As we launch season 10, we are focusing on 4 themes: The importance of public schools, the power of storytelling, the importance of being in community, and stamina. We talk about why these themes feel important now, and update listeners on the start of the school year.

We 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.  

Showing up in global majority schools and then listening and becoming part of the community are crucial first steps for integrating parents, but the time comes when you have to speak up. However, knowing what to speak up about can be tricky. Dr. Toutoule NToya and Becky Boll join us to grapple with the challenges of knowing when to advocate and what to advocate for, and the importance of building community in that work.

We’ve been big fans of the Teaching While White podcast for a long time. While we’re preparing episodes for the new year, we wanted to bring you a great conversation from their show with Drs. John Diamond and Amanda Lewis about their book, Despite the Best Intentions.

What happens when a group of well meaning, and well resourced, parents enter an under resourced school in order to “save” it? For Cathryn, a low-income parent, she felt like she was being robbed of the culture and history of her school community.

Heather McGhee’s book, The Sum of Us, called attention to the idea of “solidarity dividends”, the gains that are made when people come together across race to fight for justice. She joins us to talk about her new podcast, also called The Sum of Us, which features a different story of cross racial solidarity in each episode.

FROM 2019: As Beth’s district contemplates school closures, she is finding that being part of the new school community gives her a different perspective on these issues.

FROM 2019: Two months into the school year finds Beth grappling with the differences between schools, trying to make sense of how she and her family fit into these two communities.

Val and Andrew reflect on a whole season worth of episodes together as co-hosts, share some of their favorite moments, and answer some listener questions in our final episode of season 7.

A professor of sociology at UT Austin, Dr Chantal Hailey studies how micro decision-making contributes to larger macro segregation patterns and how racism creates, sustains, and exacerbates racial, educational, and socioeconomic inequality. Her study complicates and expands the Black/White binary, and it is essential for the conversations we need to be having in order to dismantle anti-Black racism.

As 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.  

Preschool segregation profoundly impacts children and teachers. Dr. Casey Stockstill joins us to explore the importance of inclusive, diverse preschools, race and class dynamics for early learners, and the impacts segregation has on future learning environments.

Housing and school segregation are closely intertwined, yet the story of how that came to be is rarely taught. The students at EPIC Theatre Ensemble studied the issue and created a play to explore it. Their art serves both as an outlet for the shock they felt in learning this history, and also an invitation to deeper, more productive civic dialog about a topic that can often be fraught. We share a conversation about the piece as well as excerpts from the play.

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.

The mostly White vision of the suburbs baked into our popular conception doesn’t match the reality of today. The impacts of this are being felt in elections around the country, and the implications for education, and particularly the possibility of integrated schools, is huge. Dr. Jasmine Clark was the first Black woman elected to a suburban district in Georgia. She joins us to discuss.

We’re back!! Val and Andrew discuss transitions – back to school, middle school, high school, new forms of parent engagement, autonomy for our kids, and your transitions!

FROM 2019: Transitions aren’t always easy, but both Beth and her daughters reflect on the ways they’ve grown.

FROM 2019: Race, parenting, and privilege. This 5-part series will explore how our choices about school shape where we belong, who we call “We.” Part 1 – Something feels wrong at the “good” school.

We are joined by James Haslam (he/him/his), who serves as Senior Fellow at Race Forward leading the H.E.A.L Together Initiative, providing organizing models and trainings for caregivers, teachers, and students to advocate for high quality public education as an essential building block of multiracial democracy. James shares about his organizing work, and what caregivers can do to push back against bad-faith narratives and act to support a fully funded, honest, accurate public education for all kids.

Last episode, Carol Anderson on White Rage, was a lot, so we’re taking today’s episode to discuss.

With participation from 30 million students and annual spending over $19B, The School Lunch Program has the potential to be a massive lever for change. A world of quality food, with universal participation, less environmental impact, better jobs for food workers, and happier, healthier kids is possible. However, to get there, The School Lunch Program needs us all to participate.

School shootings are the most obvious manifestation of an un-safe school, and while they are tragic, they are rare compared to the daily harms our school structures can inflict on students. Dr. Meg Caven joins us to encourage a broader, more holistic view of school safety.

For many, the words “civil rights” conjure images of the past, focusing on politicians, lawyers, activists. However, our guests today, Drs. Linda and Kia Darling-Hammond, ask us to consider the civil rights implications we face today in the fight for a quality, 21st century education for all kids.

Dr. JPB Gerald is back! In addition to arguing that what we prize in standard language aligns with a constructed White identity, he also makes the link between our concept of dis/ability, and the creation of the idea of Blackness that emerged from emancipation.

PTAs are often where kids are first exposed to civic engagement. They see caregivers organizing to advocate for resources and policies. And yet, there is a massive representation problem, leading to inequities. Dr. Brittany Murray joins us to discuss.

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.

FROM 2019: Being in between can be lonely, but it can also be liberating. Beth reflects on the past year.

Season 2 of The School Colors podcast features a deep dive into housing and school segregation in Queens. We’re joined by hosts, Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman, to discuss race, class, and power in our schools and cities. While focused on one district in Queens, the stories are universal.

Val and Andrew sit down with two parents, one Latina and one Asian American, to reflect on what it means to address anti-Blackness, their own racial identity, their own educational experiences, and the impact it all has on their parenting choices.

“Since the days of enslavement, African Americans have fought to gain access to quality education. Education can be transformative. Education strengthens a democracy.” – Dr. Carol Anderson, author of White Rage joins us to discuss the White rage backlash to the Brown v. Board decision, and how we are still living with its impacts.