The Integrated Schools Podcast

REVISIT: Finding Hope in Solidarity with Heather McGhee

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 08:00:37 +0000

We’re going back to the archives today to revisit a conversation with Heather McGhee. 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 was 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 difference.

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 off 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.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Seeds of Resistance: The Lemon Grove Legacy

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 09:02:25 +0000

We're joined by YA author, María Dolores Águila to uncover the largely untold story of the 1931 Lemon Grove Incident—the first successful school desegregation case in California, led by Mexican and Mexican American families.

Through her book A Sea of Lemon Trees, Maria invites us into the world of 12-year-old Roberto Alvarez, a child asked to carry the weight of his community’s fight for educational justice.

Together, we explore what it looks like when communities organize, when young people lead, and when stories become a form of power.

We can’t be what we don’t see.

Maria shares how her work is rooted in creating “social capital” for young readers—especially those who have not seen themselves reflected in books or history. When our kids see communities like theirs organizing and winning, it expands what feels possible.

The Lemon Grove case unfolded during a time of anti-Mexican sentiment and mass deportations. The parallels to today are hard to ignore. What we don’t know about our history can make the present feel confusing—but these stories remind us: we’ve been here before. While Roberto Alvarez was the named plaintiff, this was never a story about one hero. It was about a community—families organizing, neighbors supporting, people taking risks together. Every role mattered.

Resistance is real—and it costs something.

This wasn’t a clean or easy victory. Families faced threats, pressure, and even deportation. Telling the full story—including the hard parts—matters, especially for our kids. Through a 12-year-old’s perspective, the absurdity of segregation becomes clear. Kids often see injustice plainly—before we, as adults, complicate it.

We keep coming back to this:

All of our kids are watching.

They’re watching how we talk about history.

They’re watching how we respond to injustice.

They’re watching whether we stay—or walk away.

What might shift if we saw ourselves not as individuals navigating systems, but as part of a community shaping them—together?

LINKS:

Send us a voice memo: speakpipe.com/integratedschools

Check out 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, @integratedschools on Instagram and TikTok, 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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Spatial Injustice: School Closures as a Form of Educational Redlining

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 08:02:13 +0000

What happens when we stop thinking about schools as buildings—and start seeing them as the ecosystems that hold our communities together?

In this episode, we sit with Dr. Mara Tieken to explore school closures not as isolated decisions, but as part of a broader pattern of spatial injustice—where resources, opportunities, and care are unevenly distributed based on where we live.

Together, we wrestle with a hard truth: school closures are often framed as inevitable… but what if they’re actually the result of choices—policies, priorities, and patterns of disinvestment—that we can question?

We grapple with several key ideas:

Schools are more than buildings—they are social, cultural, and economic anchors in our communities
Closures disproportionately impact Black, Brown, and low-income communities
The most common justifications (cost savings, academic improvement, “efficiency”) often don’t hold up under scrutiny
What gets labeled as a “failing school” is often a school that has been failed—by policy, funding, and systemic neglect
School closures don’t just disrupt students—they create lasting grief, loss, and disconnection across generations

This conversation also reminds us that we are not powerless. Across the country, communities are:

Organizing and building multiracial, cross-class coalitions
Questioning the data and narratives used to justify closures
Running for school board, advocating for policy change, and showing up for each other’s schools—not just our own

We are left wondering, what would it look like to treat every school as our school? Not just when it’s under threat—but all the time.

Because if public schools are foundational to our democracy, then caring for them can’t be an individual act. It has to be collective.

Legacy and Community: Bridging Generations through History

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 08:00:25 +0000

In this episode, Andrew and Dr. Val are joined by Logan Tilton, a history student at North Carolina Central University and one of the Levine Museum of the New South’s fellowship students. Together, they reflect on what it means to learn history not as a list of dates and names, but as a living story shaped by community, struggle, resilience, and collective memory.

Drawing from a powerful fellowship trip to Montgomery and Selma, Logan shares how visiting the Equal Justice Initiative sites and hearing directly from a Selma foot soldier deepened her understanding of history, accountability, and the ongoing connections between past and present. This conversation explores the emotional weight of historical truth, the importance of learning from young people, and the role community plays in sustaining hope.

This episode reminds us that history is not over. The patterns of inequality, exclusion, and violence that shaped the past are still with us. But so are the patterns of resistance, courage, care, and collective action. Logan’s reflections offer a powerful reminder that when young people are trusted with truth, they can carry it forward with clarity, insight, and hope.

Caring for Your Community in a Time of Crisis: On the Ground in Minneapolis

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 09:00:46 +0000

When crisis comes for one of us, it comes for all of us.

In this powerful and deeply moving episode, Dr. Val and Andrew sit down with two parent leaders in Minneapolis—Carina (a White mom and longtime bridge-builder in dual language spaces) and Cisne (a Spanish-speaking immigrant mom and vice president of their dual language parent organization)—to talk about what it means to care for our community when ICE arrives at your doorstep.

What unfolds is a story about more than fear. It’s a story about relationships built long before crisis hit. About language justice. About sharing power. About mutual aid that moves in both directions. About what happens when Latino leadership is centered—not as an afterthought, but as the foundation.

We also hear from the professional interpreter who made this conversation possible in real time—offering a powerful reflection on interpretation as social justice work.

This conversation is heavy. And it is also filled with hope.

Because what we’re reminded of again and again is this: systems may fail us. Relationships keep us safe.

This episode reminds us that integration work is not theoretical. It is not performative. It is not about optics.

It is about who gets to make decisions.
Whose language is spoken first.
Whose safety is prioritized.
Whose children are protected.

It asks those of us—especially those of us who are White, documented, resourced—to reflect on how we are using proximity to power. Are we holding it tightly? Or are we sharing it?

It reminds us that bilingual education is not enrichment for some and marginalization for others—it is an opportunity to build bridges, leadership, and collective strength.

And it underscores something we’ve said for years: public schools are one of the few remaining places where we canbuild the kind of cross-racial, cross-class relationships that sustain us in crisis.

If we choose to.

The children missing from classrooms in Minneapolis are our children.

The parents afraid to leave their homes are part of our communities.

The mental health impacts will ripple far beyond one city.

Integration is not just about where our children sit in class.

It is about whether we are willing to stand together when it matters most.

Thank you for being part of this work. Thank you for staying in it—even when it’s heavy.

Send us a voice memo: speakpipe.com/integratedschools

Check out 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.

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Staying Power with Danielle Wingfield

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 09:00:36 +0000

What does it mean to outlast backlash?

In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Danielle Wingfield—legal historian, law professor, and public education advocate—whose work sits at the intersection of history, civil rights, democracy, and family. Together, we trace the long arc of resistance to public education, from enslavement and segregation to today’s fights over curriculum, parental rights, and school privatization.

Dr. Wingfield helps us see that what feels overwhelming right now isn’t new—it’s cyclical. And that clarity matters. When we understand the playbook, we can respond with intention instead of panic.

We talk about:

The history of massive resistance—and why today’s attacks on public education are part of a much longer project
How curriculum control, “parental rights,” and privatization have been used before to maintain racial hierarchy
Why public schools remain essential to democracy—and why they’re being targeted so aggressively
What “home place” looks like: community care, shared responsibility, mutual aid, and kinship beyond bloodlines
Why progress always brings backlash—and why staying power is how movements win

This conversation is both grounding and galvanizing. It reminds us that we don’t have to solve everything—but we dohave to hold our link in the chain.

Because when we know our history, we’re harder to divide.

And when we stay together long enough, we change what’s possible.

Demystifying Disability with Emily Ladau

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 09:00:51 +0000

Join the conversation by registering for one of our upcoming Book Club sessions!

The Integrated Schools Podcast returns with a great conversation with Emily Ladau, disability rights activist and author of Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally.

Ladau describes herself as "passionate about having conversations about disability and really engaging people to talk about a topic that they might otherwise feel uncomfortable with and really making it approachable and accessible to them." In the spirit of Dr. Loretta Ross, she models what it means to call people in: to meet other people where they are and offer them a bridge to understanding the lived reality - or rather, realities - of the over a billion people around the world who have some type of disability.

Ladau takes an approach that is at once gracious and practical. "In order to be effective advocates for any kind of social justice, we first need the tools and the resources and the understanding, but often we are not socialized to think about disability at all... I don't want people to feel so worried about making a mistake that they don't get involved in the conversation in the first place; [nor] to get bogged down in specific rules, but… to have a working knowledge so that you feel like you belong in the broader work.”

This conversation brings up the parallels between combating White supremacy and combating ableism, and the interplay between the two. Ladau points out that we can't fight back against either racism or ableism by keeping these issues siloed -especially because disability is an identity that cuts across all other identity groups.

"It's also pretty much one of the only marginalized communities that anybody can join at any time. And I always say, you know, that's not a threat. We're cool, we're fun."

LINKS:

Join Book Club!!
Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally
Emily's website - emilyladau.com
Words I Wheel By - Emily's Substack
The 504 Sit In
S12E6 - Calling In with Loretta Ross
Calling In - Dr. Loretta Ross's book

Send us a voice memo: speakpipe.com/integratedschools

Check out 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.

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

2025 In Review

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 09:00:28 +0000

As we come to the end of 2025, we wanted to pause together—to reflect on a year that has been emotionally heavy, nationally turbulent, and deeply personal.

This year, our families have been in the midst of big transitions. We talk about what it’s been like to launch a child toward adulthood, to navigate new middle and high schools, and to sit with the uncertainty that comes with parenting when the stakes feel so high. We reflect on the school choices we’ve made—often outside the bounds of prestige or promise—and what it feels like, years later, to see our kids growing, learning, struggling, and coming out whole.

We also hold the broader context of 2025. We name the ways the world feels like it’s unraveling: ICE raids disrupting communities and schools, cuts to public institutions, and the cumulative weight our young people are carrying after growing up through a pandemic and so much instability. This conversation doesn’t rush past the grief. We sit with it—and remind ourselves that survival, community, and care are not small things. They are strategies.

Looking back on this season, we revisit conversations that shaped us—from Byron Sanders on identity and purpose, to Raising Antiracist Kids on honest conversations with our children, to Keri Rodrigues and Loretta Ross on calling people in and refusing to let our link in the chain break. Again and again, we return to the truth that none of us can do this work alone.

The episode closes with reflections from our first-ever in-person Integrated Schools gathering in Columbus, Ohio. Bringing together people from across the country to hold space, share meals, sing, grieve, laugh, and recommit to this work reminded us of what is possible when we are physically together. Through voice memos from participants, we hear what it means to feel less alone—and more grounded—at a moment when the pendulum feels far away from justice.

Ten years into the life of Integrated Schools, this episode is both a reckoning and a reminder:

We are still here. And we’re not going anywhere.

Send us a voice memo: speakpipe.com/integratedschools

Check out 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.

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Calling In with Loretta Ross

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 09:00:12 +0000

We’re joined by MacArthur “Genius” and legendary activist Dr. Loretta Ross for a conversation that left us grounded, challenged, and deeply moved. From her early work in reproductive justice and anti-violence movements, to her current mission disrupting “call-out culture,” Dr. Ross offers us a path forward rooted in grace, accountability, and radical love.

We explore what it means to “call in” rather than call out—especially in an era where public shaming feels ever-present and social media rewards outrage. Dr. Ross shares her personal story of trauma, healing, and transformation, and helps us understand how real change happens not through perfection or purity, but through connection and curiosity.

Together we unpack the power of holding ourselves and others accountable without dehumanizing. We talk parenting, public schools, and what it means to stay in the struggle without breaking our link in the “chain of freedom.”

Whether you’re navigating tricky conversations in your school community or trying to show up better in the fight for justice, this episode is for you.

A Big Tent: Parent Voice for Public Educatiion

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 09:00:41 +0000

In this episode, we’re stretching the boundaries of our “big tent”—the messy, hopeful space where we try to build a public education system worthy of all our kids. We sat down with Ms. Keri Rodrigues, President and co-founder of the National Parents Union, for a conversation recorded inside the U.S. Senate building (a first for us!).

Ms. Rodrigues brings her whole self into this work: mother, organizer, daughter of immigrants, former student who didn’t always get what she needed from school, and fierce believer in the power of parents showing up together. While the methods of school improvement NPU has advocated for the in the past may not have felt fully aligned with our values, we share a commitment to the common good of public education—and in a moment when that institution feels increasingly under attack, widening the circle of who we can struggle with feels essential.

In This Episode We Explore:

Parent voice as expertise
Why parents—especially those who’ve historically been pushed to the margins—carry knowledge that our systems often ignore, and what’s lost when family engagement is treated as transactional rather than transformational.
The conditions that fuel fear-based parent movements
Ms. Rodrigues offers a nuanced take on how groups like Moms for Liberty gained traction, and how a lack of authentic, respectful engagement with parents created space for bad actors to step in.
Trust between families and schools
What it means to leave “our hearts outside our bodies” every morning, and the very real fears that get activated when schools feel unwelcoming, dismissive, or unsafe—especially for Black, Brown, immigrant, and disabled students and their families.
The broader crisis facing children
From ICE raids to unregulated social media to defunding the Department of Education, Ms. Rodrigues paints a sobering picture of what American childhood looks like right now—and why focusing narrowly on academics misses the full context our kids are living in.
Possibility inside the “messy middle”
How unlikely coalitions (even with people we once vowed to “never work with”) can still form around shared values like literacy, safety, and teacher pay—and why bipartisan hope isn’t naïve, but necessary.
Our own expectations of school
After the interview, Val and Andrew reflect on power, privilege, trust, and the complicated dance between advocating for our kids and caring for all kids—work that sits at the very heart of public education in a multiracial democracy.

Why This Conversation Matters

If we truly believe that public schools are foundational to a functioning democracy, then we need a tent big enough to hold disagreement, nuance, and shared purpose. Not a tent where we water down our values or ignore harm, but one spacious enough for collective problem-solving. As Ms. Rodrigues reminds us, movements built on love endure longer than movements built on fear. And right now, our kids need us rooted in love.

Join the Conversation

Where do you see yourself in this big tent?

What are your expectations for parent voice?

How do you advocate as a parent or caregiver?

How do you build (or rebuild) trust with your child’s school?

Send us a voice memo: speakpipe.com/integratedschools

Check out 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.

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Using Stories to Inspire Change

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 09:00:59 +0000

What happens when over 600 educators, students, organizers, and advocates gather in community to center racial equity and storytelling? We found out at this year’s Color of Education Summit in Raleigh, North Carolina.

In this episode, Andrew takes us inside the summit—hosted by the Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity and Opportunity—to hear voices from across the state and country. From keynote speeches to hallway conversations, we witness the power of stories to connect, inspire, and catalyze change.

We hear from Dr. Deanna Townsend-Smith, who set the tone with vulnerability, legacy, and a call to collective action. And we meet educators, community leaders, organizers, and students whose stories underscore that equity work is personal, communal, and ongoing.

Dr. Val and Andrew reflect on what it really means to talk about equity—and how we move beyond “access” to ensure all children can truly thrive. If you’re wondering what role stories play in building a better future, or where to find hope in hard times, this one’s for you.

🎧 Listen in, and then tell us: What story are you carrying?

LINKS

Check out our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Share your thoughts by leaving us a voice mail - speakpipe.com/integratedschools

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.

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Raising Antiracist Kids

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 08:02:56 +0000

We’re sharing a special crossover: Dr. Val and Andrew join Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs and Adam Jacobs, co-hosts of the Raising Antiracist Kids podcast, to talk about parents as partners in building antiracist school communities. We dig into why relationships—especially across lines of race and class—are core to any multiracial democracy, what it looks like for White families to show up without centering themselves, and how we nurture brave, durable school communities together. Along the way, we sit with discomfort, model grace, and keep our eyes on the long game—this is a marathon relay, and we each carry the baton for a bit.

Identity and Purpose with Byron Sanders

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 08:00:29 +0000

What does it mean to truly know who you are—and how might that knowing shape what you give back to the world? In this episode, we’re joined by Byron Sanders—educator, CEO, community leader, and newly elected Dallas ISD school board member—for a vulnerable, expansive conversation about identity, purpose, and the responsibility that comes with our gifts.

Byron shares a deeply personal story of finding his way from trauma to mission, from being driven by what he didn’t want to become to discovering a life of service rooted in community. Alongside reflections on masculinity, Whiteness, and the narratives we inherit (and resist), Byron challenges us to consider the roles we each play in building a more just and joyful future—both in and beyond schools.

We talk about the power of imagination as a source of hope, the need for purpose-driven education, and the importance of community-based “third spaces” where young people can build the skills and self-understanding they’ll need to navigate an uncertain future. And we explore the dangers of narrow identity constructs—especially for boys and men—and the urgent need for models that reflect a fuller humanity.

This conversation is a reminder that our stories matter, that restorative possibility lives in community, and that every gift is also an assignment.

Season 12 Kick Off: What Now?

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 08:00:35 +0000

As we launch Season 12 of the podcast, Dr. Val and Andrew reflect on the start of the school year. With big personal transitions, and the country in a state of deep uncertainty, we ask, what now? How can we acknowledge the current state of eduction and find ways to act for justice.

Eve Ewing Revisited

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 08:00:24 +0000

Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism is the Integrated Schools Book Club pick for the fall. So we thought we'd revisit our episode with Dr. Ewing. If you've never attended Book Club, it's a wonderful to chance to chat with folks from around the country who are interested in school integration. We have small groups and great facilitators who make sure the conversation flows. Book Club is free! Register now!

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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 American Racism
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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Big, Beautiful Monstrosity - and a Call to Action

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 09:05:12 +0000

The president just signed a truly monstrous piece of legislation into law. Much has been written about the impacts on health, climate and the debt, but there is a lesser known evil lurking in this bill - a national school voucher plan. It's temping to lose hope, but there is something each of us can do.

Reflections on Season 11

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 08:00:00 +0000

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!

________________

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!

________________

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Intersection of Private Decisions and Public Responsibility

Wed, 28 May 2025 08:00:00 +0000

“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 Forman.

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 Forman 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.

________________

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!

________________

Advocating for Black Educator Wellness with Asia Lyons

Wed, 14 May 2025 08:00:00 +0000

“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.

________________

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:

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Unearthing Joy: Gholdy Muhammad on Teaching with Love

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 08:05:00 +0000

"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.

________________

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:

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

What Was Lost: Noliwe Rooks on The Failures of Integration

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 08:03:00 +0000

“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.

________________

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:

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Finding Hope, Together

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 08:00:00 +0000

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:

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Schools and Race: Eve Ewing on the Construction of American Racism

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Lies and Moral Deficiencies: Greg Jarrell on Whiteness

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 09:00:00 +0000

"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.

Micro Activism: Making a Difference One Step at a Time

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 09:00:00 +0000

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:

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Containment: Michelle Adams on Northern Jim Crow

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 09:00:00 +0000

The 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas declared that separate is inherently unequal. The Supreme Court declared that it was in the national interest for kids to learn together. And while progress towards that goal was slow, and often met with resistance, there was an opportunity in the decision to try to heal our nation from the extraordinary wounds caused by slavery, Jim Crow, and persistent separate and unequal opportunities for Black people. In many ways, 1974's Milliken v Bradley decision put an end to that potential. A tragic Supreme Court decision, that led Thurgood Marshall to write a powerful dissent, in which he says, "unless our children learn together, there is little hope that our nation will learn to live together and understand each other."

Professor Michelle Adams has been studying the Milliken decision for many years, and just released a book about the case, called The Containment: Detroit, The Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North. It's an easily digestible, incredibly compelling story about the power of ordinary people in Detroit who came together to fight for equal opportunity for all kids, and who came up against a court that codified White flight as tool to avoid integration into law. We are still dealing with the ripples of that decision today.

Professor Adams joins us to discuss her life, the book, and why she cares so deeply about this decision. While the decision caused great harm, Professor Adams also provides us with hope. The book gives a more complete understanding of the history of the civil rights movement so we can start from a shared set of facts. This understanding can help us all demand that our children learn together, in high quality, fully funded, integrated public schools, because, as Professor Adams says, it's very hard to have a multiracial democracy without that.

________________

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!

________________

Gratitude and Validation: One Family's Journey Through Integrated Schools

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 09:00:00 +0000

Every parent and caregiver wants a crystal ball. We want to see how the choices we make for our kids, from screen time to activities to where they go to school, will impact them when they're older. Choosing an integrating school can feel like a risky choice, and even if we believe that it is the right choice, both for our kids, and our community, it's easy for doubt to creep in.

Susan, a White mom in Lancaster, PA, and her husband, made that choice for their son, Elias in kindergarten. When he was 15, he was at a track meet with schools from around the county, and recognized how many other schools were almost entirely full of White students. He took that moment to say thank you to his parents for the choices they made. He recognized all the benefits he had received from his integrated education, from a comfort in diverse spaces, to a deeper sense of community, to an appreciation for not being centered at all times.

Susan and Elias join us to share their experience, what they've learned, and what they hope other parents, caregivers, and kids can take from their journey.

LINKS:

Choosing a school for my daughter in a segregated city - Nikole Hannah-Jones (gift link)
Ep 2 - The Bordon Family
The Daunting Task of Staying Put - Susan's blog post on our site

________________

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!

________________

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

How Schools Make Race with Dr. Laura Chávez-Moreno

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 09:00:00 +0000

We often talk about race as a social construct. We know that there is more genetic diversity within racial groups than between. And yet, race obviously has real life impacts on people's lives. We have talked on the show in the past about the historical creation of race, and looked at the creation of Whiteness, particularly in relation to Blackness. Our guest today complicates this understanding both by asking us to acknowledge the ways race continues to be created and re-created, particularly in schools, and by asking us to consider the label of Latinx as a racial category rather than an ethnicity.

Dr. Laura Chávez-Moreno recently wrote a booked called, How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Radicalization in America, in which she argues that schools play an important role in how society makes and remakes racial categories. Through an examination of two dual-language programs in the midwest, Dr. Chávez-Moreno studied the ways these programs reify ideas about racial identity and use what she calls an "imagined" Spanish, as a proxy for racial identification.

The conversation complicates our understanding of racial categories, and highlights the ways that school could play an important role in moving beyond anti-racism and towards an anti-race society.

________________

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:

How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Radicalization in America - Dr. Chávez-Moreno's book
Episode 13 - Hopes and Hazards of Dual Language
ICYMI: Seeing White - our overview of the podcast series from Scene on Radio
S10E15 – Rebuilding The Black Educator Pipeline with Sharif El-Mekki
S7E11 - A Framework for Antiracist Eduction - with a discussion of the CARE Framework
Zeus Leonardo, at UC Berkeley - After the Glow: Race ambivalence and other educational prognoses
Contact Dr. Chávez-Moreno

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Advocacy for Equitable Funding and Integration with Brown's Promise

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 09:00:00 +0000

The way we fund schools in this country often results in haves and have nots. We have some districts with immense wealth, often bordering districts that are severely under resourced. The work of creating more equitable funding formulae is important and ongoing. At the same time, we have district lines that make for school districts deeply segregated by race and class. The work of desegregating our schools is also important and ongoing.

And yet, the people working on these two seemingly separate problems rarely work together. Brown's Promise was created to bring these conversations together with the belief that both are important, and neither can be solved without addressing the other. We will never equitably resource segregated schools, and school desegregation is a key tool towards providing equitable opportunity for all kids.

Saba Bireda (who we met at our live show back in May), and Ary Amerikaner met working on these separate issues in the Obama administration. Their frustration with the slow pace of progress led them to start Brown's Promise early last year. Their work focuses on advocating for well-resourced, integrated schools that actually serve all of our children. From state level litigation to a policy agenda to a community engagement, Brown's Promise is committed to fulfilling the promise of the Brown v Board decision. Believing that separate is inherently unequal, they believe that giving all students an equitable education requires fully-funded, integrated schools for all.

They join us to discuss their work, how parents and caregivers can get involved in advocacy work, and what the world might look like if we could solve these two, interrelated issues.

LINKS:

Brown's Promise
Brown's Promise State Policy Agenda
Brown's Promise Research Agenda
See if there is a Brown's Promise engagement session near you
Our live show for the 70th anniversary of Brown v Board
Beloved - Toni Morrison
Heather McGhee on our show
Dr. Shanette Porter on our show
Elizabeth McRea - The Mother's of Massive Resistance
Dr. McRea on our show

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Reflections on the 2024 Election

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 09:00:00 +0000

In the wake of the election results, Dr. Val and Andrew sit down to reflect on what it means for ourselves, for the Integrated Schools movement, and for the institution of public education.

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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

White Rage Revisited with Carol Anderson

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 08:00:00 +0000

As we approach the 2024 election, we wanted to revisit a conversation with one of our favorite guests, Dr. Carol Anderson, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University. In addition to writing 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, Dr. Anderson brings a depth of knowledge about our country's ongoing struggle to become a true, multi-racial democracy that felt particularly relevant in the run-up to the election.

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. 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.

We close the episode with some new commentary from Dr. Val and Andrew - if you remember the original episode and want to jump ahead to that, you'll find it around the 55:00 mark.

LINKS:

Dr. Anderson's Original Episode
Our debrief episode discussing her original episode
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
One Person, No Vote - Young Reader's Edition
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 – 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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The First - One Family's Desegregation Story

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 08:00:00 +0000

In the fall of 1963, in Petersburg, VA, 6 young Black girls integrated Stonewall Jackson Elementary School. In the middle of the Massive Resistance era, districts around Virginia and throughout the South were fighting desegregation tooth and nail. From physical violence to the closing of entire school districts, communities were circumventing the Brown v Board decision in whatever ways they could.

In 1961, Reverend Grady W. Powell, Sr, became the pastor of Gillfield Baptist Church, located in the heart of Petersburg. With a deep commitment to civil rights, and past experience with desegregation attempts in Richmond, Rev. Powell believed it was time for Petersburg to fulfill the promise of the Brown decision. He and his wife decided to enroll their two daughters, along with 4 other children of church members, in the all White, Stonewall Jackson Elementary. Using his relationships and status in the town, Rev. Powell approached the superintendent of the schools to ask for his support. Despite his initial reticence, the superintendent eventually agreed to support the effort, and worked with the town to minimize the disruption.

Over 60 years later, this story has rarely been told, and yet, it's an important moment in the history of the country. We're joined by one of those young children who held the weight of the movement on their small shoulders all those years ago. Reverend Powell's daughter, Dr. Sandra Powell Mitchell was entering the 4th grade in 1963, and still remembers the first day of school well. She joins us to tell her story, how it informed her life's work as an educator, and if she thinks it was all worth it. We also get to hear from her father, who, at 92, is still a powerful voice for the importance of community, the value of diversity, and the goal of truly living together.

LINKS:

From Morning 'til Evening: The Autobiography of Grady W Powell
The Fauquier Times on Dr. Mitchell's Retirement
The Progress Index on Rev. Powell's retirement
Rev. Dr. Grady Powell on the Teachers in the Movement Podcast
Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth - T.J. Yosso

Check out 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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Deny, Defund, Divert: Janel George on Race and Justice in Education

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Janel George, a Georgetown Law professor, who explores race and justice in education, recently wrote a paper that moved us here at Integrated Schools. Called "Deny, Defund, and Divert: The Law and American Miseducation", the piece outlines historical and modern systemic educational inequalities faced by Black communities, linked to legislative actions and adaptations of White supremacy.

She joins us to talk about legislative lawyering, the importance of community engagement when making public policy, and the ongoing role of systemic racism in our legal and education systems. Ms. George shares her vision for a racially just education system, and highlights the ways the battle to achieve that vision require us to understand the past and see the threads of past efforts to deny education to Black students, to defund education focused on Black students, and to divert Black educators away from eduction, in our current struggles.

Season 11 Kickoff: Recommitted

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0000

We're back!! We hope you had a wonderful summer! We're excited to be back in your feeds as a new school year gets underway. As we kick off season 11 of the podcast, we are recommitting to the mission and vision of Integrated Schools, and using the podcast as a platform to invite you in to the conversation.

Mission: Integrated Schools prepares families with racial or economic privilege to commit to integrating our children, driving new narratives about education, and advocating for justice in our public schools.
Vision: Integrated Schools envisions a racially and socioeconomically integrated public school system where power and resources are shared equitably, humanity is valued unconditionally and all communities reap the benefits.

As we dive into new episodes for this season, we have three themes that will be guiding our conversations.

From Thinking to Action

We know that changing our thoughts is important, but reach change comes from changing our actions.

Deep Learning and Curiostiy

We have to be curious about ourselves and about our community.

Storytelling

It is through storytelling that we change hearts.

You'll hear us unpack these themes throughout the conversations we'll be sharing this season.

Contribute to our story bank! speakpipe.com/IntegratedSchools or send us an email - podcast@integratedschools.org

Check out 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

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Reflections On Season 10

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Nineteen episodes later, Season 10 comes to an end, and we are reflecting on an incredible season. Our themes for the season were the importance of public schools, the power of storytelling, the importance of community, and stamina, and we had 19 incredible episodes going deep on all of those themes, and more. Plus, we had our first ever live show! Thanks to everyone who makes the Integrated Schools work possible, from our Board of Directors, to our chapter and network contacts, our leadership team, and bookclub moderators, we are so grateful to all of you. Special thanks to Darci and Jennifer for helping out with transcripts for every episode, Sasha and Courtney for help with graphics, and Anna for social media promotion. LINKS: S10E9 – The Importance of Belonging with Dr. Shanette Porter S10E14 – Jim Crow’s Pink Slip with Dr. Leslie Fenwick S10E15 – Rebuilding The Black Educator Pipeline with Sharif El-Mekki S10E5 – Taking Just Action for Integration with Richard and Leah Rothstein S10E3 – There Goes the Neighborhood with Jade Adia S10E2 – The Demands and Promises of Integration with John Blake S10E10 – Parenting to Create the World We Want Send us a voice memo - speakpipe.com/integratedschools Check out 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.

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The 70th Anniversary of Brown v Board - Do It Live!

Wed, 29 May 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Dreams really do come true . . . We have wanted to do a live show for quite some time, and finally had the opportunity thanks to The National Coalition for School Diversity, The Century Foundation, and the American Institutes for Research,who invited us to facilitate their event marking the 70th anniversary of Brown v Board. Hosted at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, on the Oprah Winfrey Stage, we were honored to facilitate three panel discussions grappling with the challenges we face today in fulfilling the true promise of Brown. Joined by an amazing group of speakers, all deeply committed to doing integration better, we brought the nuanced, honest conversations you know from the podcast to a live audience for the first time, and hopefully not the last. From the incredible Representative Jim Clyburn, to past podcast guests, Stefan Lallinger and Matt Gonzales, to many others, we are thrilled to share excerpts from the event today. You can also watch the full program. LINKS: Brown v Board at 70: Fulfilling the True Promise of School Integration - the full event video Speaker Bios Stefan Lallinger on our show - S7E3 – Generational Work: Stefan Lallinger on Integration Matt Gonzales on our show - S5E12 – COVID-19: Matt Gonzales on Equity The Bridges Collaborative at The Century Foundation Check out 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.

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A Tipping Point for Change 70 Years After Brown v Board

Fri, 17 May 2024 08:00:00 +0000

May 17th, 1954 the Supreme Court handed down its famous decision in the Brown v Board of Education of Topekacase. So much of the work of Integrated Schools is about trying to live into the promises made through that unanimous decision. On May 17th, 1973, a girl was born in Woodbridge, Virginia. That girl, Courtney Everts Mykytyn, would go on to found Integrated Schools in 2015, calling in parents and caregivers with privilege to work towards fulfilling the vision extolled by the court nineteen years to the day before she was born. Tragically, Courtney was struck by a car and killed on Dec 29th, 2019, cutting short a life full of promise. Not before, however, she had started a movement. All of us at Integrated Schools, from the podcast team, to chapter and networkleaders, to book club facilitators, to social media managers, are here because of her vision, her heart, and her commitment to always working to know better and do better. To mark this special day we are re-releasing one of Courtney's last episodes of the podcast, originally called "All I Want for Christmas is 3.5%". It beautifully captures her clear-eyed realism, and her unfaltering optimism. She believed that if we can call enough people in, real change is possible, and a better world can await our children, and their children. So, on this special day, we call you in to our work. How can you be part of the 3.5% of people needed to create change? What can you do to join this work? We await you with open arms. LINKS: Courtney's Blog post, 3.5%, Gratitude, and Shape-Shifting Reptiles Dr. Erica Chenoweth's Ted Talk Matt Gonzales – “White Lips to White Ears” Dr. Elizabeth McRae on the Mother’s of Massive Resistance Professor Michelle Adams on Milliken v Bradley and the hope for a multi-racial democracy Our Brown v Board at 65 Series called "The Stories We Tell Ourselves" S6E8 – BvB@67 – Rucker Johnson Revisited S6E9 – BvB@67 – Noliwe Rooks Revisited S6E10 – BvB@67 – Amanda Lewis Revisited S6E11 – BvB@67 – David Hinojosa Revisited S6E12 – BvB@67- Greg and Carol Revisited The Hechinger Report's Series - Revisiting Brown 70 Years Later The Civil Rights Project - The Unfinished Battle for Integration in a Multiracial America Colorlines - Attacks on Public Education Threaten the Legacy of Brown Check out 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 Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.

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Local Stories of Desegregation: Charlotte

Wed, 01 May 2024 08:00:00 +0000

In 1954’s Brown v Board decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal. However, the Brown II decision a year later said that fixing our separate education system should happen with “all deliberate speed.” The deliberate speed in most places was glacial, leading many local communities to file law suits demanding action. These local desegregation cases happened across the country following similar patterns, but varying due to local contexts. We started with a three-part series on Denver. This is our second deep dive into one of those stories, this time focusing on Charlotte, NC. In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled in Swann v Charlotte - Mecklenburg Board of Education that, among other things, student assignment policies that involved bussing kids to achieve racial balance was a legitimate remedy for districts violating the mandate of the Brown decision. Eventually embraced by the city, the decision, and the bussing plan it led to, were held up as a model for the country of how to do desegregation right. Business boomed in Charlotte, in part because of the community embrace of school desegregation. Twenty eight years later, in Capacchione v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the district court ruled that Charlotte-Mecklenburg had complied with the Swan decision "to the extent reasonably practicable", and terminated the desegregation order, declaring it a "unitary system." Much like many other cities around the country, once the court was no longer mandating desegregation, the district began to re-segregate. Today, with nearly 75% of CMS students identifying as students of color, and massive segregation both racially and socio-economically, the district is struggling to serve all kids well. Dr. James Ford grew up in Illinois and was bussed through a desegregation plan premised on the Swann decision. While the additional resources this provided were important, he experienced an educational environment that felt unwelcoming, and, at times, outwardly hostile. He made it his life's work to dismantle the systemic racism that caused that harm. Eventually landing in Charlotte as a teacher, he wanted to understand the history of the city and choices made by the people in power that led to him teaching in a highly segregated high school named after the superintendent who had overseen the nationally lauded desegregation plans of the 70s. His commitment to dismantle racism through the field of education led him to create the Center for Racial Equity in Education, where he serves as the executive director, working to "serve each and every child by also making students of color central to every facet of how schools function." He joins us to share the history of Charlotte, and his current work. You can support his important work by donating here. LINKS: The Center for Racial Equity in Education - CREED Dr. Ford's Op-Ed on segregation Swann v Charlotte - Mecklenburg Board of Education Capacchione v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools The Dudley Flood Center's North Carolina School Desegregation and Resegregation Timeline Integrated Schools' local chapters and networks The Legacy and Philanthropy of Anna T Jeanes S10E11 - Local Stories of Desegregation: Denver (Part 1) S10E11 - Local Stories of Desegregation: Denver (Part 2) S10E11 - Local Stories of Desegregation: Denver (Part 3) Check out 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.

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Rebuilding The Black Educator Pipeline

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0000

In 2021, 80% of teachers in our country's public schools were White, while just 6% were Black. That same year, 54% of public school students were students of color, and 15% were Black. We also know of the extensive research showing the positive impacts of Black teachers on all kids, but especially on Black kids. However, as we learned last episode from Dr. Leslie Fenwick, we lost over 100,000 Black teachers in the wake of desegregation attempt, and the Black teacher pipeline was crushed through explicit and implicit government action. In 2019, Sharif El-Mekki founded The Center for Black Educator Development to do something about it. With a commitment to the "deeply subversive act of teaching superbly", they are targeting interventions to increase the number of Black teachers so Black and other disenfranchised students can reap the full benefits of a quality public education. Mr. El-Mekki joins us to discuss his work, and explain how it is rooted in a Black educational tradition that stretches back generations. His teaching and leading is informed by his own upbringing attending a Black freedom school in Philadelphia, his experience as a teacher and school leader, and the teacher activists who poured into him throughout his life. LINKS: The Center for Black Educator Development Philly's 7th Ward - Mr. El-Mekki's blog The 8 Black Hands Podcast Reviving the Legacy of the Black Teacher Tradition - Mr. El-Mekki's TED Talk S10E14 - Jim Crow's Pink Slip with Dr. Leslie Fenwick Ep 5 - Interview with a Skeptic - Chris Stewart on our show The Nguzo Saba Check out 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.

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Jim Crow's Pink Slip with Dr. Leslie Fenwick

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Seventeen years after the Brown v Board decision, in 1971, US Senator Walter Mondale chaired a number of Select Committee hearings on Equal Educational Opportunity. One of these hearings focused on what was happening to Black teachers and principals as the country begrudgingly worked to desegregate our schools. The hearing featured testimony and supplemental documentation calling attention to the vast number of Black teachers who were losing their jobs in the Southern, dual-system states. Despite Brown's promise of desegregated schools including faculty and staff in addition to students, districts across the South were finding ways to remove Black teachers and principals, rather than allowing them to teach White kids. The transcripts from these hearings quite literally fell into Dr. Leslie Fenwick's lap as she began a PhD program in educational policy. The stories they held matched her own lived experience. Stories of highly qualified, highly educated Black teachers who served as community leaders, and fostered a sense of belonging and empowerment among their Black students was what Dr. Fenwick and her parents and grandparents had known. And yet, as she embarked on her PhD program, these stories weren't being told. Eventually, these transcripts would form the primary evidentiary basis for her bestselling 2022 book, Jim Crow's Pink Slip: The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership. She joins us to talk about the book, her journey to writing it, and what understanding this untold history means for the ongoing quest for more teachers of color. LINKS: Jim Crow's Pink Slip: The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership Transcript for the Senate Select Committee Hearing on the loss of Black Teachers Dunbar High School - Washington, DC Sumner Academy of Arts and Science - Kansas City, MO The Summer of Soul documentary Whitey On The Moon - Gil Scott-Heron Sharif El-Mekki - The Center for Black Educator Development Check out 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.

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Local Stories of Desegregation: DENVER (Part 3)

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 08:00:00 +0000

PART 3 of 3 In 1954’s Brown v Board decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal. However, the Brown II decision a year later said that fixing our separate education system should happen with “all deliberate speed.” The deliberate speed in most places was glacial, leading many local communities to file law suits demanding action. These local desegregation cases happened across the country following similar patterns, but varying due to local contexts. We are going to dive into several of these local stories in the coming months, and we are starting today with Denver, CO. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in Keyes v. Denver Public Schools, requiring Denver to desegregate its schools. This led to 21 years of court ordered desegregation, including through the use of busing. A local educational advocacy organization, Park Hill Neighbors for Equity in Education, recently hosted an event to commemorate the anniversary and reflect on the promises made at the time of the case, and the ways we have failed to live up to them. Over the course of three episodes, we will be bringing you audio from that event. Our hope is that by understanding local stories, we can see national themes emerge that may help chart a path forward. If you have a local story of desegregation to share, let us know! Record a voice memo and email it to podcast@integratedschools.org, or visit Speakpipe.com/integratedschools. LINKS: A video of the full event – Integration and Equity in DPS 50 Years After Keyes Park Hill Neighbors for Equity in Education’s website – PHNEE.org The slideshow from the event Comments from the participants at the event Pat Pascoe’s book – A Dream of Justice: The Story of Keyes v Denver Public Schools‘ Tomàs Monarrez on our show - S7E4 – Redrawing the Lines: Undoing the History of Segregation EPIC Youth Theater on our show S6E2 – EPIC’s “Nothing About Us”: Youth Theater on Integration S9E10 – Between The Lines: An EPIC Comeback S5E4 – All I Want for Christmas is 3.5% Rucker Johnson’s book – Children of The Dream A visual timeline of the Keyes case prepared by Laura Lefkowits Andrew on Brother Jeff’s show talking about Integrated Schools and the event Milliken v Bradley – which includes Justice Thurgood Marshall’s powerful dissent Our episode with Michelle Adams about the Milliken case More resources from PHNEE Check out 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.

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Local Stories of Desegregation: DENVER (Part 2)

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 08:00:00 +0000

PART 2 of 3 In 1954's Brown v Board decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal. However, the Brown II decision a year later said that fixing our separate education system should happen with "all deliberate speed." The deliberate speed in most places was glacial, leading many local communities to file law suits demanding action. These local desegregation cases happened across the country following similar patterns, but varying due to local contexts. We are going to dive into several of these local stories in the coming months, and we are starting today with Denver, CO. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in Keyes v. Denver Public Schools, requiring Denver to desegregate its schools. This led to 21 years of court ordered desegregation, including through the use of busing. A local educational advocacy organization, Park Hill Neighbors for Equity in Education, recently hosted an event to commemorate the anniversary and reflect on the promises made at the time of the case, and the ways we have failed to live up to them. Over the next three episodes, we will be bringing you audio from that event. Our hope is that by understanding local stories, we can see national themes emerge that may help chart a path forward. If you have a local story of desegregation to share, let us know! Record a voice memo and email it to podcast@integratedschools.org, or visit Speakpipe.com/integratedschools. LINKS: A video of the full event - Integration and Equity in DPS 50 Years After Keyes Park Hill Neighbors for Equity in Education's website - PHNEE.org The slideshow from the event Comments from the participants at the event Pat Pascoe's book - A Dream of Justice: The Story of Keyes v Denver Public Schools' S5E4 - All I Want for Christmas is 3.5% Rucker Johnson's book - Children of The Dream A visual timeline of the Keyes case prepared by Laura Lefkowits Andrew on Brother Jeff's show talking about Integrated Schools and the event Milliken v Bradley - which includes Justice Thurgood Marshall's powerful dissent Our episode with Michelle Adams about the Milliken case More resources from PHNEE Check out 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.

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Local Stories of Desegregation: DENVER (Part 1)

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 09:00:00 +0000

In 1954's Brown v Board decision, the Supreme Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal. However, the Brown II decision a year later said that fixing our separate education system should happen with "all deliberate speed." The deliberate speed in most places was glacial, leading many local communities to file law suits demanding action. These local desegregation cases happened across the country following similar patterns, but varying due to local contexts. We are going to dive into several of these local stories in the coming months, and we are starting today with Denver, CO. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in Keyes v. Denver Public Schools, requiring Denver to desegregate its schools. This led to 21 years of court ordered desegregation, including through the use of busing. A local educational advocacy organization, Park Hill Neighbors for Equity in Education, recently hosted an event to commemorate the anniversary and reflect on the promises made at the time of the case, and the ways we have failed to live up to them. Over the next three episodes, we will be bringing you audio from that event. Our hope is that by understanding local stories, we can see national themes emerge that may help chart a path forward. If you have a local story of desegregation to share, let us know! Record a voice memo and email it to podcast@integratedschools.org, or visit Speakpipe.com/integratedschools. LINKS: A video of the full event - Integration and Equity in DPS 50 Years After Keyes Park Hill Neighbors for Equity in Education's website - PHNEE.org The slideshow from the event Comments from the participants at the event Pat Pascoe's book - A Dream of Justice: The Story of Keyes v Denver Public Schools A visual timeline of the Keyes case prepared by Laura Lefkowits Andrew on Brother Jeff's show talking about Integrated Schools and the event Milliken v Bradley - which includes Justice Thurgood Marshall's powerful dissent Our episode with Michelle Adams about the Milliken case More resources from PHNEE Check out 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.

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Parenting to Create the World We Want

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0000

We are fortunate to have many guests whose work is focused on research, policy, and the broader school integration movement. However, we know that most of our listeners are parents and caregivers, and many of our favorite episodes share the perspectives of those raising kids and making decisions about how to show up in schools, in communities, and in the country. Today's conversation with Jon Tobin (and his wife Amanda) is just that - an exploration of how one family continually finds ways to make decisions that reflect their values, that support their kids, and that work to make the world just a bit more just, everyday. We don't hold these parenting conversations up as THE way to live, but as A way to think about the choices we all make as caregivers. Jon and Amanda have a deep belief in the power of community, in the need to be rooted in place, and the need to invest their resources, time and energy into their community. One of the most powerful ways to do that is through supporting their local school. LINKS: Teachers Have It Easy - Dave Eggers Our founder, Courtney Mykytyn The Two Tour Pledge JPB Gerald - Checklists and Merit Badges WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR STORIES ABOUT BROWN V BOARD!! We are working on a series to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Brown v Board decision this May. If you have a story of Brown’s impact on your life, or you have an elder who are you are connected to who might have a story tell, please send them our way!! Record a voice memo and email it to podcast@integratedschools.org, or visit Speakpipe.com/integratedschools. Check out 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.

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The Importance of Belonging

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0000

There's a difference between feeling like you belong in a space and that that space belongs to you. That true sense of belonging, of feeling seen and heard and respected in a space, has profound educational impacts. Dr. Shanette Porterhas studied schools that have created that sense of belonging, and found that not only are strictly academic measures improved (test scores, etc), but other benefits come as well. From increased graduation rates, to decreased disciplinary incidents, to increased attendance, schools that focus on creating a sense of belonging do better for the whole child. Dr. Porter joins us to share some of her findings, as well as a powerful definition of belonging inspired by john a powell- founder of the Othering and Belonging Institute LINKS: Dr. Porter's research on how high school climate impacts student development and educational attainment - Investing in Adolescents An article from Education Next highlighting the link between Social and Emotional Learning and long term success for students The 74 Million's coverage of some of Dr. Porter's recent research. john a powell - founder of the Othering and Belonging Institute WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR STORIES ABOUT BROWN V BOARD!!We are working on a series to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Brown v Board decision this May. If you have a story of Brown’s impact on your life, or you have an elder who are you are connected to who might have a story tell, please send them our way!! Record a voice memo and email it to podcast@integratedschools.org, or visit Speakpipe.com/integratedschools. Check out 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.

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A Conversation with the Assistant Secretary of Education

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Local control of schools is long tradition in the US. The result is a patchwork of over 13,000 local school districts. This creates a challenge for The Federal Department of Education to enact change across the country. Roberto Rodriguez is the Assistant Secretary of Eduction for Planning, Policy, and Evaluation at the US Department of Education, where they recently awarded $10 million of grants through the Fostering Diverse Schools program, a grant designed to supporting voluntary efforts to increase school socioeconomic diversity throughout the country. He joins us to discuss the grant, as well as the Federal government's role in pushing policy forward. He highlights the need for local advocacy to advance important causes. The Department of Education must advocate for good policy, but creates the most meaningful change when partnering with local efforts. LINKS: The Fostering Diverse Schools grant program A list of awardees of the recent Fostering Diverse Schools grants. Chalkbeat article about the grants recently awarded Unidos US - where Secretary Rodriguez got his advocacy start The Bridges Collaborative from The Century Foundation Our Brown v Board at 65 Series, The Stories We Tell Ourselves, which we revisited three years ago: S6E8 – BvB@67 – Rucker Johnson Revisited S6E9 – BvB@67 – Noliwe Rooks Revisited S6E10 – BvB@67 – Amanda Lewis Revisited S6E11 – BvB@67 – David Hinojosa Revisited S6E12 – BvB@67- Greg and Carol Revisited WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR STORIES ABOUT BROWN V BOARD!! We are working on a series to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Brown v Board decision this May. If you have a story of Brown's impact on your life, or you have an elder who are you are connected to who might have a story tell, please send them our way!! Record a voice memo and email it to podcast@integratedschools.org, or visit Speakpipe.com/integratedschools. Check out 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.

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2023 In Review

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 09:00:00 +0000

As 2023 comes to a close, we just wanted to take a brief moment to reflect on the year, talk about our hopes for 2024, and hear from you! We share listener voice memos, an update on Integrated Schools, including our new board of directors, and tease a few of the episodes coming in the new year! LINKS: Blog post about our new board of directors Send us your voice memos! -http://speakpipe.com/integratedschools If you'd like to volunteer, send us an email - volunteer@integratedschools.org Check out 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 Jaden González. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.

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ICYMI: Teaching Hard History

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 09:00:00 +0000

We were thrilled to have two interns working on the podcast over the past summer. One of them, Jaden González, found an episode of the Teaching Hard History podcast from Learning for Justice that spoke to him, so he joined us to talk about it and play a portion of it. In it, we hear from Dr. Aisha White who has studied how children, especially young children, understand and learn about race. It dispels the myth that children are ever too young to learn about race, and has helpful suggestions for how to have conversations that build a healthy racial identity for all kids. It also sparked a great conversation with Jaden about his own racial identity development as a Puerto Rican growing up in New York City with a multiracial family. LINKS: The History of Whiteness and How We Teach About Race - from Teaching Hard History ICYMI: Seeing White - our episode featuring the Seeing White podcast series from Scene on Radio. The P.R.I.D.E Program from The University of Pittsburgh Grace Abounding: The Core Knowledge Anthology of African-American Literature, Music, and Art Check out 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 Jaden González. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.

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Taking Just Action for Integration with Richard and Leah Rothstein

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 09:00:00 +0000

Like many of you, we were blown away by Richard Rothstein's The Color of Law for the ways it unveiled institutionalized racial segregation and its lingering impacts on our country. His methodical unmasking of the explicitly racist policies that led to the creation of the suburbs, the wealth gap, educational disparities and more helped expose the idea of "de facto" segregation, or segregation that occurs naturally, as a myth. The ways that we are segregated today were caused by intentional governmental policies, and we have yet to redress the harm caused. While The Color Law presented compelling stories about how we got here, it didn't offer many solutions. Richard's daughter Leah, a community organizer and housing activist, was among the many people who wondered what could we do to not only minimize future injustice, but also make repairs for the past harms caused. They decided to write Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law to answer that question. In it, they present a number of ways people can advocate for justice in their local communities, as well as highlighting inspiring work happening around the country. Both Richard and Leah join us to talk about The Color of Law, Just Action, and how everyone has a role to play in creating the true multiracial democracy we are striving for. LINKS: Just Action - Richard and Leah Rothstein The Color of Law - Richard Rothstein Segregated By Design - short film overview of The Color of Law Just Action's website - Justactionbook.org Richard and Leah's Substack If you want to get involved locally, check out The Redress Movement Drs. Darling-Hammond on our show Jade Adia - There Goes the Neighborhood Jade Adia on our show Dr. Erica Turner on our show The civil rights museum in the former Woolworth's that provided Richard's entry to civil rights work 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 Instagram, 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.

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Managing an Increasingly Diverse and Unequal Education System with Dr. Erica Turner

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Our focus on this show is often on parents and caregivers and the choices we make, from where to send our kids to school, to how we show up in those communities, to how we advocate for our kids and all kids. We have also talked about students and teachers, and national level policies. However, we have not previously spent much time talking about the district level decision makers, from school board members, to superintendents, to central office staff. Due to the decentralized nature of our education system, these leaders have tremendous power to affect change, and often find themselves on the front lines of dealing with changing school districts. As our country becomes increasingly racially diverse and socioeconomically unequal, schools are often the first public institutions addressing those changes. Dr. Erica Turner has studied how district level leaders have dealt with this, and wrote about it in her book, Suddenly Diverse, How School Districts Manage Race and Inequality. She joins us to share some of what she found. Key Takeaways 1. Schools are seen as the closest form of government to many individuals. They are often delegated the responsibility to deal with societal problems such as poverty, gun violence, and nurturing a multiracial democracy, which can be an overwhelming load. 2. Race-evasive managerialism plays a significant role in the education system. Schools end up devoting more attention to data and business models, often sidestepping the complex issues of racial and social equity. This approach can sometimes be a way for educators to feel like they are taking action without directly confronting the structural challenges they face. 3. There is a prevalent fear of White flight, which often limits the potential reforms in education. Dr. Turner urges listeners to reexamine this fear, citing studies that reveal White flight is not solely a result of school desegregation efforts. 4. Despite the heavy issues in education, Dr. Turner encourages listeners to see hope in social movements and community cooperation. Movements like Black Lives Matter are contributing to a wider comprehension of systemic racial inequality. She urges listeners to join such movements, fostering conversations and pushing for change together. LINKS: Suddenly Diverse, How School Districts Manage Race and Inequality - Dr. Erica Turner's book The Problem We All Live With - Normal Rockwell The Problem We All Live With - Nikole Hannah-Jones on This American Life Equity in Pandemic Schooling: An Action Guide for Families, Educators & Communities - Dr. Turner's contribution to questions about equity during the pandemic interruptions to education Send us your ideas – speakpipe.com/integratedschools, or click the “send voicemail” button on the side of our website, or just record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at podcast@integratedschools.org. 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 Instagram, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. We’re proud members of Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website. 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.

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There Goes the Neighborhood with Jade Adia

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Gentrification sucks . . . yet change is inevitable. We're joined today by Young Adult author, Jade Adia, whose first novel, There Goes The Neighborhood takes place in a fictional neighborhood in South LA being wracked by gentrification. Through a story of friendship, found family, and coming of age, Jade invites us in to a neighborhood deeply worth saving, and three friends who set out to save it in a deeply problematic way. We discuss Jade's personal story and how it led to her writing this novel, and we discuss ways of getting involved and finding connection in our neighborhoods. LINKS: There Goes The Neighborhood - Jade Adia Jade's website Register for bookclub sessions in early November Study guide for There Goes the Neighborhood S5E1 - Gentrification and School Segregation - with Dr. Kfir Mordechay PHYS.org article on the increase in gun violence in gentrifying spaces. JAMA article on Gentrification as a Factor in the Incidence of Firearm Injuries Send us a voice memo! Speakpipe.com/integratedschools Send us your ideas – speakpipe.com/integratedschools, or click the “send voicemail” button on the side of our website, or just record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at podcast@integratedschools.org. 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 Instagram, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. We’re proud members of Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website. 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.

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The Demands and Promises of Integration with John Blake

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 08:00:00 +0000

The son of a Black father and a White mother, John Blake grew up in a deeply segregated, Black neighborhood in Baltimore with a great mystery - who was his mom? Until he was 17, all he knew about her was that she was White, her name was Shirley, and her family hated Black people. Meeting her, at age 17, began a journey of racial understanding and changed his life. Mr. Blake has been writing about race and religion as a reporter for over 25 years, and over those years he has come to discover that facts don't change people, relationships do. His relationship with his mother and her sister, his father's relationships on the decks of a Merchant Marine ship, the multi-racial community he formed through church - these relationships across difference are what led to changes in racial attitudes for his relatives and for himself. Creating these relationships was demanding. Finding understanding with his White family who harbored ill will towards Black people was demanding. Yet the promise of these relationships to change hearts and move people towards understanding made it worth the effort. This is the power of real integration. This is the power of community, It's demanding, but the promise is great, and, as Mr. Blake argues, the only way we can move towards becoming a true multiracial democracy. Mr. Blake's story taps into all of our themes for this season. His is an incredible story teller, and his stories have the power to shift hearts. The relationships he builds through being in proximity and community with people who are different are the seeds that bloom into greater racial understanding. He calls on us to work to create spaces where Gordon Allport's Contact Theory can exist, and, we would argue, the best place for that to happen is in our public schools. And, finally, he shows us the power of hope to sustain us through hard times, with the knowledge that progress is being made, even if we don't always see it. He chronicles it all in his memoir, More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew, and he joins us to talk about it. LINKS: More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew - John Blake 50 Years Ago, a White Woman Touching a Black Man on TV Caused a National Commotion - Vanity Fair Simply Psychology on Contact Theory Gordon Allport Choosing Our Name - Integrated Schools founder, Courtney Mykytyn Michelle Adams on Radical Integration S5E16 – Revisiting Not In My Suburbs - Michelle Adams on our show S6E4 – In Full View of Race: Elise Boddie on Integration IntegrateNYC's 5Rs of Real Integration S6E1-Third Wave School Desegregation: A Call for Real Integration A More Perfect Reunion: Race, Integration, and the Future of America - Calvin Baker Ta'Nehisi Coats on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert - 5:10 is the discussion about hope White Supremacy with a Tan - John Blake Rebecca Solnit Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know - Adam Grant Send us your stories – speakpipe.com/integratedschools, or click the “send voicemail” button on the side of our website, or just record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at podcast@integratedschools.org. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. We’re proud members of Connectd Podcasts. 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. Additionally music provided by Blue.Session.

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Season 10 Kick Off: Reconnecting

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 08:00:00 +0000

We're back!! After a wonderfully busy summer, we are back with a whole new season and we have some great stuff planned. To kick things off, we're talking about where we find ourselves as this school year starts, and the themes we are focusing on this season. These themes feel relevant in this moment and will guide us through the season. They are: The importance of public schools The power of storytelling The power of proximity and the importance of being in community Stamina - the importance of finding hope and relationships to sustain the work We also talk about a very exciting event that happened this summer . . . at least it was exciting for your co-hosts, as we met in person for the first time! Our biggest ask for you, in addition to sharing the podcast with others, is to send us your voice memos. Given the theme of the power of storytelling, we are really hoping to feature your stories as much as possible this season. So, whether you have a full story, or just a thought that has been lingering, we want to hear from you! Why do you think public schools are important? How are finding your way into community? How are you struggling? Where do you turn when you need hope or stamina? What else should we be talking about? Send us your ideas - speakpipe.com/integratedschools, or click the "send voicemail" button on the side of our website, or just record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at podcast@integratedschools.org. 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 – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us podcast@integratedschools.org. We’re proud members of Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website. 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.

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Reflections on Season 9

Wed, 31 May 2023 08:00:00 +0000

As Season 9 comes to a close, we reflect on some of the amazing conversations we had over the past 16 episodes, and hear from you about what you’re grappling with. From the Heather McGhee’s episode in the very beginning of the season through Episode 15 on school lunches, we tried to focus on solidarity and elevating voices that have been missing from our conversations. Cathryn and The Saviors focused on the experience of one low-income parent, The Segregated Lives of Preschoolers focused on our youngest learners, The Intersections of Disability, Race, and Segregation began unpacking the needs of disabled students and caregivers. And, of course, we featured student voice in Between the Lines: An EPIC Comeback. Students are the most directly impacted by our education system, so we lean into to featuring their voice and their perspective whenever possible.

Through it all, we leaned into nuance, recognizing that no one has all the answers, and that the best way to know better and do better is through relationships.

Lots of thanks for the season:

All of our guests who were willing to share their insights, their perspectives, their research, and their values. We are all richer for having heard from you.
All of podcast staff who work on transcripts and promotion and offer thought partnership on each and every episode – Anna, Darci, Jennifer, Courtney, Susan, Emily. Thank you!
Our friends at Connectd Podcasts for the ongoing support. Check out all their shows, as there are so many important conversations happening on the network.
All of our Patreon supporters. Your financial support allows us to keep this podcast going, but even more importantly, your engagement on the Patreon page and participation in happy hours means the world to us.
And, most importantly, thank you to all of you who listen, who share, who keep this conversation going. The world is changed one relationship and one conversation at a time, and you all engaging with the conversations we share brings us hope.

ACTION STEPS:

Share your favorite episode with someone and have a conversation with them about it.
Support our work on Patreon
Hit the “follow” button in your podcast app to make sure you don’t miss an episode.

We’ll be back in the fall!!

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.

We’re proud members of Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website.

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.

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School Lunch: Justice On The Menu

Wed, 17 May 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Do you remember waiting in line at school for square pizza and chocolate milk? This seemingly everyday ritual holds the key to significant and meaningful change within our education system. Today, we delve deep into the fascinating world of The School Lunch Program and its potential for transformative impact.

We’re joined by Dr. Jennifer Gaddis, an associate professor at The University of Wisconsin-Madison, known for her compelling research on school food and the systems and politics surrounding it. With over 30 million students participating in school meal programs daily, we explore the historical context and the challenges faced by these programs, such as dealing with stigma, shame, and access to quality nutrition. Furthermore, we touch on environmental justice and the farm-to-school program, spotlighting the importance of fostering strong relationships between local communities, farmers, and the education sector.

As we tackle labor issues and financial challenges faced by schools in providing scratch cooking options, we also celebrate the inspiring stories of schools and organizations making positive changes in lunch programs across the nation. Ultimately, Dr. Gaddis encourages us all to participate in the school lunch program, as that is the most likely way to create a system that serves all kids, our environment, and food service workers best.

LINKS:

Dr. Gaddis’s Book – The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools
Dr. Gaddis’s NYT Op-Ed – Why Are You Still Packing Lunch for Your Kids?
Dr. Gaddis in The Washington Post – Cooking School Lunches from Scratch Can Fix Labor and Supply Issues
Dr. Gaddis on Problem Areas with Wyatt Cenac
Janet Poppendieck – Free For All: Fixing School Food in America
Susan Levine – School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America’s Favorite Welfare Program
Report from 1968 on lunch programs across the country – Their Daily Bread
Chef Ann Foundation
Food Corps

ACTION STEPS:

Talk to your young people about school lunch. What impressions do that have? If they aren’t eating it, what barriers are there?
Use the links above to learn more about the school lunch program, and find ways to connect with local advocacy efforts around universal lunch.
Find ways to increase your participation in the program, and encourage others to do the same. Even simple steps such as sending a main course, but getting sides, or participation a couple of days a week / month, can have meaningful impacts on the system.
Advocate for food service workers, and more scratch cooking in ALL schools.

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.

We’re proud members of Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website.

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.

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The Intersections of Disability, Race, and Segregation

Wed, 03 May 2023 08:00:00 +0000

We often talk about school segregation from a racial and /or class perspective, but an equally concerning issue is the segregation of kids based on dis/ability. And while many disabled students are marginalized by our educational system, it is particularly true for students of color. It’s an overdue conversation for us on the podcast, and it’s an important one, because, as the conversation makes clear, all forms of oppression are linked together, and destroying one will require them all to fall.

We are joined for the conversation by Joyner Emrick, a disabled person with two disabled kids, and Shubha Balabaer, a non-disabled parent to a disabled toddler. They both offer insight and vulnerability about a subject that is often hard to talk about. From the choice for person or identity first language, to the medical vs social model of disability, the conversations lives in the nuance of a complicated topic.

We try to ground ourselves in the disability justice movement and its dedication to dismantling systemic oppression. It is clear that the fight for disability rights is inextricably linked to the fight for social justice and equity for all.

LINKS:

Sins Invalid’s 10 Principals of Disability Justice
Shelley Moore’s video about “the outside pins”
Ableism Enables All Forms of Inequity and Hampers All Liberation Efforts– Truthout
Incarceration and Ableism Go Hand in Hand – Truthout
Dear Parents Who Want to Keep Their Nonspeaking Children Safe as They Go Out Into the World – Communication First
A YouTube Playlist of “Lessons in Liberation” an abolitionist toolkit for preK- 12 education.
Shubha’s incredible zine about their experience
An episode of Prentis Hemphill’s Finding our Way podcast called “Reclaiming Ugly”
An episode of the Groundings Podcast on ableism
More from Shelley Moore on “scaffolding complexity”
PBS Educators series, The Circle Makers
You’re Going to Love This Kid!: Teaching Students with Autism in the Inclusive Classroom – Paula Kluth on creating educational spaces that can include everyone
A helpful guide to person / identify first language from the NIH
A study on identity vs person first language from autism stakeholders
Disabled Activist, Imani Barbarin’s website
Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist – Judy Heumann
Dr. Susan Faircloth on our show

ACTION STEPS:

Normalize asking “What does your body need?” – the answer is never “nothing”, but it might be “all of my needs are being met right now”.
Ask if disabled people are involved in the creation of services, curriculum, and other supports for disabled people.
Make use of the resources in these show notes.

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.

We’re proud members of Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website.

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.

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The Segregated Lives of Preschoolers

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 08:00:00 +0000

The schools conversation happens everywhere – the playground, work events, even in line at the supermarket. However, it is often focused on K-12 education. The pressures of getting your kid into the “right” school, moving somewhere with “good” schools, and playing the system to gain as much advantage as possible, usually revolve around K-12. However, despite the lack of guaranteed preschool in many places across the country, there are plenty of opportunities for families to make decisions that reflect their values and support their communities even for our youngest learners.

In this episode, we dive into the topic of preschool education and the often overlooked issue of segregation. We are joined by Dr. Casey Stockstill, author of the upcoming book False Starts: The Segregated Lives of Preschoolers, to discuss the prevalence and implications of race and class segregation in preschools. The conversation explores our personal experiences and observations, as well as the challenges faced by both children and teachers navigating this complex landscape.

Dr. Stockstill highlights the importance of choosing inclusive and diverse preschool environments that align with our values and contribute towards community-building efforts. We discuss the role of Head Start programs in providing better opportunities for children and how they impact early childhood education. The conversation also addresses teacher-to-student relationships, the challenge of finding mixed-income and racially mixed preschools, and the necessity of community-driven initiatives in early childhood education. Perhaps most importantly, Dr. Stockstill highlights the implications of segregated preschool environments on future learning thought the K-12 experience.

As parents and educators committed to educational equity, we may not always find easy steps or clear answers. Yet, by engaging in such nuanced conversations and making conscious preschool choices, we can play our part in breaking down racial barriers and creating inclusive environments for all children.

LINKS:

Preorder Dr. Stockstill’s book – False Starts: The Segregated Lives of Preschoolers
Culture Study interview where we first learned of Dr. Stockstill’s work
The “Stuff” of Class: How Property Rules in Preschool Reproduce Class Inequality – article by Dr. Stockstill
Learn more about Head Start
Dr. Brittany Murray on our show – PTA So White
Dr. Jessica Calarco – Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School – for more on how the trends we see in preschool show up in future learning environments
Dr. Susan Faircloth on our show – An Overdue Reckoning on Indigenous Education

ACTION STEPS:

Find ways to support local preschools, even if you aren’t directly connected.
Support funding increases, universal access, teacher pay increases, etc. for early childhood education.
Work with local civil organization to find ways to support enriching educational experiences for all preschool kids.

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.

We’re proud members of Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website.

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.

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School Safety: More Than One Dimension

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 08:00:00 +0000

When you think of school safety, it’s hard not to think of school shootings. And there is no question that gun violence in schools is tragic, harrowing, and gut wrenching. It shatters our vision of schools as a sanctuary. And yet, gun violence, while way too common, is still exceedingly rare, and there are many ways that kids are harmed in our schools on a daily basis that don’t generate the same attention.

Dr. Meg Caven, a passionate educational researcher, focuses on issues of safety and equity in the educational landscape. With particular attention on school discipline and its impact on racial inequity, Dr. Caven’s work highlights the importance of addressing social and emotional safety in addition to physical safety. As a queer-identified individual, she draws from her own experiences of freedom and safety in her educational journey to advocate for a more holistic approach to safety in schools.

In this episode, Dr. Caven pushes us beyond the one-dimensional conversation around gun violence in our schools, to consider a broader and more expansive view of what it means to be safe in school. From mental health to emotional health, from protection from bullying and structural violence, from disrupting the school to prison pipeline, she argues that a nuanced, multi-dimensional view of school safety is what is required if we truly care about equity, and want to see schools live up to the ideal of being incubators of democracy.

LINKS:

Dr. Caven’s article in Kappan
The Education Development Center
Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum‘s quote about the smog of racism is from Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria
Ani DiFranco – To The Teeth
News story on a “rapid deploy bullet-proof safe room” for schools

ACTION STEPS:

Expand your idea of safety
Talk to the young people and other caregivers in your life about what it means to feel safe at school
Don’t use “safety” as an excuse to not enroll in a particular school
Engage in conversations in your school communities about what I means for kids to feel safe enough to feel free to discover themselves

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.

We’re proud members of Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website.

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.

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Show Up, Listen, Stay Put, Speak Up

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 08:00:00 +0000

For a long time, we at Integrated Schools encouraged parents to “Show up, shut up, and stay put”. This was a pushback to the ways that White and/or privileged parents often interact with global majority schools. And yet, simply showing up and shutting up, while an important first step, isn’t enough. We have to speak out against the inequities that plague our schools. However, knowing when to speak up, and what to speak up about can be tricky.

We’re joined by education consultant and Black parent, Dr. Toutoule Ntoya, and political strategist and White parent, Becky Boll, both of whom chose local, neighborhood, public schools for their children. We discuss the challenges of advocating for change within the education system and the need to be in community first. We also grapple with balancing advocacy for one’s own child while also advocating for all kids, while navigating the school system’s differing expectations for parents based on race.

While we don’t land on easy steps or clear answers, hopefully the nuanced conversation is helpful to anyone committed to educational equity.

LINKS:

Dr. Ntoya’s website
Integrated Schools theory of change – Contemplate, Desegregate, Integrate, Advocate
Send us a voicemail
Matt Barnum in Chalkbeat on the link between school choice and gentrification
African American Parent Council in Pasadena

ACTION STEPS:

Talk to the young people in your life about your own schooling experiences and how that affects the choices you are making for them.
Don’t blame global majority schools for the challenges they face. Recognize the role of the system, and view your participation in fixing them as work pushing back on systemic injustice.
Find BIPOC led organizations in your community that are doing advocacy work and ask how you can help.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

We’re thrilled to be joining Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website.

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.

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Between the Lines: An EPIC Comeback

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 09:00:00 +0000

Housing and school segregation are closely intertwined, yet the story of how that came to be is rarely taught. The students at EPIC Theatre Ensemble were commissioned to write a play about this topic through the EPIC Next Program. Through extensive research, starting with the Segregated by Design website (an exploration of Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law), and including interviews with over 30 stakeholders in education and housing, the students created Between The Lines, an original play exploring the connections between America’s housing policies and educational segregation. They set out to answer the questions, how have we managed to parcel out privilege in a public school system that’s supposed to be free and open to everyone? Their art serves both as an outlet for the shock they felt in learning this history, and also an invitation to deeper, more productive civic dialog about a topic that can often be fraught.

We are joined by student actor, Dilisima Vickers, and co-artistic director, Jim Wallert, to discuss how the show came to be, and what they learned through making it. We also share excerpts from the show, including an original song called Segregated by Design, Jane Crow Real Estate, and a game show called The Color Code.

LINKS:

EpicTheaterEnsemble.org
Trailer for Between The Lines
S6E2 – EPIC’s “Nothing About Us”: Youth Theater on Integration
Citizen Artists: A Guide to Helping Young People Make Plays That Change the World
Segregated by Design website
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America– by Richard Rothstein
All Quiet on the Western Front
Poverty, Race, and Research Action Council – the organization that commissioned Between the Lines
Interview from PRRAC’s Journal with Dilisima about Between the Lines

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.

We’re thrilled to be joining Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website.

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.

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Centering Civil Rights in the Fight for Education

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 08:00:00 +0000

For many, the words “civil rights” conjure images of the past, focusing on politicians, lawyers, activists. However, our guests today ask us to consider the civil rights implications we face today in the fight for a quality, 21st century education for all kids. Dr. Kia Darling-Hammond was recently commissioned to write about the importance of civil rights in the fight for educational equity, particularly the importance of the data collected by the Civil Rights Data Collection. Through that work, she enlisted her mother, Dr. Linda-Darling-Hammond, to co-author a new book, The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning: Five Essentials for Equity. With a focus on classrooms, as well as many factors outside of classrooms, the book asks us to consider the ongoing fight for civil rights, and how it plays out in our education system every day. While there continue to be important roles for political leaders, lawyers, and activists, the book also highlights the roles we can all play in pushing for an educational system that truly creates the world we want our kids to inherit.

LINKS:

The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning: Five Essentials for Equity
Civil Rights Data Collection
Sean Darling-Hammond, Jason Okonofua, Amanda Perez – When policy and psychology meet: Mitigating the consequences of bias in schools
Lisa Delpit – Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom
Hewlett Foundation – Deeper Learning Defined
John Dewey – The Child and the Curriculum Including, the School and Society
Ep 2 – The Bordon Family

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.

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 thrilled to share these final thoughts on the episode from Drs. Darling-Hammond:

“White parents aren’t the only parents who are facing challenging decisions about integrated school settings. This is a challenge for everyone, and we detail several considerations in the book, particularly around the importance of using restorative practices and social emotional learning instead of punitivity.

It’s notable how many Black families have chosen to keep their children out of public school all together, even when schools reopened, due to the noticeable reduction in their children’s distress. We’d love to end on a hopeful note, but it is important to bring attention to these challenges. In integrated settings, Black, Indigenous, Latiné, and Asian students can truly suffer as school climate reflects the larger oppressive society.

It’s not enough to just put everyone together in a school building and say, “Done!”

We also need all parents, especially those with financial and political capital, to fight to resource districts and schools. When that happens, all children can receive a high quality, deeper learning education, regardless of where their school is located. We discuss this in the book, as well.

Powerful change happens when people of good conscience run for seats on local boards. It happens when communities that have a lot of privilege amplify, uplift, and create empowering conditions for communities that don’t – Rather than running for that board seat, sponsoring the campaign of a Black mother who is under-resourced, but deeply understands the community’s needs. Sometimes people have to get out of the way while they pave the way.

And at those board meetings and parent meetings and committee meetings, we need everyone to advocate for those restorative, humanizing practices that honor children as whole people with rich emotional lives and needs. Powerful change happens when parents advocate for true inclusion, for belonging. Especially right now, as we see such a push for exclusion, censorship, and privatization, people of good conscience need to come together, build collective understanding, organize, and act. Be in those meetings, schedule time with administrators, write letters, make phone calls, interact on social media… this is how we fight for our rights – our children’s futures – not individually, but together, en masse, with purpose and perseverance.

Civic engagement is effective – often more effective than people realize. People taking time to call and comment – it adds up – and it can, and does, translate into policy. And it allows those of us (policymakers) who want to create humane, inclusive schools to be reinforced in our ability to do so.

All parents of all backgrounds want their child to be in a school environment where they feel welcome and experience belonging. And there’s work to do for even the most “privileged” kids to be at a place where they can feel that they are belonging, and welcome. Depression rates are high all the way around. Pressure is high all the way around. Families can intervene in this together. They don’t even have to make solutions up. Blueprints exist. (And we talk about some of those in the book, as well). These healthy environments require advocating for all kids.

Finally, and this is key, children are the experts on their experiences. They have wisdom and we, adults, need to be guided by it. Together we can build the education that our children need and deserve. The more of us who show up, the lighter the lift.”

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ICYMI: Teaching While White

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 09:00:00 +0000

While we’re on break, we wanted to bring you an episode from the Teaching While White podcast that we really enjoyed. We’ve been following Teaching While White for a long time, and have appreciated their focus on the role of White teachers in creating equity driven spaces for students. Three quarters of teachers are White, and they have an important role to play in antiracism. In this episode, they speak with Dr. John Diamond, and Dr. Amanda Lewis about their book Despite the Best Intentions. We had Dr. Lewis on the podcast several years ago on our Brown v. Board series, and we’ve featured the book in our book club. It’s an incredible look at the difference between desegregation and true integration, and highlights the challenges of internal school segregation.

Jenna and Elizabeth, the hosts of the Teaching While White Podcast, just released a book, called Learning and Teaching While White: Antiracist Strategies for School Communities. Follow the podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and buy the book!

Enjoy, and we’ll be back soon with all new episodes!

LINKS

Teaching While White website
Teaching While White Podcast
Learning and Teaching While White: Antiracist Strategies for School Communities
Drs. Diamond and Lewis – Despite the Best Intentions
Dr. Lewis’s episode on our show

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.

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.

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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The 100th Episode!

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 09:00:00 +0000

We’re celebrating 100 episodes! Over the past 4.5 years we’ve shared 100 conversations ranging from parent conversations to experts. Today, we reflect on what we’ve learned, we share clips from past episodes, and talk about what we hope for the future. If you’re new here, this is a great place to start, if you’ve been with us since the beginning, you’ll recognize some clips.

We share, hopes and dreams, tears and laughter, and deep gratitude for all of you for listening over these past 100 episodes.

Happy holidays and THANK YOU!!

LINKS:

The first episode of the podcast – Ep 1 – Intro to The Integrated Schools Podcast
The story of our founder, Courtney Mykytyn
Nikole Hannah-Jones on This American Life
The Problem We All Live With – Part 1
The Problem We All Live With – Part 2
#ClearTheAir
Dr. JPB Gerald on our show
S5E18 – Checklists and Merit Badges: JPB Gerald on Whiteness
S9E6 – Language, Power, and Whiteness
His new book – Antisocial Language Teaching: English and the Pervasive Pathology of Whiteness
Courtney Martin – Writing for On Being
Albert’s episode – S5E3 – Gifts We Didn’t Expect: Family, Faith, and Integration
Active Hope (Revised): How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power
S5E4 – All I Want for Christmas is 3.5%
S7E10 – An Overdue Reckoning on Indigenous Education
S9E3 – PTA So White with Dr. Brittany Murray
S7E14 – Unpacking the Racial Hierarchy in School Choices
S9E5 – Cathryn and the Saviors
S7E4 – Redrawing the Lines: Undoing the History of Segregation with Tomas Monarez
S7E2 – Moving and Choosing a School – with Sarah and Anna
S6E12 – BvB@67- Greg and Carol Revisited – revisiting “I Hope They Hear It In Our Voices”
S9E2 – Finding Hope in Solidarity with Heather McGhee
S7E12 – Carol Anderson on White Rage
Ep 14 – Kirkland on Integration
Ep 7 – Vicky and The Saviors
Ep 5 – Interview with a Skeptic
Ep 19 – Segrenomics, Black Teachers, and Noliwe Rooks (BvB@65)
Dr. Rooks – Cutting School: The Segrenomics of American Education
Between We and They: A School Integration Story (Part 1)

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.

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.

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Language, Power, and Whiteness

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 09:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Cathryn and the Saviors

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 09:00:00 +0000

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:

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.

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.

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What's up with the suburbs?: Organizing, Building Relationships, and Voting

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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PTA So White with Dr. Brittany Murray

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 07:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Finding Hope in Solidarity with Heather McGhee

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 07:00:00 +0000

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.

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 off 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.

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.

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Back to School Transitions - Season 9 Kick Off!

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 08:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Parenting to Win: Who Pays for the Helicopter? (FROM 2019)

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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Between We and They - Part 5 (Re-Release)

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Between We and They - Part 4 (Re-Release)

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Between We and They - Part 3 (Re-Release)

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 11:00:00 +0000

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…

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.

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Between We and They - Part 2 (Re-Release)

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Between We and They - Part 1 (Re-Release)

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 11:00:00 +0000

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?

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.

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Race, Class, and Power in Our Schools: Mark and Max from School Colors

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Reflections on Season 7

Wed, 25 May 2022 11:00:00 +0000

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:

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.

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.

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Anti-CRT, Book Bans, and A Call to HEAL

Wed, 11 May 2022 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Examining Anti-Blackness: A Multiracial Parent Roundtable

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Unpacking the Racial Hierarchy in School Choices

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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The Debrief: Carol Anderson on White Rage

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Carol Anderson on White Rage

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 11:00:00 +0000

“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.

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.

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A Framework for Antiracist Education

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 12:00:00 +0000

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:

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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An Overdue Reckoning on Indigenous Education

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Revisiting Heather McGhee on How Racism Hurts Us All

Tue, 08 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Parenting for Racial Justice

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 12:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Year End: Listener Questions

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 12:00:00 +0000

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:

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.

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Teacher Check-In Revisited

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 12:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Not Your Model Minority

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 12:00:00 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Redrawing the Lines: Undoing the History of Segregation

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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 Tomàs 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 McRae on our podcast – White Woman and the Politics of White Supremacy
Dr. McRae’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.

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.

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Generational Work: Stefan Lallinger on Integration

Wed, 20 Oct 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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.

We’re thrilled to be joining Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website.

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.

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Moving and Choosing A School

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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New Season, New Perspectives . . . New Co-Host!!

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Learning In Public with Courtney Martin

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

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Reckoning with Plessy: 125 Years of Separate But Equal

Wed, 26 May 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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

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.

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.

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BvB@67- Greg and Carol Revisited

Fri, 14 May 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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BvB@67 - David Hinojosa Revisted

Thu, 13 May 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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BvB@67 - Amanda Lewis Revisited

Wed, 12 May 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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

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.

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.

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BvB@67 - Noliwe Rooks Revisited

Tue, 11 May 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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BvB@67 - Rucker Johnson Revisited

Mon, 10 May 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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Better Schools Through Parent Empowerment

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

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Where We Begin - An Integrated Schools Webinar

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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 Resistance
Episode: 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 Kirkland
Episode: Kirkland on Integration
Rucker Johnson
The Children of the Dream
Episode – Rucker Johnson and the Grandchildren of Desegregation
Dr Kfir Mordechay
Episode: 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.

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, edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits..

Music by Kevin Casey.

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Zero-Sum Politics: Heather McGhee on How Racism Hurts Us All

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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” 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

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 at podcast@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

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In Full View of Race: Elise Boddie on Integration

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 11:00:00 +0000

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 Times
Ordinariness 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 – 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.

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.

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The Power of Privilege: WPLN's The Promise

Wed, 03 Mar 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Season 2 of WPLN’s The Promise takes on one of the contentious topics in america, what has been deemed as the “Great Equalizer”, but more and more feels like the Greate Divider: public eductaion.

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% economicially disadvantaged). These two schools, 1.2 miles apart, were starkly different, yet representatvie 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.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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EPIC's "Nothing About Us": Youth Theater on Integration

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 12:00:00 +0000

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, unequivicollay, that nothing about students done without their input, will be for them.

You can rent Nothing About Us 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.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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Third Wave School Desegregation: A Call for Real Integration

Wed, 03 Feb 2021 12:00:00 +0000

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.

LINKS:

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 podcast@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.

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Saying Goodbye to Season 5

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 11:00:00 +0000

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 Epton, 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

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.

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, edited and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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Family Engagement and Equity

Wed, 07 Oct 2020 11:00:00 +0000

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

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.

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 Molly Wheeler. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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Congressman Bobby Scott on Strength in Diversity

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 11:00:04 +0000

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 podcast@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.

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Equity According to Angela Glover Blackwell

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 11:24:21 +0000

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

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.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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ICYMI: School Colors

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 11:00:39 +0000

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:

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.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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Checklists and Merit Badges: JPB Gerald on Whiteness

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 11:00:14 +0000

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

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.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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Reopening Schools and Equity

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 11:00:08 +0000

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

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.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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Revisiting Not In My Suburbs: Milliken v Bradley @46

Wed, 22 Jul 2020 11:00:14 +0000

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.

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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IntegrateNYC: Youth Voice for Real Integration

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 11:00:08 +0000

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

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.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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White Supremacy and Black Educational Excellence: Hidden Stories of the Integration Movement

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 11:00:35 +0000

White Supremacy and Black Educational Excellence: Hidden Stories of the Integration Movement

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

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.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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Raising White Kids with Jennifer Harvey

Thu, 21 May 2020 11:00:08 +0000

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

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.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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Brown v Board at 66 (BONUS)

Sun, 17 May 2020 11:00:02 +0000

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.

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.

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 Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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COVID-19: Matt Gonzales on Equity

Wed, 13 May 2020 11:00:10 +0000

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.

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

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.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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COVID-19: Teacher Check-In

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 11:00:09 +0000

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.

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.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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COVID-19: Finding Community in Isolation

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 11:00:01 +0000

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

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.

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. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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Choosing a School: Values, Privilege, and Responsibility

Wed, 18 Mar 2020 11:00:11 +0000

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.

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.

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The Impacts of Testing Our Kids and Ranking Our Schools (Part 2)

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 12:00:00 +0000

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

Join our Patreon (http://patreon.com/integratedschools) 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 (https://twitter.com/integratedschls) on twitter, IntegratedSchools (http://facebook.com/integratedschools) on Facebook, or email us at podcast@integratedschools.org.

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowitz and Ali McKay. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey

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The Impacts of Testing Our Kids and Ranking Our Schools (Part 1)

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 12:00:05 +0000

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. The Integrated Schools Podcast is produced by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits. Audio editing and mixing by Andrew Lefkowits. Music by Kevin Casey.

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Educational Justice Through Reparations with Justin Hansford

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 12:00:01 +0000

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 at podcast@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.

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Tragedy Strikes the Integrated Schools Family

Sat, 04 Jan 2020 13:00:05 +0000

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

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All I Want for Christmas is 3.5%

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 12:00:10 +0000

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

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Gifts We Didn't Expect: Family, Faith, and Integration

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 12:00:11 +0000

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:

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.

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.

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Parenting to Win: Who Pays for the Helicopter?

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 12:00:03 +0000

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.

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.

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

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Gentrification and School Segregation

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 12:00:00 +0000

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:

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 Courtney Mykytyn. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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Support Integrated Schools on Patreon (BONUS)

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 12:00:09 +0000

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!

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Between We and They: A School Integration Story (Part 5)

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 11:00:12 +0000

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.”

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 here.

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Between We and They: A School Integration Story (Part 4)

Thu, 17 Oct 2019 11:00:14 +0000

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.

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Between We and They: A School Integration Story (Part 3)

Wed, 16 Oct 2019 11:00:08 +0000

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

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Between We and They: A School Integration Story (Part 2)

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 11:00:07 +0000

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Between We and They: A School Integration Story (Part 1)

Mon, 14 Oct 2019 11:00:09 +0000

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

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Not In My Suburbs: Milliken v. Bradley @ 45 (BONUS)

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 11:00:02 +0000

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

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Busing: The Terms of the Debate (BONUS)

Wed, 17 Jul 2019 11:00:02 +0000

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

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.

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.

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ICYMI: Seeing White (BONUS)

Wed, 10 Jul 2019 12:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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ICYMI: The Miseducation Podcast (BONUS)

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 11:00:24 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 23 - Grappling with Brown v. Board (BvB@65)

Wed, 22 May 2019 11:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Ep 22 - I Hope They Hear It In Our Voices (BvB@65)

Wed, 15 May 2019 11:00:00 +0000

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 podcast@integratedschools.org.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 21 - Beyond Black and White with David Hinojosa (BvB@65)

Wed, 08 May 2019 11:00:00 +0000

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

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep20 - Amanda Lewis on Desegregation Without Integration (BvB@65)

Wed, 01 May 2019 11:00:00 +0000

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’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

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.

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.

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Ep 19 - Segrenomics, Black Teachers, and Noliwe Rooks (BvB@65)

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 15:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Ep 18 - Rucker Johnson and the Grandchildren of Desegregation (BvB@65)

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 16:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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Ep 17 - Public Schools, Private Money

Wed, 20 Mar 2019 16:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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Ep 16 - Too Bad, Just Fine, and Whiteness Centered

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 16:00:00 +0000

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.

LINKS:

Despite Their Best Intentions by Amanda Lewis and John Diamond
The Integrated Schools Two Tour Pledge

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.

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.

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Ep 15 - Gifted, Talented and Segregated

Wed, 06 Mar 2019 17:00:00 +0000

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

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 14 - Kirkland on Integration

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 17:00:00 +0000

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

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.

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.

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Ep 13 - Hopes and Hazards of Dual Language

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 17:00:00 +0000

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:

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 12 - Whiteness vs Rightness: A Conversation on Colonizing

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 17:00:00 +0000

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:

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 11 - White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 18:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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Ep 10 - Why My Choice Matters: Taking Back the Playground

Wed, 30 Jan 2019 21:30:00 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 9 - The Only One (Part 2): SMOG

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 17:00:00 +0000

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.

Wishing you all happy holidays and we’ll see you back next year!

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 8 - The Only One (Part 1): SMOG

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 17:10:00 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 7 - Vicky and The Saviors

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 17:00:00 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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BONUS - An Update on Integrated Schools

Wed, 28 Nov 2018 18:00:00 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 6 - The Hidden Gem

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 17:00:00 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 5 - Interview with a Skeptic

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 17:00:00 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 4 - Sacrificing on the Altar of Social Justice: SMOG

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 17:20:00 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 3 - Hagerman and the White Kids

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 17:00:00 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 2 - The Bordon Family

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 16:30:00 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Ep 1 - Intro to The Integrated Schools Podcast

Tue, 30 Oct 2018 16:00:00 +0000

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.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

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.

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Welcome to the Integrated Schools Podcast (TRAILER)

Sun, 28 Oct 2018 08:00:00 +0000

A new episode

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