education policy & school reform
mandatory reading
BOOKS
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Tatum — Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious. This fully revised edition is essential reading for any teacher/educator seeking to understand the dynamics of race in America.
Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting High Achievement Among African-American Students by Theresa Perry et al — In three separate but allied essays, the authors argue that the unique social and cultural position Black students occupy, in a society which often devalues and stereotypes African American identity, fundamentally shapes students' experience of school and sets up unique obstacles. They argue that a proper understanding of the forces at work can lead to practical, powerful methods for promoting high achievement at all levels.
Black Teachers on Teaching by Michele Foster — Black Teachers on Teaching an honest and compelling account of the politics and philosophies involved in the education of black children during the last fifty years. Michele Foster talks to those who were the first to teach in desegregated southern schools and to others who taught in large urban districts, such as Boston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. All go on record about the losses and gains accompanying desegregation, the inspirations and rewards of teaching, and the challenges and solutions they see in the coming years.
Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism & School Closings on Chicago’s Southside by Eve Ewing — Rejecting the impulse to see education as disconnected from American life and politics, Ewing links the struggles of Chicago public schooling with the city’s notoriously racist housing practices. She peels back the seemingly anodyne messaging of reform ('school choice') and its ostensibly objective standards ('test scores') to reveal the insidious assumptions lying beneath.
The History of Institutional Racism in U.S. Public Schools by Susan DuFresne is a transformational 3-part graphic book intended to challenge the authority of the policymakers and misanthropic funders who are wreaking havoc in public schools, closing schools in Black and Brown neighborhoods, and pushing segregated charter schools on communities that have every right to exceptional learning environments in fully funded public schools.
ARTICLES
Of the Training of Black Men by W.E.B Du Bois for The Atlantic
Schools’ Discipline for Girls Differs by Race and Hue by Tanzina Vega for The New York Times
Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected from the African American Policy Forum & Columbia Law School’s Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies
‘‘Once You Go to a White School, You Kind of Adapt’’: Black Adolescents and the Racial Classification of Schools from the American Sociological Association
From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools, a talk by Gloria Ladson-Billings
Teachers’ Expectations and Sense of Responsibility for Student Learning: The Importance of Race, Class, and Organizational Habitus by John Diamond, Antonia Randolph, and James Spillane
Divided No More: A Movement Approach to Educational Reform by Parker J Palmer
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
BOOKS & ARTICLES
The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement By Jon Hale
Educating Harlem: A Century of Schooling and Resistance in a Black Community By Ansley T. Erickson and Ernest Morrell
Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools by Annette Lareau and Kimberly Goyette
Silent Covenants: Brown V. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform by Derrick Bell
Simple Justice: The History of Brown V. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality by Richard Kluger
Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition by Paulo Freire
The Real Ebonics Debate by Theresa Perry (Editor), Lisa D. Delpit (Editor)
The MIS-Education of the Negro by Carter Godwin Woodson
Brooklyn Dreams: My Life in Public Education By Sonia Nieto
The Troubled History of American Education after the Brown Decision by Sonya Ramsey
Race, Ethnicity, and Education Policy by Jennifer L. Hochschild and Francis X. Shen
The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods: A Constitutional Insult by Richard Rothstein
Still Separate, Still Unequal: Teaching about School Segregation and Educational Inequality by Keith Meatto
City Schools and the American Dream: Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education by Pedro Noguera
Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys by Victor Rios
The Trouble with Black Boys: ...and Other Reflections on Race, Equity, and the Future of Public Education by Pedro A Noguera
Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity by Ann Arnett Ferguson
Choices in Little Rock from Facing History and Ourselves
Beyond Brown: Pursuing the Promise from PBS
Why Are American Public Schools Still So Segregated? from KQED
Toolkit for “Segregation by Design” courtesy of Teaching Tolerance
