Despite a feeling of normalcy around schools this year, teachers are screaming that the crisis is not over. For many, this school year is the hardest yet in the COVID era. We revisit a conversation with teachers from April of 2020 and provide some updated perspectives.

We’re joined by educator, speaker, and professional development specialist Dr. Sarah-Soonling Blackburn to discuss the myth of the “Model Minority.” Dr. Blackburn talks about the personal and societal trauma of our racial hierarchy and what may be gained from unpacking and disassembling these old narratives in a way that gets us closer to collective solidarity.

Tomás Monarrez’s work at The Urban Institute focuses on school segregation. As an economist, he brings quantitative skills and a deep respect for data. We discuss the ways we have thought about segregation are problematic, and where the low-hanging fruit is to try to improve desegregation through the country.

Stefan Lallinger’s grandfather argued the Brown v Board case at the Supreme Court. He has stepped into that legacy in his own work as a teacher, a school leader, and now leading The Bridge Collaborative at The Century Foundation. We discuss how his family history has shaped his approach to integration, and what gives him hope for future generations.

We’re joined by two White mothers who recently moved. Anna and Sarah have been part of the Integrated Schools community for some time and had the opportunity to really think about their values as they chose new cities, new neighborhoods, new houses, and new schools.

We kick off Season 7 with some big changes for the podcast! Val, a Black mom from North Carolina, joins Andrew to co-host this season. We discuss why she cares about school integration, and what we hope to accomplish through our multiracial discussions.

Mother, journalist, and author Courtney Martin’s new book, Learning in Public, is at once a deeply personal memoir of the “journey of a thousand moral miles” that led her to enroll her daughter in their neighborhood “failing” school, as well as a full-hearted endorsement of public schools as the foundation of our fragile democracy, in all of their nuance and complexity. She joins us to discuss the book, and integration more broadly, with one of the key characters in the book, Mrs. Minor, a Black teacher who left the public schools to start her own private preschool, and brings a healthy degree of skepticism of the value of desegregation.

In our season 6 finale, we’re looking back at the infamous “separate but equal” case – Plessy v Ferguson, and how we continue to live with many of the ramifications of that decision today. Attorney Paula Forbes joins us to discuss the importance of reckoning with our past and repairing in order to create the future we desire.

Greg and Carol, two Black parents from different parts of the county, share their experiences in mostly White schools. Through them, we can see how far we have to go to created truly integrated schools.

Part 4 of our Brown v Board at 67 series pushes back on the narrative that desegregation is solely about Black and White kids. David Hinojosa helps us better understand Latinx perspectives on integration from before Brown through today.

Dr. Amanda Lewis joins us to discuss the legacy of Brown v Board, and how the stories we tell about it, allow even our most desegregated schools to continue to impact kids in very racialized ways.

Today we revisit Part two of Brown v. Board at 65: The Stories We Tell Ourselves, featuring Dr. Noliwe Rooks. She helps us tell the full story of Brown v Board, including the harm it caused, particularly as it relates to Black teachers and Black schools.

Brown v Board at Sixty-Seven – The Stories We Tell Ourselves – Revisted. All this week we will be re-running our BvB@65 series with new edits and new commentary. In this first episode, we’re joined by Dr. Rucker Johnson, author of Children of the Dream: Why Integration Works.

Parents and caregivers have the potential to be key drivers of school improvement. However, who makes up that empowered group is a key question. Aurelio Montemayor has been organizing parents for decades, and he joins us to share his experience and advice.

Today’s episode is an edit of our first ever webinar- The Integrated Schools Movement: Where We Begin.  In it, we explore how our schools got to where they are now, and what role we play in either maintaining or disrupting this system. Members of our all-volunteer crew share personal stories of enrolling our kids in global-majority schools, and the joys and missteps we experience while showing up as parents and community members.

The conversation around schools can often feel like the goal isn’t “good” schools, but simply “better-than” schools – schools that will give our kids a leg up on the other kids. The idea driving this mindset, a zero-sum version of prosperity that assumes advances for some must come at the cost of others, is based on the lie of racial hierarchy upon which our country was founded. Heather McGhee’s new book, The Sum of Us, illuminates this issue, and calls us to imagine something better.

Law professor, Elise Boddie, has said that the biggest stumbling block to advancing school integration is the White progressive liberal. She joins us to talk about a vision of integration that allows for all kids to thrive not because of race, not in spite of race, but in full view of race.

We’re joined by WPLN reporter Meribah Knight to dicuss her podcast, The Promise, which looks at the power that those with racial or economic privilege bring to the education system, and what responsibilities should come with that power.

Theater has the power of individual transformation. Students are the ones most impacted by our segergated schools. EPIC Theatre Ensemble seeks to combine those two forces to change hearts and minds. We’re thrilled to share some of their piece, Nothing About Us, as well as a conversation with EPIC’s artistic director, and two students who wrote and performed in the piece.

Kicking off season 6 with a call for Third Wave school desegregation. First wave, “court ordered” desegregation, and second wave, “entice the White folks”, failed to live up to their promises. What would a third wave look like, and how might it work better. We are joined by IntegrateNYC to talk about real integration.
This episode is taken from a webinar from the Black Educator’s Initiative speaker series.

Finally, after 22 episodes, it’s time for Season 5 to end. We’ll be taking a short break, but wanted to leaving you with a few thoughts before we go.

For decades, the dominant model of parent or caregiver involvement in schools has been one that emphasizes a set of normative, White, middle-class behaviors. What would it look like to transform power through solidarity, in order to improve our schools for ALL kids?

For 30 years congress has ignored the resegregation of our nations schools. On Sept 15th, the House passed the Strength in Diversity Act, which is a step towards addressing segregation. We’re joined by one of the sponsors of the bill, and Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor to discuss.

For many years, the focus of the fight for justice centered on equality. Angela Glover Blackwell was instrumental in shifting our national focus towards equity. She joins us to discuss the need for an equity mindset not just in our schools, but in our country.

School Colors is a narrative podcast from Brooklyn Deep about how race, class, and power shape American cities and schools. We’re joined by the hosts to discuss the series, and to hear the 7th episode, New Kids on The Block. From gentrification, to school segregation, to colonization, this episode touches on many of the themes we discuss at Integrated Schools.

As a Black man who grew up in predominantly White spaces, going to the “best” schools, JPB Gerald brings a unique perspective on Whiteness. We talk about meritocracy, how individual choices make up “THE SYSTEM”, self interest as a justification for racism, and what people can do to push back on all of this now, in the midst of a pandemic, but also after.

As we barrel into the new school year, keeping equity in focus is difficult. From childcare collectives to pandemic pods, the options facing privileged parents can feel overwhelming. Dr. Shayla Reese Griffin helps us center equity as we consider the fall, and asks us to consider what our obligations are to our public institutions and to each other.

We revisit our episode on Milliken v Bradley from a year ago. Joined by Michelle Adams, Constitutional Law Professor at Cardozo School of Law, who is writing a book on Milliken v Bradley, we discuss the case that functionally halted the promise of Brown v Board at the city limits, allowing all-White suburbs (created through policies like redlining) to maintain all-White schools.

IntegrateNYC is a youth led organization fighting for integration and equity in NYC schools. We’re joined by two high school students to talk about why integration matters, and what real integration looks like.

The stories we tell about past efforts at desegregation often overlook the excellence in Black schools prior to Brown v. Board, and the organized, grassroots work from White women to maintain White superiority at the local level despite federal efforts towards desegregation. In an edited version of the NCSD 2020 Conference Keynote, we hear from Dr. Vanessa Siddle- Walker and Dr. Elizabeth McRea, in a conversation facilitated by Dani McClain. In opening remarks from Courtney Martin, and closing remarks from Andrew Lefkowits, we are asked to conjure the late Integrated Schools founder, Courtney Everts Mykytyn, and to reflect on her impact on the integration movement.