Brown at 70 – Title VI at 60 – Milliken at 50. And the National Coalition on School Diversity (NCSD) also marks an important milestone this year: 15 years strong. Founded in 2009 by nine organizations, including LDF, MALDEF, Lawyers’ Committee, ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, Harvard’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute, and PRRAC, NCSD grew out of the broad Supreme Court amicus effort in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District 1 (the Seattle and Louisville voluntary integration cases) – and the agreement of five justices that reducing racial isolation and pursuing racial diversity in schools were compelling government interests.
From the Parents Involved amicus experience, we learned two important lessons that led to NCSD’s founding. First, the social science evidence on the benefits of school integration had been progressing rapidly and needed to be publicly disseminated. Second, a wide array of advocacy and interest groups strongly supported school integration, even though they rarely, if ever, mentioned it in conversations with Congress or the Department of Education. We believed that a single-issue coalition would help bring much needed new attention to the long-standing and persistent issue of segregated and inequitable education in America.
Looking back at 15 years, the coalition has exceeded our expectations. Today, NCSD is comprised of 80+ member organizations and individual members. NCSD’s commitment to evidence-based policy and advocacy draws on the expertise of our distinguished Research Advisory Panel members. As the main hub of the school integration movement, NCSD has been instrumental in supporting, shaping, and communicating PK-12 school integration research, policy, and practice. The coalition has produced dozens of important policy and research briefs and reports, scores of advocacy letters on key Congressional and Departmental priorities, five national conferences, and numerous other resources and events. We help to convene a growing field and, with the support of our government relation partners, maintain a steady presence on the Hill and at the Department of Education, which has helped generate a series of small – but important – policy wins.
As we look ahead at the next 15 years, we understand the challenges we face, both legally and politically, but remain unwavering in our belief in the promise of Brown and in the fight for truly integrated, equitable, and thriving schools for all students.
You must be logged in to post a comment.