About Us
A space for parents and caregivers to educate, inform and get involved within the school system as a unified collective.
Integrated Schools is growing a grassroots movement of, by and for parents who are intentionally, joyfully and humbly enrolling our children in integrating schools.
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 where power and resources are shared equitably, humanity is valued unconditionally and all communities reap the benefits.
WHY?
Integrated Schools exists so that children can learn together and create a true multiracial democracy.
WHAT?
We are building a movement of families working to redress the imbalance of racial and economic power in our systems of education.
HOW?
Our grassroots movement engages in relationship building, education, self-reflection and behavior change.
WHO?
Integrated Schools was founded as a response to the fact that White people created the problem of school segregation, and thus bear a particular responsibility to redress the harms it causes. Therefore, the materials and resources we share have largely been developed by and for White people.
As a grassroots collective of families, Integrated Schools is committed to living fully into the antiracist values that orient the work that we are doing. We want this to be a place for all who are committed to dismantling anti-Black racism in their families, communities, and schools.
Looking Back, Moving Forward
Integrated Schools was founded in 2015 by Courtney Everts Mykytyn, as a group of mostly White parents. Informed by researchers and thought leaders of color, we encourage “White and/or privileged” families to enroll our children in schools where they are not in the majority, with the understanding that when we arrive, our impact matters more than our intent.
White parents continue to be the key barrier to redressing the imbalance of racial and educational power in our systems of education. As Nikole Hannah-Jones has said, “we have a system where white people control the outcomes, and the outcome that most white Americans want is segregation.” White people have been the architects of systems that maintain racial hierarchy everywhere in our country, and especially in schools. White parents have consistently fought against policies that would put our children in schools with Black and Brown children. We have largely avoided enrolling our children in these schools, treated diversity primarily as a commodity for the benefit of our own children, and enrolled in global majority schools with the assumption that they are broken and need White parents to fix them.
Who Decides
advisory council
Thought partners, primarily people of color, helping to advance the mission through strategic direction, calling out places where our movement reproduces White supremacy, supporting relationship-building in the field
Leadership team
Executive committee made up of 2-3 members who share responsibility for: operational decisions, oversight and support of staff collective, long term sustainability of the organization
Board of directors
Staff Collective
Volunteers who perform the bulk of the work of the movement, with the support and communication of at least one Leadership Team liaison
In the Media
click on the logo to view articles
Other Features
Coverage: (2018) “”We’re asking people to invest in all kids and not just their own.” All Over Albany. February 1. http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2018/02/01/were-asking-people-to-invest-i#comments
Brand, Madeleine (2018) Press Play (KPCC – NPR station Santa Monica, CA). August 14. https://kcrw.co/2KXOnoO
Williams, Conor P. (2018) Integrated Schools Founder on Talking to White Parents About Privilege and Turning Neighborhood Schools Into a Rallying Cry for Integration. 74 Million. December 5. https://www.the74million.org/article/74-interview-integrated-schools-founder-on-talking-to-white-parents-about-privilege-and-turning-neighborhood-schools-into-a-rallying-cry-for-integration/
Reposted: Williams, Conor P. (2019) An interview with Courtney Everts Mykytyn on her quiet movement to integrate schools in L.A. & beyond. LA School Report. http://laschoolreport.com/an-interview-with-courtney-everts-mykytyn-on-her-quiet-movement-to-integrate-schools-in-l-a-beyond/
Brand, Madeleine (2019) Funding Challenges, Racial Inequity and Charters – Can LAUSD Create a Better System for All Students?. Press Play (KPCC – NPR station Santa Monica, CA). January 25. https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/how-to-make-lausd-better-in-the-long-term/funding-challenges-racial-inequality-and-charters-can-lausd-create-a-better-system-for-all-students
John Rogers, Professor of Education at UCLA, and director of the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access; David E. Kirkland, Executive Director of NYU Metro Center (for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools); Courtney Everts Mykytyn, founder of Integrated Schools, which encourages white and/or privileged families to send their children to local public schools.
Integrated Schools’ “White lips to White ears” work continues to be a core piece of what we do: examining and questioning our assumptions, countering toxic narratives, and ultimately making different choices about where we enroll our children and how we show up to those school communities.
In 2021, Integrated Schools announced that we are taking steps to begin to transform Integrated Schools into a truly multiracial organization. While Integrated Schools was created with the primary goal of helping White parents and caregivers unlearn assumptions and learn to see and decenter Whiteness, this has left many people of color wondering where/whether they belong here. United People of Color for Integrated Schools (UPOC) has emerged as a space created by and for people of color who believe in Integrated Schools’ mission and want to connect around this work. From a handful of folks coming together to share their own lived experiences with school integration, the UPOC group is growing, building community, and seeking to bring different perspectives to Integrated Schools. While this is an ongoing process, we believe in the future of Integrated Schools being a multiracial organization, and understand that there is a limit to having conversations about integration in segregated spaces.
We welcome you to our community and to growing our movement together.