege in America. Looking back over the past year, we follow Beth as she learns how the choices she makes for her daughters’ schooling shapes how she lives in her city… where she belongs, who she calls “WE.”
In part 3, we look back at a year that has been transformative for Beth -- but not necessarily in the ways she expected. From thinking about her role in the PTA, to her racial identity, to how she relates to her former school community, Beth finds herself very much in-betwe...2019-10-1625 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastICYMI: Seeing White (BONUS)The Duke Center for Documentary Studies produces as podcast called Scene On Radio. From February to August of 2017, they released a 14 part series called Seeing White. Many discussions of race focus on anyone who isn't White, leaving Whiteness as the default, or the norm. This series, as they say, turns the lens around to look at Whiteness directly - what does it mean? where did it come from?
We are thrilled to present some highlights from their series here, with some additional discussion of how these topics relate more directly to school integration. We highly recommend listening to the entire seri...2019-07-1058 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastEp 23 - Grappling with Brown v. Board (BvB@65)In this final episode of the series Brown v. Board at 65: The Stories We Tell Ourselves, we take some time to grapple with the stories we have heard. Reflecting on what our guests have shared (Dr. Rucker Johnson, Dr. Noliwe Rooks, Dr. Amanda Lewis, David Hinojosa, Greg and Carol), we talk with Anna about what we have learned and where we go from here. For the path forward, why does it matter to distinguish between desegregation and integration, to decenter Whiteness, and to think about the interactions between policy and cultural shifts?
LINKS:
Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Work...2019-05-2250 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastEp20 - Amanda Lewis on Desegregation Without Integration (BvB@65)Amanda Lewis (Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools, co-authored with John Diamond) joins us for this third episode of our Brown v. Board at 65: The Stories We Tell Ourselves series. Dr. Lewis’sresearch takes her to a school that is desegregated on paper but segregated within the building. It is a school, like many, with “race neutral” policies that hide the very real racialized practices in the building. Add to that a dose of opportunity hoarding, and equitable policies become very difficult to institute. Brown v. Board focused on desegregating schools rather than integrating classrooms, but the st...2019-05-0148 min
The Integrated Schools PodcastEp 19 - Segrenomics, Black Teachers, and Noliwe Rooks (BvB@65)For the second episode in our Brown v. Board at 65: The Stories We Tell Ourselves series, we talk with Dr. Noliwe Rooks(Cornell). Her book, Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education, as well as some of her more recent research around the pushback to school desegregation from communities of color and the decimation of the Black teaching corps following Brown v. Board, provide context in which to understand the full range of outcomes from Brown v Board.
While Dr. Johnson, in Ep 18, showed us some of the many benefits of desegregation, Dr. Rooks reminds us of many...2019-04-2447 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastEp 17 - Public Schools, Private MoneyFor the finale of Season 2, we're joined by Dr. Shelly Arsneault, Professor of Political Science & Public Administration at California State Fullerton, who is collaborating on an upcoming book called Our Kids, Our Money, and Our Schools: The Persistence of Inequality in Public School Finance. We discuss the many ways in which private money is funneled into public schools - which schools get it, what they use it for, and what the impact is on the overall system of public education.
From PTAs to booster clubs, to education foundations, we see resources flowing into the schools with the least needs, further...2019-03-2046 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastEp 14 - Kirkland on IntegrationA thought leader on educational justice, Dr. David Kirkland (NYU) joins us for a meta discussion around school integration. He shares a powerful vision of integration from a racial justice framework; it is one that is grounded in democratic participation and the sharing of resources and one that involves us all in the deliberation of what counts as knowledge, the language of curriculum, and the fundamental design of education.
Dr. Kirkland also encourages us to consider that integration is about fundamentally asking if we can organize our society in a different way, where our differences are seen as spaces that...2019-02-2755 minThe Integrated Schools PodcastEp 9 - The Only One (Part 2): SMOGLast week we talked about the fear we often hear around your kid being the "Only One" from the perspective of parents with kids who are currently in that position. In this episode, we look at it a little differently. Andrew looks back on his experience as the Only One white kid in his elementary school in a conversation with Erin, who reflects upon her experiences as the Only One black kid in her schools. The discussion, as adults with the perspective of time, highlights the ways that race impacts that experience, and the ways that having been through that...2018-12-1942 min