The Integrated Schools Podcast: Recent Episodes
Andrew Lefkowits, Val Brown, Courtney Mykytyn
Hosts, Andrew, a White dad from Denver, and, Val, a Black mom from North Carolina, dig into topics about race, parenting, and school segregation. With a variety of guests ranging from parents to experts, these conversation strive to live in the nuance of a complicated topic.
As 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 gift that we do not take likely.
To the podcast team - Darci, Jennifer, Jenna, Anna, Susan, Courtney - thank you for your work on transcripts and promotional material, but more importantly for your thought partnership on each episode and the entire season. The conversations you share, the insights you bring are what keeps the podcast relevant and topical and helps us dive into nuanced topics knowing you're listening and thinking about these things along side of us.
To our Patreon supporters and Integrated Schools donors, your belief in this work and your willingness to support it with your financial resources isn't something we take for granted. Your belief in us keeps us invested in the work and motivates us to always make the best episodes we can.
And finally, to all of you, our listeners, it is truly and honor to be in this with each and every one of you as we try to know better and do better.
Until next season!
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Finding a school where your children can thrive, while avoiding contributing to the ongoing segregation we see today, can feel like a tough issue for socially conscious parents.
Check out our FREE guide on how you can start engaging with the education system to achieve just that: Click here to download the guide now!
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Visit our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.
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 Lefkowits.
This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.
Music by Kevin Casey.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
“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 are educational researchers in the Pacific Northwest and both decided to send their kids to public schools after weighing many factors. However, they saw many of their colleagues, who were also working to support education, and also expressed a belief in the importance of public schools, opting out, and instead sending their kids to private schools.
Rather than write these people off, they decided to use their educational research skills to better understand the choice these families were making, what the impact was for them, and their families, and what tools might be best suited to reconnect those families to public schools, whether by bringing their kids back, or, at a minimum, advocating on behalf of public education.
They join us to share what they learned, and help us keep an open mind as we think about the choices people make for schooling.
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Finding a school where your children can thrive, while avoiding contributing to the ongoing segregation we see today, can feel like a tough issue for socially conscious parents.
Check out our FREE guide on how you can start engaging with the education system to achieve just that: Click here to download the guide now!
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LINKS:* Robin DiAngelo's Rules of Engagement for White Fragility * Lisa's Substack - The Auntie Bulletin * S11E16 - Advocating for Black Educator Wellness with Asia Lyons
Visit our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.
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 Lefkowits.
This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.
Music by Kevin Casey.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
“I hope that you know that I believe you, the community of listeners believes you, and that's good enough.” Dr. Asia Lyons
Dr. Asia Lyons is the host of 'The Exit Interview: A Podcast for Black Educators' where she practices archival justice by sharing the stories of Black educators who have left the classroom. Her own journey to education and then out of the classroom led her work both on the podcast, and in creating intentional spaces of healing for Black educators. Dr. Lyons's work focuses on the less sexy, but often more important work of retaining Black educators. Recruitment is a crucial starting point, but if we can't create spaces of wellness for Black educators, retention will always be a challenge. Dr. Lyons encourages all of us to speak up on behalf of Black educators, to create spaces of healing, and to advocate for justice at least as loudly as the voices who aren't.
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Finding a school where your children can thrive, while avoiding contributing to the ongoing segregation we see today, can feel like a tough issue for socially conscious parents.
Check out our FREE guide on how you can start engaging with the education system to achieve just that: Click here to download the guide now!
________________
LINKS:* The Exit Interview: A Podcast for Black Educators * William A Smith - who coined the term Racial Battle Fatigue * Taking Care and Moving Forward with Dr. LaShaune Stitt * Boundaries, Burnout and Black educator Wellness with Josephine Ampaw-Greene * S11E14 – What Was Lost: Noliwe Rooks on the Failures of Integration * S10E15 – Rebuilding The Black Educator Pipeline with Sharif El-Mekki * S10E14 – Jim Crow’s Pink Slip with Dr. Leslie Fenwick * S11E8 – Gratitude and Validation: One Family’s Journey Through Integrated Schools * S11E15 – Unearthing Joy: Gholdy Muhammad on Teaching with Love
Visit our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.
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 Lefkowits.
This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.
Music by Kevin Casey.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
"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 Muhammad
Identity, 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, need to learn to distinguish between truth and lies, and to critically examine the stories we are told, and everyone needs joy. An education system, not to mention a society, that focuses on all five pursuits has the possibility of bringing out the genius in all of us. Underlying all of these pursuits is love.
Dr. Muhammad joins us to discuss what teaching, parenting, and being part of community can look like with a focus on these pursuits.
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Finding a school where your children can thrive, while avoiding contributing to the ongoing segregation we see today, can feel like a tough issue for socially conscious parents.
Check out our FREE guide on how you can start engaging with the education system to achieve just that: Click here to download the guide now!
________________
LINKS:* Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy * Unearthing Joy: A Guide to Culturally and Historically Responsive Curriculum and Instruction * The Secret Life of Plants
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.
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 Lefkowits.
This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.
Music by Kevin Casey.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
“At its inception, in the courts, and as a project, integration was deeply contested and Black people were deeply divided about it. ” – Dr. Noliwe Rooks
The common narrative about integration often frames it as a clear victory—a moment when American education finally confronted injustice. But Dr. Noliwe Rooks argues the reality is far more complicated. In her new book, Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children, she traces the history of Black education, showing how the pursuit of desegregation sometimes led to profound losses for Black communities.
In this conversation, Dr. Rooks discusses the overlooked sacrifices Black communities made as schools integrated, from the closure of vibrant Black-led schools to the erasure of Black educators' roles and perspectives. Through the story of 4 generations of her own family, she reveals how integration initiatives frequently dismissed Black voices and visions for education, leaving systemic inequities intact.
This episode challenges us to rethink what integration truly means, and what’s required if education is to fulfill its promise of justice and liberation for all students.
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Finding a school where your children can thrive, while avoiding contributing to the ongoing segregation we see today, can feel like a tough issue for socially conscious parents.
Check out our FREE guide on how you can start engaging with the education system to achieve just that: Click here to download the guide now!
________________
LINKS:
- Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children
- A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune
- Cutting School: The Segrenomics of American Education
- S6E9 - BvB@67 - Noliwe Rooks Revisited - Dr. Rooks from our Brown v Board anniversary series
- S11E9: The Containment: Michelle Adams on Northern Jim Crow
- No Choice Is the “Right” Choice: Black Parents’ Educational Decision-Making in Their Search for a “Good” School - Dr. Linn Posey-Maddox
- S10E14 – Jim Crow’s Pink Slip with Dr. Leslie Fenwick
- Ep 11 – White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.
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 Lefkowits.
This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.
Music by Kevin Casey.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Last 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 to reaffirm our commitment to the project of integration provided much needed hope in troubling times.
Today we share some conversations with folks from the conference who are committed to a better world and finding hope where they can.
LINKS:* The National Coalition on School Diversity * S10E18 – The 70th Anniversary of Brown v Board – Do It Live! * S11E9: The Containment: Michelle Adams on Northern Jim Crow * NAACP LDF on The Dept of Ed's Dear Colleague Letter
Visit our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.
Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video versions of our episodes.
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 Lefkowits.
This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.
Music by Kevin Casey.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Public 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 three separate strands of education and the tools of discipline and punishment, implied intellectual inferiority, and preparation for economic subjugation used to support them. She leaves us with love, justice and a focus on flourishing as possible antidotes to help us imagine something better.
LINKS: Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side * Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of AmericanRacism * Bughouse Square - Eve Ewing's Podcast with co-ghost, Studs Terkel * Faith Ringgold - United States of Attica*, 1971 * Gwendolyn Brooks - We Real Cool * How Watermelons Became a Racist Trope - William R. Black in The Atlantic * The Abigail Fisher case * Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica - currently at the Art Institute Chicago * Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer * S7E9 – Revisiting Heather McGhee on How Racism Hurts Us All
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.
Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video versions of our episodes.
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 Lefkowits.
This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.
Music by Kevin Casey.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
"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 ongoing moral and intellectual deficiencies that come from Whiteness, the importance of intentional anti-racist education, and the need for material and cultural reparations. Jarrell emphasizes the necessity of developing multiracial coalitions and using one's advantages to dismantle systemic inequities, in order to face historical scars and work towards a more just society.
LINKS:* Our Trespasses: White Churches and the Taking of American Neighborhoods * QC Family Tree in Charlotte, NC * The Redress Movement * ICYMI: Seeing White - Our episode sharing clips from the Seeing White season from Scene on Radio * S5E3 – Gifts We Didn’t Expect: Family, Faith, and Integration - our conversation with Albert * Charles Mills - The Racial Contract
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.
Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video versions of our episodes.
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 Lefkowits.
This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.
Music by Kevin Casey.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
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 archetypes. This view opens the door to anyone to participate, and the book gives concrete steps to take to figure out how to get involved in a way that leans in to each person's individual strengths.
In a dark time, where hope can be hard to find, Ms. Williams brings a grounded sense of hope and possibility, along with actionable steps to changing our environments for the better.
________________
Finding a school where your children can thrive, while avoiding contributing to the ongoing segregation we see today, can feel like a tough issue for socially conscious parents.
Check out our FREE guide on how you can start engaging with the education system to achieve just that: Click here to download the guide now!
________________
LINKS:* Micro Activism: How You Can Make a Difference in the World Without A Bullhorn * Ms. Williams Podcast - Stepping Into Truth: Conversations on Social Justice and How We Get Free * Register for an Integrated Schools Book Club session! * S10E2 – The Demands and Promises of Integration with John Blake * S11E9: The Containment: Michelle Adams on Northern Jim Crow
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.
Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video versions of our episodes.
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 Lefkowits.
This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.
Music by Kevin Casey.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Back 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 the connection between language, power, and Whiteness, as well as the links between our concept of dis/ability, and the creation of the idea of Blackness. Through the prism of "standardized" language, Dr. Gerald helps us see the ways race, language, dis/ability all work together to create a hierarchy of human value that we all have an obligation to push back against. LINKS:
Dr. Gerald's website
Antisocial Language Teaching: English and the Pervasive Pathology of Whiteness
Dr. Gerald's dissertation
Worth the Risk: Towards Decentring Whiteness in English Language Teaching
Unstandardized English – JPB Gerald’s Podcast (and you can support his work on Patreon)
Our first episode with Dr. Gerald
The Ezel Project – JPB Gerald’s course on whiteness
JPB on Twitter
JPB was inspired by Nelson Flores and Jonathan Rosa who have written several pieces together, including Undoing Appropriateness, and Unsettling Race and Language
Dr. Jasmine Clark on the melting pot vs mosaic from our show
Dr. Susan Faircloth on the loss of native languages from our show
ACTION STEPS:
Check your internal responses to different forms of communication
Work not to force the young people in your life into the box of standardized language
Work in adult spaces to push on that box to make more space for other forms of communication
Talk to the young people in your life about standardized language and their relative access to it
Recognize when your access to language makes you comfortable, and push to hear other ideas in those moments (think PTA meetings . . . )
Buy Dr. JPB Gerald's book - Antisocial Language Teaching
Listen to Unstandardized English
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
School 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 how folks with privilege can show up as allies in those situations. Longtime listeners may recall a similar conversation from Season 1, Vicky and the Saviors. In a sequel of sorts, Cathryn shares a similar story from a different perspective.
LINKS:
S1E7 - Vicky and the Saviors
Mo' Money, Mo' Problems . . .
ACTION STEPS:
Examine your social networks, and invest in relationships with perspectives that are missing.
Talk to the young people in your life about class - and know that you aren't going to be perfect in the first conversation, but that doesn't mean it's not worth starting.
Ask the young people in your life what they know about and think about money and see where the conversation takes you.
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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Dr. 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, we talk about the importance of making your voice heard through voting. While we know that voting alone is rarely sufficient to create change, we deeply believe that it's a crucial step towards justice. So, if you are reading this and haven't voted yet, please, go vote!
LINKS:
Red Wine and Blue
The Suburban Women Problem Podcast
Vote.gov - for local registration information as well as polling places
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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Research 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 good we've been led to believe it is. When we see the consistent representation problems that plague PTAs across the country, we have to ask how we can engage in ways that work to benefit all students and not just the children of those who are most able to participate in our narrow definition of parental engagement. LINKS:
Dr. Murray's paper on bridging vs bonding social capital
Dr. Annette Lareau
Dr. Jessica Calarco
Her episode on our show
Her paper, Avoiding Us Versus Them - on privilege dependance.
Her book, Negotiating Opportunity: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School
Dr. Joyce Epstein's work
Dr. Linn Posey-Maddox
Dr. Maia Cucchiara
Dr. Christine Woyshner
Dr. Putnam's Bowling Alone
Dr. Victor Ray on racialized organizations
Granovetter paper about the strength of weak ties
Dr. Ann Ishimaru
Her episode on our show
Her book, Just Schools: Building Equitable Collaborations with Families and Communities
ACTION STEPS:
Get involved in ways that push back on opportunity hoarding
When you do get involved, name that you are not looking for special treatment for your kid and that your commitment is to ALL kids.
Work to create opportunities for community building outside of the traditional PTA context
Share this episode with your school community
Be the change we seek :-) at Patreon.com/integratedschools
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
In 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 idea of the “drained pool,” the disinvestment by White people in public goods simply because they have to share them with people of color. And finally, the “solidarity dividend,” the idea of gains that we can unlock, but only when we come together across lines of race. This last idea, the most hopeful, inspired Ms. McGhee to go back on the road and make a podcast documenting examples of the Solidarity Dividend in action. She joins us to discuss the podcast, what it means to be a good ally, the power of relationships in sustaining movements, and what role the Integrated Schools community should play in participating in the current, cross-racial movement for public education. LINKS
Ms. McGhee's first appearance on our show
The Sum of Us Podcast
The Sum of Us Book
James Haslem from HEAL Together
Ms. McGhee and Victor Ray's Op-Ed in the NYT
California Calls - organizing in California
Ms. McGhee's mother - Dr. Gail Christopher
Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation
ACTION STEPS
Listen to The Sum of Us Podcast
Read The Sum of Us Book
Get involved locally - find organizations that align with your values, and just show up!
Take opportunities to share space with folks - school pick up/ drop off is a great place to start
Share stories of cross racial solidarity with others. Stories from The Sum of Us, from our podcast, or from your own life.
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
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 as they get older. Plus, we have many of your thoughts about this time of transition. We LOVE hearing from you, so please continue to send us voice memos - just find the voice memo app on your phone, record whatever is on your mind, and email it to us at podcast@integratedschools.org. For Season 9, we are thinking about action. We know the world can't change unless we change the way we think, but we also know that simply changing the way we think isn't enough, so for every episode, we will be including action steps that we encourage you to take after listening. Action Steps - Ep 1:
Have explicit conversations about who is in class with your young people, who are they hanging out with, who is in their friend group.
Consider how we, as parents, caregivers, educators, school leaders, can facilitate cross-racial friendships for our kids.
Connect with the Integrated Schools community, so you don't feel alone in your fight for justice in your community.
Send the teachers in your life a note of thanks and offer of support.
LINKS:
Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum's Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
The Integrated Schools Two Tour Pledge
Jersey City Together - Education Team
If you’d like to support this work, we’d be grateful if you went to our Patreon and became a supporter. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
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 come with socioeconomically diverse schools. How we show up as integrating parents, how we navigate the line between asking-for-assistance and asking-for-(expecting?)-accommodations, and how we parent our own children has an impact on the other students and families in the school. Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further. Links:
Jessica Calarco. Associate Professor of Sociology at Indiana University.
Dr. Calarco – Negotiating Opportunity: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School
Mental Floss discussion of Dr. Calarco’s study of New Yorker cartoons
Dr. Calarco – Free Range’ Parenting’s Unfair Double Standard
Viviana Zelizer – Pricing the Priceless Child
Sinikka Elliott & Sarah Bowen – Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won’t Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
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 which to understand it all… Special thanks to Beth, Nadia and Maya for being so honest, open and vulnerable, and then allowing us to share that with the world. PLUS - reflections from Val and Andrew from 2022 about the entire series, what we learned, and how it relates to Integrated Schools today. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits, Courtney Mykytyn and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by BlueDot Sessions.
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 episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by BlueDot Sessions.
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. And while it can be lonely, it can also be liberating…
Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by BlueDot Sessions.
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 topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by BlueDot Sessions.
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 future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits, Courtney Mykytyn, and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by BlueDot Sessions.
Largely 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, the fewer Black people there are. Once again, School Colors does a deep dive on the history in order to tell a story that will feel familiar to people from around the country.
LINKS:
Code Switch from NPR - featuring School Colors Season 2
Season 1 of School Colors
The Brooklyn Movement Center
S5E19 - ICYMI: School Colors - Mark and Max on our show from 2020
School Colors Season 1, Episode 6 - Mo' Charters Mo' Problems
The Neighborhood Unit: Schools, Segregation, and the Shaping of the Modern Metropolitan Landscape - Ansley Erickson and Andrew Highsmith
Episode 5 of the Nice White Parents on District 15's Diversity Plan
Miseducation Podcast's new season - Keeping Score
If you’d like to support this work, we’d be grateful if you went to our Patreon and became a supporter. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
As 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 and Anna
Stefan Lallinger
Tomàs Monarrez
Sarah Soonling-Blackburn
Zoe and Kara
Chrissy Colón Bradt
Heather McGhee
Susan Faircloth
Brittany Brazzel
Carol Anderson
Chantal Hailey
Tricia and Daniella
James Haslam
Additionally, the podcast staff collective at Integrated Schools, for brainstorming guests and stories, for working on transcript, and promotional graphics, and social media posts, and, most importantly, for being great thought partners in this important work:
Darci Craghead
Courtney Epton
Anna Lodder
Emily Moores
Jennifer Patton
Alex Stevens
Ali Takata
Stay tuned this summer - we have a couple of bonus episodes planned, and we are re-releasing the Between We and They series from 2019 with some new reflections. We'll also be hard at work recording conversations for next season. If you'd like to support this work, we'd be grateful if you went to our Patreon and became a supporter. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
When 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, accurate and fully funded public education is the foundation for a just, multiracial democracy. In addition to serving as a hub to connect organizations across the country already engaged in the fight for educational justice, they also provide tools and trainings so that anyone can become an organizer and lend their voice to this effort. We are joined today by James Haslam (he/him/his), who serves as Senior Fellow at Race Forward leading the HEAL Together Initiative. He 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. LINKS:
HEAL Together's Website
Sign the HEAL Together Pledge
Register for the HEAL Together Training Series
James and Cathy Albisa - OpEd in TruthOut
Rights And Democracy - The organization James founded in New Hampshire
Southlake Podcast
White Rage - Dr. Carol Anderson
Dr. Anderson on our show
Mother's of Massive Resistance - Dr. Elizabeth McRae
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Some 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 reflecting on Dr. Hailey’s research. We're joined by Dr. Daniella Boyd, a Latina daughter of Ecuadorian immigrants, and Tricia Ebarvia, an Asian American daughter of Filipino immigrants. Through love and a commitment to knowing better and doing better, we explore many of the ways that anti-Blackness shows up for each of us, and in our respective communities. Content warning, particularly for Black listeners, there is discussion of anti-Black racism that can be difficult to hear. This conversation is grounded in love and community, but please take care of yourself. LINKS:
Dr. Chantal Hailey
Dr. Hailey's recent research on racial preferences in school choices
Teaching Hard History - podcast from Learning for Justice
Just Mercy - Brian Stevenson
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Dr. 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 individual choices are shaped by race and racism. Employing experimental and quantitative methods, her study reveals the various ways that the racial demographics of a school influence the perceived desirability of that school across racial identities, as well as for students and their parents. She joins Val and Andrew this week to discuss her research and expand the conversation beyond the Black/White binary. LINKS:
Racial Preferences for Schools - Dr. Hailey
A NY Daily News OpEd about her research
No Choice is The Right Choice - Dr. Linn Posey-Maddox
Original research from Chase Billingham and Mathew Hunt on White parents' preferences for schools
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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Last 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 of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
"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: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. At the core of her research agenda is how policy is made and unmade, how racial inequality and racism affect that process and outcome, and how those who have taken the brunt of those laws, executive orders, and directives have worked to shape, counter, undermine, reframe, and, when necessary, dismantle the legal and political edifice used to limit their rights and their humanity. She joins us to discuss her work, in particular, chapter 3 from White Rage - "Burning Brown to the Ground", which looks at the White rage backlash to the Brown v. Board decision, and all of the ways that the progress promised in the decision were undermined both in the immediate aftermath of the decision, and continuing through to today. With a gift for making the illegible legible, Dr. Anderson provides us with a clear eyed look at the history that has led to the widely inequitable education system we have today. And while the topic is heavy, she brings joy and laughter to the conversation in a way that can only leave you smiling through the pain. 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
Charles Hamilton Houston - The first general counsel of NAACP
Plessy v Ferguson (also, listen to our episode about the Plessy case 125 years later).
Brown II - The implementation decision - "All deliberate speed . . ."
Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker - listen to her episode on our podcast.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Shelby County v. Holder
Mothers of Massive Resistance - Dr. Elizabeth McRea
Gabriel's Revolt
The Sum Of Us - Heather McGhee (also, hear her episode on our podcast)
My Grandmother's Hands - Resmaa Menakem
The Fisk Jubilee Singers
Maceo Snipes
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Founded 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 of all people.
Embrace historical truths.
Develop a critical consciousness.
Recognize race and confront racism.
Create just systems.
The framework presents actionable steps related to each principle, with indicators that specify the associated knowledge, skills and behaviors required. And while this framework is designed for teachers and school leaders, the lessons are more broadly applicable, and really serve as a guide to living an antiracist life. We’re joined by CARE Professional Development Specialist, Brittany Brazzel, who contributed to the framework to discuss. LINKS:
The Framework
Center for Anti-Racist Education (CARE)
Clear the Air (twitter)
Walter Reuther's March on Washington Speech
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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
We 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 knowing better and doing better. Dr. Susan C. Faircloth is an enrolled member of the Coharie Tribe, and a professor of education at Colorado State University. She has spent her career working on Native issues, and brings a wealth of historical knowledge, as well as family history that brings to light the challenges facing Native people, especially students, today. From Native boarding schools to her own struggles finding a school for her Native daughter, she shares deeply personal stories that force us to reckon with the repairs that are needed to begin the healing process for the sovereign Native tribes and nations on whose land we currently reside.
LINKS:
We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy - Kliph Nesteroff
An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States - Kyle T Mays
Richard Henry Pratt
The Coharie Tribe
Native Land Finder
List of Federally Recognized Tribes
The East Carolina Indian School
American Indian Leadership Program
John Tippeconnic
The Trail of Tears
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Heather 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 leave, a social safety net, and, of course, a good school in every neighborhood. Her journey took her across the country for conversations with all sorts of people, and led to the new book, The Sum of Us, which was released on paperback today, Feb 8th, 2022, and includes a new afterword.
We revisit the episode with new commentary from Andrew and Val. If you heard the interview already, the new commentary starts around the 50 minute mark.
LINKS:
The Sum Of Us
Our Bookshop.org Storefront
Demos - Public Policy "Think-and-Do" Tank
Ta-Nehesi Coats - The Case for Reparations
Dr. Gail Christopher
HealOurCommunities.org
Adrian Piper - Conceptual Artist
Sherrilyn Ifill
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Black Doll Test
Debra Holoien
Chase Bellingham and Matthew Hunt
Kellogg Foundation
The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander
The Color of Law - Richard Rothstein
Bryan Stevenson of Equal Justice Initiative
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Angela 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 regular in adult contexts. Her boys, River and Birch, were 3 and 6 at the time. Although the concept of translating social justice concepts into language that would work for kids their age was daunting, she saw the value, and her friend helped her to see how her years of community work naturally fed this new focus. Thus began Angela’s journey of parenting for social justice — starting in her own home. She had some good support from truth-telling authors like Jacqueline Woodson and Kate Schatz, whose books opened up powerful conversations with her kids, and she recognized and took more opportunities for social justice chats with her family in the day to day. Angela felt eager to connect and share ideas with other parents. In 2016, she and dear friend and parenting book co-author Abi Healey started a blog about how they were bringing social justice into their parenting, and that same year started hosting Parenting 4 Social Justice (P4SJ) Chats for parents and caregivers looking to share and receive this support. The response was positive and the idea for a book was born. In June of 2021, Parenting 4 Social Justice was released to the world. Tragically, in September of 2021, Angela died from breast cancer. While the community in Vermont, and across the country reeled from her loss, the Parenting 4 Social Justice team wanted to continue to share her message. Chrissy Colón Bradt is the co-author of the chapter on parenting for racial justice, and agreed to come on the podcast to share a bit of Angela's spirit with us. As an Afro-Latina and mother of two, she has thought long and hard about how to instill a positive racial identity in her own kids, and shared much of that ongoing journey in book. LINKS:
Parenting 4 Social Justice from Bookshop.org
The Parenting for Social Justice website
The Root Social Justice Center
Angela Berkfield Tributes
JPB Gerald - Checklists and Merit Badges
I'm Your Peanut Butter Big Brother - by Selina Alko
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
NOTE: In the original version of this episode, we got the origin story of the Parenting 4 Social Justice workshops mixed up. We have updated the episode. Our apologies to all at Parenting 4 Social Justice.
Listeners 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 this work. If this podcast brought value to your life, made you think in a new way, helped you have conversations in a different way, or just brought you some joy, we'd be grateful for your support. You can join our Patreon - Patreon.com/integratedschools. Thank you for your support and we look forward to more great conversations in 2022. LINKS:
Teaching Hard History Podcast
Learning For Justice
White Awake's - Before We Were White course
Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Back 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. From staffing shortages to second hand trauma, teachers are under increasing stress and pressure to the point that many are considering leaving the profession. We revisit some of the conversation from back in April, and then talk about the current realities and what parents and caregivers might do to support public education in these trying times.
LINKS:
The original episode with Kara and Zoe
National Education Association survey of teachers
Guest Column in the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the crisis in teaching
Gadfly On The Wall blog post about Vicarious Trauma
Special thanks to Erin Pier for helping open Andrew's eyes to the crisis in teaching. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Dr. 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. Blackburn gives us a greater understanding of how this myth is not only harmful to Asian Americans, but to all people of color, and how it is directly tied to anti-Black racism in our country. She also offers deep reflection about what solidarity building can really mean and what we all have to offer in the fight to dismantle White supremacy culture. LINKS:
Time cover - "Those Asian-American Whiz Kids"
Learning for Justice
Paula Yoo - From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement
Cathy Park Hong - Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning
Erika Lee - The Making of Asian American
Elizabeth McRea - Mothers of Massive Resistance
Dr. McRea on our podcast - White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy
Jeff Chan - We Gon’ Be Alright
Other resources that have shaped our learning:
The Asian American Justice and Innovation Lab
See Us Unite
The PBS Series - Asian Americans
Code Switch Post - The Model Minority Myth
Angry Asian Man
Bianca Mabute-Louie
Dr. Connie Wun
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. Register for our upcoming bookclub in early December. We're reading Mia Birdsong's How We Show Up. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
If 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 - segregation means concentrations of Black, Brown and Indigenous students. This seemed wrong to Tomás, and he and his colleagues set out to define segregation, using the tools of economics. Their definition takes the district average demographics and holds that as the baseline to which other schools should be compared. In this framing, in a district with 70% students of color, a school with 90% students of color is segregating, but so is a school with 50% students of color. What he quickly found was that the schools that often contribute the most to segregation within a district are not the schools we often focus on - are not the schools with 95% students of color, but rather, the schools with 75%, %85, even 90% White students. His hope is that this shift in framing can focus the efforts of local policy makers who care about decreasing segregation. He joins to talk about his work, why he does it, and what sort of social good he hopes his economics focus can achieve. LINKS:
Segregation Contribution Index
Dividing Lines: How School Districts Draw Attendance Boundaries to Perpetuate School Segregation
A Vox explainer highlighting the work of Tomás Monarrez and the Urban Institute on school boundaries
Home Owners Loan Corporation - 1930s entity that drew redlining maps
Look up redlining maps for your city
Michelle Adams on our podcast - traces the history of desegregation law in this country
The Parents Involved Case
Harry Belafonte on King saying "I fear we are integrating into a burning house"
Dr. Elizabeth McRea on our podcast - White Woman and the Politics of White Supremacy
Dr. McRea's Mother's of Massive Resistance
Richard Rothstein Color of Law
SFUSD's new student assignment policy
Tree Equity
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
In 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 a doctorate and eventually to leading The Bridges Collaborative, a hub for school and housing practitioners to work together to advance the cause of integration. Lallinger joins us to discuss his family legacy, how it shapes his current work, and what legacy he hopes to leave for his kids. LINKS:
Lallinger on the importance of the Bridges Collaborative work
Martin Luther King, Jr on the difference between desegregation and integration
A Vox explainer highlighting the work of Tomàs Monarrez and the Urban Institute on school boundaries
The Bridges Collaborative
IntegrateNYC, the 5 Rs of Real Integration
The National Coalition of School Diversity
Maya Angelou Still I Rise
Langston Hughes Mother to Son
Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker - The Lost Education of Horace Tate
Dr. Siddle Walker on our podcast
MLK - Where Do We Go From Here
MLK - A Testament of Hope
W.E.B. DuBois on the fear of integrating Black students into hostile spaces
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
The 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 be White, and what it means to have racial and economic privilege in a world where they want to show up better and create a more just place. LINKS:
Maggie Hagerman -White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America
Richard Rothstein - Color of Law
The Intro to the Integrated Schools Podcast
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey. We are proud members of Connectd Podcasts.
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 member, Ali Takata recently published a blog post highlighting the gap she has felt in our ability to address a multiracial audience and announcing our intentions to grow from a primarily White organization into a truly multiracial organization. While we know that this process needs to be slow and deliberate, we are also deeply committed to seeing it through. With that in mind, and given that the podcast has been lacking a regular co-host, we felt it was time to bring someone new on board, and we are so grateful that Val agreed. She will be with us at least though May of 2022 to co-host, lend her insights, and help model what a truly multiracial coalition could be. In this first episode, we get to know her backstory, why she cares, and what we hope this season will achieve. LINKS:
Val Brown on Twitter
Ali's Blog Post
White Lips to White Ears by IS Advisory Board Member, Matt Gonzales
ClearTheAir
Dr. Mica Pollock
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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey. We are proud members of Connectd Podcasts.
---SPECIAL NOTE --- If you enjoyed this conversation, a wonderful artist in the Bay Area, named Jen Bloomer, has created a piece of art inspired by Learning in Public. It's beautiful and she has generously offered to donate the proceeds from sales to Integrated Schools. Please check it out and support a wonderful artist and our organization.
From the time Courtney Martin strapped her daughter, Maya, to her chest for walks around her neighborhood, she was curious about Emerson Elementary, a public school down the street from her Oakland home. She learned that White families in their gentrifying neighborhood largely avoided the majority-Black, poorly-rated school. As she began asking why, a journey of a thousand moral miles began. Courtney journey led her to Integrated Schools and our founder, Courtney Everts Mykytyn, who told her: "people like you do things like this." Integrated Schools, and a friendship between the two Courtneys, became a support system as Martin decided to enroll her daughter at Emerson - and discovered that her public school, the foundation of our fragile democracy, is a powerful place to dig deeper - to go beyond hashtags and yard signs to be a part of transforming herself, her community, and ultimately, the country. She chronicled this choice and then the complexities of living into it in her new book, Learning in Public. More than a memoir, Learning in Public is an exercise in doing the best you can, owning your mistakes, and committing to knowing better and doing better. She joins us to talk about the book along with one of the key characters from the book, Mrs. Minor. After teaching Courtney’s daughter, Mrs. Minor left the public school system to start her own private preschool, The Learning Forest. Courtney and Amha (as Mrs. Minor’s new students call her) developed a friendship over the course of monthly conversations about integration, public education, race and more. Ahma brings a critical eye and nuanced perspective to the topic of integration, and pushes us to constantly reconsider if we are doing the right thing. To support The Learning Forest, you can sponsor a family through GoFundMe, or donate directly CashApp $TheLearningForest. LINKS:
The Learning Forest Preschool
Courtney's new book - Learning In Public
On Being Column by Courtney
Mansa Musa
Courtney's last appearance on the podcast
Rucker C Johnson on our podcast talking about his book, Children of The Dream
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
One hundred and twenty five years ago this week, The Supreme Court announced its decision in the case of Plessy v Ferguson. The case infamously declared that separate but equal was constitutional. The setting for the case was a train car, but the ramifications on society were profound. And while the Brown v Board decision 63 years later did away with some of those ramifications, in many ways, Plessy remains with us today. Coming in the wake of the civil war, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments make up what are known as the Reconstruction Amendments, the Amendments intended to guarantee the freedom of formerly enslaved people. In many ways, the promise of these Amendments remains unfulfilled. In their immediate aftermath, many state legislatures took steps to undermine them, often upheld by federal courts. The Plessy case came in response to just such a law. In 1890 Louisiana State Legislature passed the Separate Car Act requiring equal, but separate train cars for White and Black passengers. Two years later, Homer Plessy agreed to participate in a challenge to the law, by boarding a train and refusing to ride in the Black car. He was arrested and challenged his case all the way to The Supreme Court. This decision, regularly making top 10 lists of worst Supreme Court decisions of all time, enshrined segregation in law, allowing for Jim Crow, Black codes, and undoing much of the gains made for Black people during the short-lived years of Reconstruction. However, the decision wasn't unanimous, there was one lone dissenting opinion by Justice John Marshall Harlan. Justice Harlan earned the nickname, The Great Dissenter, for a number of dissenting opinions in favor of civil rights during his tenure on the Court at the end of the 19th century. And his dissent in the Plessy case served as a statement of what our values as a country could and should be. It was also a prescient warning of where the social caste system, enshrined by the majority opinion, would lead us. Paula Forbes has been at the intersection of law and education for many years. As the first in-house counsel for the Minneapolis Public School district, she saw the ways that the caste system enshrined by the Plessy decision, and never fully repaired, continues to act as a barrier to educational justice. She joins us to discuss the importance of reckoning with and repairing our past in order to create the future we desire. LINKS:
Paula Forbes website
The Chaordic Path
Plessy v Ferguson
NYTimes Guest Essay on Justice Harlan by Peter Canellos
Pre-order Mr. Canellos's forthcoming book The Great Dissenter
The Reconstruction Amendments
Justice John Marshall Harlan
Malvina Harlan (Justice Harlan's Wife)
A story about Justice Harlan and his half-brother
Register for the Integrated Schools Book Club in July. We'll be reading Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
In 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 gratitude for their willingness to share their stories, we listen. Email your appreciation to Greg and Carol at hello@integratedschools.org, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, or IntegratedSchools on Facebook. Register for the Integrated Schools Book Club in July. We'll be reading Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
For 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 educational justice that continue to this day. LINKS:-San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez-Richard Valencia-The Lemon Grove Incident-Mendez v. Westminster-Hernandez v. Texas-Santamaria v. Dallas ISD-Patricia Gandara on the triple segregation of Latinx people Register for the Integrated Schools Book Club in July. We'll be reading Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Dr. 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 integrating classrooms, but the story we tell about it is that it ended our racist school policies. While that may feel good, our “good intentions” do not absolve us from the impact of our actions. LINKS:
Amanda Lewis Race In The Schoolyard
Karolyn Tyson Integration Interrupted
Charles Tilley on Opportunity Hoarding
Register for the Integrated Schools Book Club in July. We'll be reading Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
For 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 of many of the costs, especially to the Black community. She asks us to engage with these stories in order to understand the very real intent behind where we find ourselves today. It is only through changing the stories we tell, that we might envision a different, more equitable future for school integration. Register for the Integrated Schools Book Club in July. We'll be reading Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
As 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. Board, Dr. Johnson shows us that desegregation did have profoundly important effects on individuals and communities even while we gave up on it too quickly. Register for the Integrated Schools Book Club in July. We'll be reading Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Aurelio Montemayor has been organizing parents for decades. His work at the Intercultural Research Development Association, or IDRA, as a family engagement coordinator has focused on a specific type of parent engagement, known as parent empowerment. He defines the four ways parents are typically engaged in schools as:
As free labor and fundraisers.
Through education programs designed to help improve parenting
Through education programs designed for self improvement
Through meaningful parent / caregiver empowerment
This fourth form of parent engagement - parent empowerment, is the only form that he believes leads to school wide improvement for all kids. When done well, it can serve as an important tool for equity, but it requires that all parents feel empowered. I'm joined by parent board member, Sarah Becker, to discuss what this looks like in practice, and how people with racial or economic privilege, who often enter schools with outsized empowerment, can act as allies. LINKS:
Intercultural Research Development Association
Chicano Movement
No Child Left Behind
When Middle-Class Parents Choose Urban Schools: Class, Race, and the Challenge of Equity in Public Education by Lynn Posey-Maddox
Despite The Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools by John B. Diamond and Amanda E. Lewis
Register for the Integrated Schools Book Club in July. We'll be reading Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Please join us for How We Show Up (part 1) on April 19th, 5pm PDT / 8pm EDT. Registration is free! Our country has, at times, and in fits and starts, worked toward desegregation, but never meaningfully worked toward real integration. Desegregation is about the moving of bodies, the demographic percentages in a school building. Integration is about, in the words of David Kirkland, "fundamentally working to organize our society in a different way, where our differences are seen as spaces that we not only celebrate but LET BE, where this forms the vibrancy of our being as a society." It is about decentering Whiteness, it is about creating new forms of shared power, and it is about recognizing the full humanity of every kid. Historically, the ways White &/or privileged people talk about “good” vs. “bad” schools, the choices we make, both individually and collectively, about where to educate our children, and the ways we show up when we do enroll in global-majority schools have served to maintain our advantages and in turn, continue to oppress others. This didn’t happen by accident. Todays 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. LINKS:
A video of the webinar
Slides shared during the webinar
The original resource list shared after the webinar: Native Land Finder
Episode: White Supremacy and Black Educational Excellence: Hidden Stories of the Integration Movement – Integrated Schools podcast featuring a conversation with Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker and Dr. Elizabeth McRae facilitated by Dani McClain
Vanessa Siddle Walker: The Lost Education of Horace Tate
Elizabeth McRae: Mothers of Massive ResistanceEpisode: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy
The current levels of segregation in our schools.
The wealth gap – from Brookings, and The Washington Post
Richard Rothstein – The Color of Law
Michelle Alexander – The New Jim Crow
EdBuild on the $23 billion funding gap between districts serving predominantly students of color vs White students.
David KirklandEpisode: Kirkland on Integration
Rucker Johnson The Children of the Dream
Episode – Rucker Johnson and the Grandchildren of Desegregation
Dr Kfir MordechayEpisode: Gentrification
Dr. Amanda Lewis
Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools with John Diamond
Episode: Desegregation without Integration
Engage with Integrated Schools Find your local chapter
Sign up for our Parent-to-Parent program
Listen to the podcast
Join our Patreon
Join our Facebook group
Check out our full resource list
Sign up for Book Club
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey
Heather 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 leave, a social safety net, and, of course, a good school in every neighborhood. Her journey took her across the country for conversations with all sorts of people, and led to the new book, The Sum of Us, which has been on the New York Times Bestseller's list since was released. We are incredibly grateful to Heather McGhee for agreeing to come on the show in the midst of a serious promotional schedule. We are also honored that Integrated Schools makes an appearance in the book. LINKS:
The Sum Of Us
Our Bookshop.org Storefront
Demos - Public Policy "Think-and-Do" TankTa-Nehesi Coats - The Case for Reparations
Dr. Gail Christopher
HealOurCommunities.org
Adrian Piper - Conceptual Artist
Sherrilyn Ifill
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Black Doll Test
Debra Holoien
Chase Bellingham and Matthew Hunt
Kellogg Foundation
The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander
The Color of Law - Richard Rothstein
Bryan Stevenson of Equal Justice Initiative
Don't forget to register for our next webinar: How We Show Up, April 19th 5pm PDT / 8pm EDT. This free, 90 minute webinar will feature parents from Integrated Schools. We'll be sharing personal stories of how we, as parents and caregivers with racial or economic privilege, work to center anti-racist integration when we arrive in integrating schools. The Sum of Us is our next Book Club selection. Dates are in July, and you can register here. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey
Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From a Birmingham Jail is well known for its reflections on justice. Quotes such as “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” and “Justice too long delayed is justice denied”, are well known and celebrated, but there's another section of the letter focused on King's disappointment with the White moderate. He says, "I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the White moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the White moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice." Formerly the director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and currently a law professor at Rutgers Law School, where she runs The Inclusion Project, Elise Boddie combines the expertise of a lawyer with the heart of a community organizer to advance educational justice. Focusing on the original promise of integration, the version hoped for by the Brown family in 1954, laid out in the Green Factors from Green v. School Board of New Kent County in 1968, and updated recently by IntegrateNYC and the 5Rs of Real Integration, her vision of integration aspires to create spaces where children can all live into their full humanity, not ignoring race, not defined by race, but in full view of race. LINKS:
Five Myths About School Segregation - Elise Boddie in The Washington Post
Linda Brown and the Unfinished Work of School Integration - Elise Boddie in The New York TimesOrdinariness as Equality - Elise Boddie on the harm of "Colorblindness"
The Inclusion Project
Green v. School Board of New Kent County
NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
Elizabeth Anderson, U of Michigan
The Imperative of Integration - Dr. Elizabeth Anderson
Cutting School - Dr. Noliwe Rooks
Mother's of Massive Resistance - Dr. Elizabeth McRea
Birthright Citizens - Dr. Martha Jones
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Season 2 of WPLN's The Promise takes on one of the most contentious topics in America, what has been deemed the "Great Equalizer", but more and more feels like the Great Divider: Public Education. In May of 1963, President Kennedy addressed the graduates of Vanderbilt University (a full year before they would admit their first Black student), and said, "I speak to you ... not of your rights as Americans, but of your responsibilities... They do not rest with equal weight upon the shoulders of all. For, of those to whom much is given, much is required." More than 55 years later, reporter Meribah Knight, found a community just 3 miles away grappling with this very question with regards to the schools in the neighborhood. In particular, Warner Elementary (90% Black and 96% economically disadvantaged), and Lockeland Elementary (90% White and 3% economically disadvantaged). These two schools, 1.2 miles apart, were starkly different, yet representative of so many schools and communities across the country. Meribah joins us to discuss the series, why she felt compelled to tell this story, and how it has impacted her of life. Additionally, she shares an edit of the forth episode from the season. LINKS
The full series - The Promise
Meribah Knight
Bull Connor and the fire hoses
MLK's Letter From a Birmingham Jail
John F. Kennedy's Vanderbilt Convocation Address
Nashville's Desegregation Case - Kelly v. Board of Education
Denver's Desegregation Case - Keyes v School District No 1, Denver
A detailed timeline of the Keyes case
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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchoolson Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
The Epic NEXT Program tasks 15-20 high school students with researching, writing, and performing a play about a social issue, usually related to educational justice. The idea, is that those most impacted by the system, are those most likely to come up with meaningful solutions, and that theater can be used as tool for social change. Back in 2018, New York Appleseed, an advocacy organization fighting for integrated schools and communities, commissioned EPIC to create a show about school segregation. The result was Nothing About Us, a 30 minute stage play written and performed by high school students. The process begins with interviews of roughly 40 people about the topic. Ranging from researchers, to parents, to administrators, the goal is to hear from a wide range of stake holders. Those interviews are then transcribed and pieced together, along with some original writing, to create the show. Students recite the words spoken in the interviews, sing and rap, and create scenes from the stories told by the interviewees. The final show, featuring 5 students, with one prop and a handful of folding chairs can then be performed just about anywhere to a wide variety of audiences. We're incredibly fortunate to be able to share some clips from a film adaptation of that show today, as well as a conversation with one of the artistic directors of EPIC and two of the students who wrote and performed the piece. If you have ever doubted the importance of youth voice, this show declares, unequivocally, that nothing about students done without their input, will be for them. Don't forget to register for the Fifty State Conversation. Once registered, you'll receive links to free screenings of Nothing About Us on:
Wednesday February 17 at 8pm (Eastern Standard Time)
Wednesday March 17 at 7pm (Eastern Standard Time)
Saturday April 17 at 3pm (Eastern Standard Time)
Monday May 17 at 7:15pm (Eastern Standard Time)
If you can't make one of those, you can rent it on demand. LINKS:
EPIC Theatre Ensemble
The Fifty State Conversation - Sign up today!
Intetgrated Schools Advisory Board
Matt Gonzales
Matt Gonzales's White Lips to White Ears
IntegrateNYC's 5Rs of Real Integration
The Promise from Nashville Public Radio
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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchoolson Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
We’re back! Kicking off season 6 with a webinar hosted by The Black Educators Initiative (BEI), and a chance to share a bit of our thinking about why we do the work we do at Integrated Schools. BEI, as a project of Urban Teachers, is working to grow the Black teaching corps. When executive director, Dr. Robert Simmons, invited us to participate in their speaker series, we were honored, and slightly terrified. Thinking about presenting the work we do to the BEI audience pushed us to stop and consider our focus at Integrated Schools, and why we do the work we do. Between the pandemic and losing our founder a year ago, it was a much needed pause to take the 30,000 ft view of our work and how we view it fitting in to the broader movement for educational justice. A framing that we have been thinking about, internally, is Third Wave School Desegregation. The idea that we have tried desegregation in the past, and, while it has had benefits, it has also had real costs. In order to move towards a true, multiracial demorcracy, we believe we need something new, something that hasn't been tried before, and something that pushes us towards real integration. We're thrilled to be joined by Karla and Rachel from IntegrateNYC for this panel, as their 5Rs of Real Integration provide a powerful framework for thinking about real integration. We're including lots of links in an attempt to give credit to the origin of much of the ideas shared, but special thanks as well to the entire Integrated Schools team for helping to think through this question. And of course, don't forget to register for our next Book Club! LINKS:
Black Educators Initiative
Urban Teachers
Dr. Robert Simmons
Integrate NYC
IntegrateNYC on the Integrated Schools Podcast
5 Rs of Real Integration
Dr. David Kirkland
Justice Thurgood Marshall, Milliken v. Bradley, 1974 dissent
Charles Hamilton Houston
Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker
White Supremacy and Black Educational Excellence: Hidden Stories of the Integration Movement
Dr. Noliwe Rooks
Segrenomics, Black Teachers, and Noliwe Rooks
Horace Tate
Rucker Johnson - Children of The Dream
EdBuild report, 23 Billion:
Nikole Hannah-Jones - on "curated diversity"
METCO
Billingham and Hunt on White parent preferences for racial school makeup
Remember, any book bought through a link here or by starting at our affiliate page on IndieBound supports local bookstores, and Integrated Schools. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchoolson Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
On November 13th, 2019, we started Season 5 of this podcast. Our definition of "season" has pretty much always just meant as many episodes as we can make before we need a break, and we haven't really taken a break since last November. This episode, the 23rd of the season is admittedly a bit of self-referential navel gazing, but I wanted to take just a bit of your time to wrap up the season before we, finally, take a break. It is an all-volunteer team that helps put these episodes together. From Molly, who makes our transcripts, to Courtney, who has done all the visuals to promote these episodes, to Ali, Bridget, Anna, Susan and others, who provide feedback, and help me think through these topics, this podcast wouldn't be what it is without the entire team. And that team deserves a break. If you are able, we'd be eternally grateful for your financial support, by joining our Patreon, or going to the Integrated Schools website and clicking "donate." While we're away, please check out past episodes, if you haven't yet, and stay in touch on social media or by sending us an email. And please, VOTE!! LINKS:
Past episodes
Register for Book Club
Buy An Indigenous People's History of the United States for Young People
The first episode of the Brown v Board series, The Stories We Tell Ourselves
The trailer for our series, Between We and They
Remember, any book bought through a link here or by starting at our affiliate page on IndieBound supports local bookstores, and Integrated Schools. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchoolson Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
We were just in your feeds a week ago with Congressman Bobby Scott, but we couldn't wait to get this episode out. Dr. Ann Ishimaru is a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, where her work focuses on the intersection of leadership, school - community relationships, and education equity. With a focus on both formal power structures, and on the more informal power that can come from community, she believes that leadership can play a vital role in creating equitable learning environments for all kids, particularly those who have been historically marginalized in education. Through her research, which she has documented in a new book, Just Schools: Building Equitable Collaborations with Family and Communities, Dr. Ishimaru highlights four key principals for empowering family and community to drive positive change in schools: Begin with Parents and Community; Transform Power; Build Reciprocity; and Undertake Change as Collective Inquiry. She joins us to discuss these themes and more. LINKS:
Dr. Ishimaru's book - Just Schools: Building Equitable Collaborations with Family and Communities
Tips for Collaborating with Other Families from Embrace Race
Annette Lareau - on Racialized Scripts
Nice White Parents - from Serial
John Diamond and Amanda Lewis - Despite the Best Intentions
Amanda Lewis on our podcast
Erica Turner's guide on Equity in Pandemic Schooling
Remember, any book bought through a link here or by starting at our affiliate page on IndieBound supports local bookstores, and Integrated Schools. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
The Strength in Diversity Act passed the House of Representatives on Sept 15th, 2020. Coming out of The Committee on Education and Labor, chaired by Congressman Bobby Scott, the bill aims to assist localities that want to attempt voluntary desegregation plans, do that constitutionally. Since the Supreme Court's decision in the Parents Involved case from 2007, many districts have avoided desegregation plans for fear of running afoul of that ruling. The Strength in Diversity Act provides grants to states to plan programs that can decrease segregation, while also remaining legal. We're joined by Chairman Scott do discuss the bill, and why it took congress 30 years to address growing school segregation. LINKS:
Congressman Scott's Website
Strength in Diversity Act on Congress.gov
Strength in Diversity Fact Sheet
The Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act on Congress.gov
The Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act Fact Sheet
Tribute to Courtney Everts Mykytyn from the Official Congressional Record
Milliken v Bradley from Integrated Schools
The floor debate on the Strength in Diversity Act - 4h18m to 5h08m
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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
For Angela Glover Blackwell, a brief stint at the Rockefeller Foundation brought to light a fundamental difference in how we think about driving positive change, and fighting for justice abroad versus here at home. The international focus was on equity - what are the outcomes we hope to achieve, and how do we back into the inputs required? The national focus was on equality - how do we make sure that everyone gets the same inputs to start with. Through the work of her organization, PolicyLink, she has spent the past 20 years pushing for equity to be our North Star. Calling for us to recognize equity as moral imperative, equity as a potent antidote to inequality, and equity as the superior growth model for our country. She joins us to talk about the power of an equity mindset, not just in education, but in our entire society. LINKS:
PolicyLink
The Equity Manifesto
The Radical Imagination Podcast
Ms. Glover Blackwell on The Curb-Cut Effect
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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Brooklyn Deep is the media arm of The Brooklyn Movement Center, a Black-led, membership-based organization of primarily low-to-moderate income Central Brooklyn residents. They work to build power and pursue self-determination in Bedford-Stuyvesant & Crown Heights by nurturing local leadership, waging campaigns and winning concrete improvements in people’s lives. In 2019, Brooklyn Deep released an 8-part podcast documentary called School Colors. Spanning 150 years of history, it looks at race, class and power through the schools of Bedford-Stuyvesant. It features well researched history, compelling story telling, and provides a nuanced look at many of the educational debates happening in cities today (particular credit to Ep 6, Mo' Charters, Mo' Problems, for tackling one of the most heated topics with a nuance that is often lacking). Hosts Mark Winston Griffith and Max Freedman join us to discuss the project, and share an edit of Ep 7, New Kids on the Block. We talk about gentrification, colonization, rallying, and impact versus intent. If you've been listening to Nice White Parents, you'll recognize many of the same themes. LINKS:
School Colors Podcast
Brooklyn Deep
The Brooklyn Movement Center
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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
JPB 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 to be about "Pandemic Pods" and equity, but we quickly found ourselves zoomed out to a broader conversation about meritocracy, "THE SYSTEM", and Black Lives Matter signs in gated communities. With insight, humor, and authenticity, JPB helps us think about what it means to take care of our kids in a way that doesn't harm other kids. LINKS:
Unstandardized English - JPB Gerald's Podcast (and you can support his work on Patreon)
The Ezel Project - JPB Gerald's course on whiteness
JPB on Twitter
Combatting the Altruistic Shield - JPB Gerald's article describing the concept
JPB Gerald and Mira Debs on Pandemic Pods in The Washington Post
Cheryl I. Harris - Whiteness as Property (1993)
JPB was inspired by Nelson Flores and Jonathan Rosa who have written several pieces together, including Undoing Appropriateness, and Unsettling Race and Language
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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Dr. 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 also about justice and race in schools more broadly. Her 2015 book, Those Kids, Our Schools: Race and Reform in an American High School is an inside look at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school in America. It explores the way students recreate existing racial hierarchies when not giving the time, space, and instruction for how to have productive conversations about race. This work led her to co-author Race Dialogues: A Facilitator's Guide to Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom which aims to give teachers (and others) the tools to facilitate more helpful and hopeful conversations. LINKS:
Dr. Griffin on Medium - including the three posts about COVID
Dr. Griffin's Those Kids, Our Schools: Race and Reform in an American High School
Dr. Griffin's Race Dialogues: A Facilitator's Guide to Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom
Race: The Power of an Illusion - documentary
Clara Totenberg Green's Op-Ed in the NYT
JPB Gerald and Mira Debs's Op-Ed in the Washington Post
L'Heureux Lewis-McCoy's thread on Twitter
Courtney Martin and Garrett Bucks wrote letters to each other about pods
Erica Turner created this guide to Equity in Pandemic Schooling
Our own blog post about pods
The newly updated resources page from our website
The recording and resources from our first ever webinar
And, in proof that everyone is talking about pods . . . this excellent piece from Good Housekeeping
Remember, any book bought through a link here or by starting at our affiliate page on IndieBound supports local bookstores, and Integrated Schools. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
July 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 maintain all-white schools. The implications for ideas about what is possible regarding desegregation today, and how we fund schools are profound. LINKS:
Parents Involved v Seattle Schools
Milliken v Bradley
Keyes v Denver School District 1
Swann v Mecklenburg
Brown v Board of Ed
EdBuild report on the $23 Billon funding gap
Complete audio from the opinion, including the entirety of Justice Marshall's dissent.
Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further. We are an all volunteer organization and your support would mean the world to us. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
We'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 achieve real integration, and work with the Department of Education (DOE) to enact policies that work towards that goal. Karla and Jedidah walk us through all 5 Rs, while also sharing their own experiences being impacted by segregation. These youth leaders are passionate and inspiring, and remind us of the power of youth voice. LINKS: The 5Rs of Real Integration Green v. County School Board of New Kent County Will Stancil on the Green Case from The Atlantic INTEGRATED SCHOOLS WEBINAR: Please join us for our first ever webinar - The Integrated Schools Movement: Where We Begin, on July 13th, 5pm PDT / 8pm EDT. It will feature 5 members of the Integrated Schools parent advisory board sharing stories of choosing global-majority schools for our kids, and what we've learned along the way. We'll discuss how our schools got to where they are, and what we can do to push back. It's free to register and will last roughly 60 minutes, with some time for Q&A afterwards. Please share widely, and we hope to see you there. NOTE: If you missed the webinar, registering will get you a link to the recording. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
The 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 educators that our country consciously eliminated in its desegregation efforts. While Dr. Elizabeth McRae recounts the steady work of White supremacist educational politics, most often led by White women, to ensure that Black educational excellence was eroded and replaced by White supremacist policies and pedagogy. Not only did real integration never happen, but the costs of its failure were enormous and last to today. Courtney was on the NCSD steering committee, and this panel was conceived in her honor. Author Courtney Martin kicks off the conversation by conjuring the memory of Courtney Mykytyn, and Andrew closes things out with a tribute to Courtney and the importance of this work, in this moment. It's an important conversation, and we are deeply grateful to everyone involved for allowing us to share it. LINKS:
Elizabeth McRea - Mother's of Massive Resistance
Vanessa Siddle-Walker - Their Highest Potential, The Lost Education of Horace Tate
Dani McClain - We Live for the We
Courtney Martin - The New Better Off
The National Coalition for School Diversity
Video of the full keynote is available here.
Eula Biss - White Debt
The NEA
The Fort Pillow Massacre
The United Daughters of the Confederacy
Green v County Board of New Kent County
Remember, any book bought through a link here or by starting at our affiliate page on IndieBound supports local bookstores, and Integrated Schools. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
The 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 Union Seminary in New York, studying with the late, great Dr. James Cone. From the power of finding our shared humanity, to liberation we can all find in anti-racism, the importance of moving from thought to action, Dr. Harvey's insights feel incredibly important in this moment. LINKS: Raising White Kids - Dr. Jennifer Harvey A Black Theology of Liberation - Dr. James Cone The Cross and the Lynching Tree - Dr. James Cone Race Traitor - Noel Ignatiev and John Garvey (a book of essays from the journal of the same name) Raising Anti-Racist Kids - ebook by Rebekah Gienapp An article about the event hosted in Denver, in 2018 Video of a workshop led by Dr. Harvey Connect with Dr. Harvey on Twitter or Facebook Remember, any book bought through a link here or by starting at our affiliate page on IndieBound supports local bookstores, and Integrated Schools. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
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 2 - With Noliwe Rooks, author of Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education Part 3 - With Amanda Lewis, co-author of Despite The Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools Part 4 - With Civil Rights Attorney, David Hinojosa Part 5 - With Greg and Carol Part 6 - Grappling with what we've learned with Anna. Remember, any book bought through a link here or by starting at our affiliate page on IndieBound supports local bookstores, and Integrated Schools. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchoolson Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Matt 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 - inspired by Joe Feldman and his book
IntegrateNYC with the 5Rs of Real Integration
Paulo Friere - Author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Django Paris- Author of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies
Richard Gray- "Segregation is a generational problem that requires intergenerational solutions"
This American Life - The Problem We All Live With
NYC Alliance for School Integration and Desegregation
Angela Glover Blackwell on the Curb Curt Effect
Remember, any book bought through a link here or by starting at our affiliate page on IndieBound supports local bookstores, and Integrated Schools. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Teaching 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 some of Kara's reflections on teaching and education, check out EdAllies. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Given 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 compassion, and our love outwards, when we are being asked to draw inwards? LINKS: Garrett's piece -What I hope my (white, economically secure) kids are learning right now Garrett's piece on Courtney's death - A few thoughts about Courtney Everts Mykytyn Garrett's blog - The White Pages If you are able to give in these times, please consider local organizations helping in your communities. Here's a place to start, if you need it - Grassroots organizations around the country who are helping from Colorlines 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
If 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 are thinking about this choice, given the options available, their values around social and racial justice, and the pressures from their White and/or privileged peers. 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 - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced edited and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
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 when it comes to making choices about schools. We're also joined by Ali, the leader of the Seattle Chapter of Integrated Schools, and the author of our most widely read blog post, The Problem with GreatSchools. We grapple with the source of the data provided by GreatSchools, but also with how we use it, and, especially what our obligations are, as White and/or privileged people, when we interact with this data. Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further. LINKS: Matt's article on Great Schools Peter Bergman (Columbia University) - Study on the impacts of providing GreatSchools ratings to people searching for homes with housing vouchers (Section 8) Vernā Myers's TED Talk- Researcher of bias who worked with Next Door EdWeek interview with Bill Jackson, the founder of GreatSchools, about the original vision for the organization. Three takes on how Next Door has tried to address racial bias:
Harvard Business Review
Wired
The Root
Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Ali McKay. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
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, and, perhaps more importantly, what we aren’t. We also discuss the tension between a real need for transparent accountability, and the issues with the metrics we are currently using. Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further. LINKS: The Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Educational Assessment Professor Schneider’s 2017 book - Beyond Test Scores Professor Schneider’ podcast - Have You Heard Pre-order Professor Schneider’s new book - A Wolf at The Schoolhouse Door A primer on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Professor Wayne Au on the links between testing and white supremacy Remember, any book bought through a link here or by starting at our affiliate page on IndieBound supports local bookstores, and Integrated Schools. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Howard 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 - a human rights violation that require reparations. Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further. LINKS:Houston Institue Panel on the 65th Anniversary of Brown v Board Professor Hansford's Op-Ed for the ACLU Callie House - One of the leaders of the first organization to call for reparations in the late 1800s. Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Case for Reparations Ibram X. Kendi - How To Be An Anti-Racist Michelle Alexander - The New Jim Crow EdBuild's Report on the $23 billon funding gap An example of reparations being paid in the US, from the Washington Post Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
It is with the saddest possible hearts that we share the devastating news that our beloved Executive Director and Founder, Courtney Everts Mykytyn, passed away on Monday afternoon. She was struck by a car in front of her house and was killed instantly. The driver was sober and stayed on the scene. It is being treated as an accident. Courtney started Integrated Schools and was the driving force behind it, but always insisted that it be about more than just her. While we will feel this loss everyday, the organization will move forward, working toward a more just, more equitable, society. It was her vision alone that inspired a grass roots, nationwide organization, and that vision will continue to guide us. We will share details on a memorial service as they are confirmed. LINKS: Details about the accident from The Eastsider One of many touching tributes to Courtney from Garrett Bucks
The work of creating a multiracial democracy - a democracy where power is truly shared, and equity is real - can feel overwhelming, depressing, futile even. But what if the tipping point for creating lasting change is only 3.5%? Dr. Chenoweth (Harvard University) found that no civil resistance campaign across the globe over the last century “failed after they had achieved the active and sustained participation of just 3.5% of the population.” Now we are at a unique historical moment to harness changing mindsets, to build a 3.5% of actively engaged white and/or privileged parents practicing antiracist integration. Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further. LINKS: Dr. Erica Chenoweth Ted Talk Our Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/integratedschools Dr. Kfir Mordechay on gentrification Matt Gonzales - “White Lips to White Ears” Dr. Elizabeth McCrae on the Mother's of Massive Resistance Professor Michelle Adams on Milliken v Bradley and the hope for a multi-racial democracy
Albert is a Taiwanese American father of three from Oakland, CA. His parents immigrated to the United States to give him "best" education they could. As he came to terms with the school options his privilege afforded him, he found himself in crisis. How to honor his family and all they sacrificed, while also honoring the ways his faith called him to justice - called him to do something about the broken systems we live in. He shares his journey through a broadening definition of family, a conviction that love comes close, that kids are resilient, and that all communities have gifts to share. Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further. LINKS: Dr. John M Perkins One Blood: Parting Words to The Church on Race and Love He Calls Me Friend: The Healing Power of Friendship in a Lonely World Howard Thurman
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 come with socioeconomically diverse schools. How we show up as integrating parents, how we navigate the line between asking-for-assistance and asking-for-(expecting?)-accommodations, and how we parent our own children has an impact on the other students and families in the school. Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further. Links:
Jessica Calarco. Associate Professor of Sociology at Indiana University.
Dr. Calarco - Negotiating Opportunity: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School
Mental Floss discussion of Dr. Calarco's study of New Yorker cartoons
Dr. Calarco - Free Range' Parenting's Unfair Double Standard
Viviana Zelizer - Pricing the Priceless Child
Sinikka Elliott & Sarah Bowen - Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won't Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It
We'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 discuss these issues even further. Links: Dr. Mordechay in City Lab Philly Federal Reserve Challenges the Conventional Wisdom on Gentrification Ingrid Gould Ellen at NYU Derek Hyra at American University Maggie Hagerman - Episode 3 Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
If you care about a multiracial democracy and if you believe that public schools are an important piece of this work, we need your support. This has been a volunteer effort and as our podcast is growing, and our desire to tell more stories and tell them better has grown, our costs have gone up. We aren't interested in trying to sell you toothbrushes in the middle of our episodes, and we'd like to find new ways to engage with you, our listeners. And so, we hope the Patreon platform will allow us to do that. Our hope is to cover the costs of hosting, remote recording software, and promotion, while also creating a new space to engage with you. We have a lot planned from monthly zoom meeting happy hours, to a Podcast Club, but we also want to hear what you want. What would add value to these conversations for you? What would help you engage more deeply? Join our Patreon, and let us know. Patreon.com/integratedschools Also, thanks to Andrew Grant-Thomas. Please check out Embrace Race and the important work they are doing. Thank you for your support!
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 which to understand it all... Special thanks to Beth, Nadia and Maya for being so honest, open and vulnerable, and then allowing us to share that with the world. If you've enjoyed this series, please share with a friend, leave us a rating or a review, and donate to this all volunteer project at IntegratedSchools.org. Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions. This series was produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits
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 Sessions. This series was produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits
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. And while it can be lonely, it can also be liberating... Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions. This series was produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits
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. Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions. This series was produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits
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? Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions. This series was produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits
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.” Episodes release daily starting Monday, Oct 14th. Subscribe now to make sure you don't miss an episode.
Today, July 25th, is the 45th anniversary of the SCOTUS ruling on the Milliken v. Bradley case. We’re joined by Michelle Adams, Constitutional Law Professor at Cardozo School of Law, who is writing a book on this important and under-appreciated case.
Based in Detroit, this case functionally halted the promise of Brown v Board of Education at the city limits, allowing all-white suburbs (created through policies like redlining) to maintain all-white schools. We talk about the history of the case, and what it means today.
LINKS: -Parents Involved v Seattle Schools -Keyes v Denver School District 1 -Swann v Mecklenburg -Brown v Board of Ed -Complete audio from the opinion, including the entirety of Justice Marshall's dissent,
If you've found this podcast valuable, please consider chipping in to help make it. We are an all volunteer organization and your support would mean the world to us.
Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org.
The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
We're joined by Matt Delmont. He's the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College, and he wrote the book on busing - 2016's Why Busing Failed: Race, Media, and the National Resistance to School Desegregation. Given the prominence "busing" has had in discussions about school desegregation, particularly in light of the exchange between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden at a recent democratic presidential primary debate, we thought we'd take a break from taking a break, and talk about "busing".
LINKS: -Why Busing Failed: Race, Media, and the National Resistance to School Desegregation - Dr. Delmont's 2016 book on desegregation -There's a Generational Shift in the Debate Over Busing - Dr. Delmont in The Atlantic -How Desegregation Became the Third Rail of Democratic Politics - Dr. Delmont and Jeanne Theoharis in the Washington Post -It Was Never About Busing - Nikole Hannah-Jones from the NY Times
If you've found this podcast valuable, please consider chipping in to help make it. We are an all volunteer organization and your support would mean the world to us.
Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org.
The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
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 series, as we think it holds incredibly important lessons about race, about America, and about how we might move forward as a country. As a disclaimer, in editing together this episode, we have left behind a lot of the context, and while the ideas speak for themselves, at times, they may feel like a pretty bit leap. If you feel yourself questioning the arguments they are making, we suggest listening to the full series to get the entire context. Huge thanks to Scene on Radio and John Biewen for allowing us to use their content. You can find Scene on Radio on Twitter at @SceneOnRadio. Dr. Chengerai Kumanyika is @catchatweetdown. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
While we are off preparing for a new season starting in the fall, we wanted to share a few of our favorite podcasts, so you don't forget about us. We regularly hear that we should include student voices, and, while we are working on that for a future episode, in the mean time, we're thrilled to be able to bring you an episode of The Miseducation Podcast. This is a student driven podcast from New York City, and we've been blown away by the insight these students have on the issues of segregation.
Huge thanks to the MIsedcuation team for allowing us to share this episode with you. Please subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts.
If you've found this podcast valuable, please consider chipping in to help make it. We are an all volunteer organization and your support would mean the world to us.
Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org.
The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
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 Works - Rucker Johnson
Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education - Noliwe Rooks
Despite The Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools - Amanda Lewis and John Diamond
Linda Darling-Hammond
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
In the fifth episode in our Brown v. Board at 65: 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 (not) 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 gratitude for their willingness to share their stories, we listen. Email your appreciation to Greg and Carol at hello@integratedschools.org, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, or IntegratedSchools on Facebook. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
For the fourth episode in our Brown v. Board at 65: 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, David 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 educational justice that continue to this day. LINKS: -San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez -Richard Valencia -The Lemon Grove Incident -Mendez v. Westminster -Hernandez v. Texas -Santamaria v. Dallas ISD -Patricia Gandara on the triple segregation of Latinx people Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
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 story we tell about it is that it ended our racist school policies. While that may feel good, our “good intentions” do not absolve us from the impact of our actions. LINKS:
Amanda Lewis Race In The Schoolyard
Karolyn Tyson Integration Interrupted
Charles Tilley on Opportunity Hoarding
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
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 of the costs, especially to the Black community. She asks us to engage with these stories in order to understand the very real intent behind where we find ourselves today. It is only through changing the stories we tell, that we might envision a different, more equitable future for school integration. Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
As we approach the 65th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education (1954), we are pleased to present a special 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. With the brilliance of some amazing guests, we unpack some of these popular narratives and the ways in which they have undermined our ability to deal with racial and educational injustice. In this first episode, we are joined by Dr. Rucker Johnson (UC Berkeley). Dr. Johnson shares some of the research and findings in his freshly-released book, Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works. Using a longitudinal study of the children and grandchildren of Brown v. Board, Dr. Johnson shows us that desegregation did have profoundly important effects on individuals and communities even while we gave up on it too quickly. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
For 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 contributing to systemic inequities. LINKS:
Robert Putnum's Our Kids
Reporting from NPR on a poll reporting no increase in life satisfaction from getting into a "good" college or university.
A report from The Center for American Progress on the role of parent contributions to school finance.
California Supreme Court case Serrano v. Priest
And, to prep for Season 3 . . .
Noliwe Rooks Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education
Amanda Lewis and John Diamon Despite The Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools
Rucker Johnson - Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works
Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
In this episode we bring Anna back to grapple with a few things that have been on our minds of late. We discuss the David Kirkland episode (Ep. 14 -- be sure to listen if you haven’t!) and answer some listener questions. Dr. Kirkland cautioned us around the centering of whiteness in the work of integration. We dig in to that, as well as discuss the power of language in this work. Taking on a few listener questions, we grapple with whether a school is ever “too bad” and whether our kids being “just fine” is good enough. Check Out: Despite Their Best Intentions by Amanda Lewis and John Diamond The Integrated Schools Two Tour Pledge Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Dr. Allison Roda (Molloy College) joins us to discuss Gifted and Talented programs and segregation. Gifted programs (sometimes called G/T, GATE, TAG, etc) have long been criticized for serving a disproportionately large percentage of white and/or privileged students. Dr. Roda’s research looks at how access to these programs is often ‘gamed’ by white/privileged families. In this episode, we discuss this research along with the the perceived importance of the label of “gifted” (and the stigmas of not acquiring the label). We talk about the challenges that gifted programs create for educational justice and what Dr. Roda suggests we could do about it. LINKS: - Dr. Roda and Halley Potter on pushing in verses pulling out for GT services - Dr. Roda on Parenting in the Age of High-Stakes Testing - Dr. Roda calling for an end to separate gifted programs Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
A 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 we not only celebrate but LET BE, where this forms the vibrancy of our being as a society. He gives us language to think with, hope and, yes, he gives us homework, too. LINKS:
Gloria Ladson-Billings on moving from "gap" to "debt"
Dr. Lewis Gordon
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and Brown v. Board of Education II (1955)
Milliken v. Bradley (1974)
Richard Rothstein Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America
Vanessa Siddle Walker on the history of segregation
Nikole Hannah Jones
Michelle Alexander The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Mark Lamont Hill Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, From Ferguson to Flint and Beyond
Bryan Stevenson Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
Ta-Nehisi Coates We Were 8 Years in Power and Between the World and Me
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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Dual Language programs are exploding in popularity across the country -- and particularly among white &/or privileged families in gentrifying communities. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Sofia Chaparro about her research following the establishment of one such program. Providing some overview of Dual Language issues, this conversation looks at the potential for these spaces as well as the ways in which things can go wrong. LINKS:
Connor Williams on white families in bilingual schools.
The Washington Post on dual language and gentrification.
Dr. Chaparro's Research.
Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
In this episode we're joined by Kelly from NYC to talk about how we as white &/or privileged families show up in integrating schools. What does ‘colonizing’ mean in this context and, most importantly, how can we be thoughtful about not centering whiteness? We dig in to some of the ways integration can go sideways because of how integrating parents see things as “right” when they are often just “white” (&/or privileged). And we talk, of course, about nachos. LINKS:
Tema Okun on White Supremacy Culture
Wendy Mogul - The Blessing of a Skinned Knee
Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Professor and author, Dr. Elizabeth McRae, discusses her new book - Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy. This is a compelling history of the everyday work that white women have undertaken to promote and reinforce racial segregation in America’s public schools. While legislation dominates the discourse, Dr. McRae reveals the many ways that white women have been segregation’s “constant gardeners” We talk with Dr. McRae about what her research tells us about contemporary school segregation -- and the hope her work gives for it’s dismantling. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
We're back! After a break over the holidays, we're kicking off Season 2 of the Integrated Schools Podcast with a basic question - why does one person's choice matter? What impact does your choice have for your kid, for your school, and for the system. We've got Denise from Santa Fe back, and we try to dig in - does your choice change anything? If so, for whom? Is it integration when we are talking about ONE kid? And if it moves the needle towards integration, why does that even matter? It also brought up something we've heard in your feedback - we tend to talk about this topic in a very binary way. We discuss the how we think about this in a bit of an inside look at the conversations that go into making this podcast. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Last 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 experience continue to affect them both as adults. This will be our last episode before the holidays. We'll be taking a few weeks off, and coming back in late January. We've got a bunch of great episodes in the works, but if there's something you want to hear, let us know! Wishing you all happy holidays and we'll see you back next year! Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
The Smog - is all of the things that we hear and say about schools and parenting that push us towards greater segregation. "I don't want my kid to be the only one" is one of these. It's a tricky subject, so we're going to break it up into two parts. Part 1- today's episode - is from the perspective of parents with kids who are currently the Only One. It can be challenging to navigate. We talk with Lauren from Pennsylvania about the experience for her, her two kids, and her family. It's not always easy, but there are real benefits as well. Next week, in Part 2, we'll look at it from the perspective of adults who were the Only One - one white and one black - and how those experiences were different, how they were they same, and how those adults' perspective on the experience has changed over time. After that, we're going to be taking a short break for the holidays, and to give you time to catch up on any episodes you may have missed. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Good intentions don’t always feel so good. In this episode, we talk with Vicky, a Mexican mom whose kids attend an integrated school in a gentrifying neighborhood. Vicky shares what it feels like to be “saved” by some of the white &/or privileged families at her kids’ schools (spoiler: not so great). Relationships are hard and trust takes time to build. And privilege, especially privilege unexamined, shows up in unexpected places. If you're enjoying this podcast, please consider making a donation to Integrated Schools. We are a volunteer run organization with growing costs, and your support would mean the world to us. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
We couldn't pull off a full episode this week, but we did want to update you on all the other things happening at Integrated Schools. The Two Tour Pledge - sign on here. Mapping of how White &/or Privileged Families Interact with School Integration - our video overview. Parent to Parent Program - get connected with someone who is sending their kids to an integrating school. Or, just visit our website. If you're enjoying this podcast, please consider making a donation to Integrated Schools. We are a volunteer run organization with growing costs, and your support would mean the world to us. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
There are lots of great schools without many white kids, however, when white parents start to integrate a global majority school because they think they've found a hidden gem, it can lead in some troubling directions. Anna from LA (you may remember her from Ep 1) joins us to discuss the problems that arise when we come to integration just looking for a hidden gem. We touch on the narrative around what makes a "good" school, and we discuss how the Hidden Gem story encourages resource hoarding and can pave the way for colonizing. If you're enjoying this podcast, please consider making a donation to Integrated Schools. We are a volunteer run organization with growing costs, and your support would mean the world to us. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
A lifelong activist and 20 year veteran of nonprofit work, Chris Stewart has served as the former Director of Outreach and External Affairs for Education Post, the Executive Director of the African American Leadership Forum (AALF), and an elected member of the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education where he was radicalized by witnessing the many systemic inequities that hold our children back. He is the current chief executive of the Wayfinder Foundation, and an outspoken critic of many current integration efforts. He and Courtney discuss the many ways that desegregation efforts can be thwarted, and the ways they can go wrong if they are successful. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
The Smog - is all of the things that we hear and say about schools, often without realizing the ways those things are racialized. “I don’t want to sacrifice my kid on the altar of social justice“ is just one of many. The podcast will occasionally feature smog-conversations; the only way the smog changes is if we engage with these ideas directly. We're joined today by Denise from Santa Fe, who has been a key contributor to this podcast already, and who you'll be hearing more from in future episodes. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Professor and author, Dr. Margaret Hagerman, discusses her new book - White Kids: Growing Up With Privilege in a Racially Divided America. Dr. Hagerman conducted an ethnography of a community in the mid-west. She spent two years living in a community and interviewing white, wealthy families and their middle school aged children on their ideas about race, education, privilege, etc. We discuss her work, and what it tells us about the importance of the types of environments in which we raise our kids. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
We're joined by the Bordon family - Jenny (mom), Scott (dad), and Olivia (10th grade). In choosing a school for their daughters, they started out following the narrative of how people with the privilege of choose a school should go about it. After a conversation with their school district about who has has that privilege and the segregation that results from it, they made a change and sent both of their kids to global majority schools. Many years later, they reflect on that journey and how it has shaped their understanding of race, class, privilege, and education. We're sad to have missed speaking with Summer Bordon, who was away at college when we taped this episode. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.
Welcome to the Integrated Schools Podcast - Conversations about race, privilege, education, parenting and schools. This introduction gives an overview of Integrated Schools and what you can expect from this podcast. Courtney from LA, Anna from LA, and Sarah from Houston talk about their experiences choosing integrated schools, why IntegratedSchools.org exists, and the importance of showing up in integrating spaces with humility, and awareness. Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us - @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us hello@integratedschools.org. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.