Third Wave School Desegregation: A Call for Real Integration

<p>We’re back! Kicking off season 6 with a webinar hosted by <a href="https://urbanteachers.org/the-black-educators-initiative-bei/" target="_blank">The Black Educators Initiative</a> (BEI), and a chance to share a bit of our thinking about why we do the work we do at Integrated Schools.</p><p>BEI, as a project of <a href="https://urbanteachers.org/" target="_blank">Urban Teachers</a>, is working to grow the Black teaching corps. When executive director, <a href="https://www.robertwsimmons.com/" target="_blank">Dr. Robert Simmons</a>, 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 <a href="https://integratedschools.org/about/our-founder/" target="_blank">losing our founder</a> 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>We're thrilled to be joined by <a href="https://integratenyc.org/team/karla" target="_blank">Karla</a> and <a href="https://integratenyc.org/team/rachel" target="_blank">Rachel</a> from <a href="https://integratenyc.org/" target="_blank">IntegrateNYC</a> for this panel, as their <a href="https://integratenyc.org/mission" target="_blank">5Rs of Real Integration</a> provide a powerful framework for thinking about real integration.</p><p>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