Sheff Movement coalition
|
 |
You may have seen this article reporting on the State's recent outrageous suggestions that the court should withdraw from oversight of Sheff v. O'Neill implementation. Judge Berger was "surprised" and encouraged the parties to continue talking. But he noted that "If I have to hold a hearing, I will."
Recognizing that this is just the latest effort by the state to avoid responsibility for full implementation of the Sheff mandate, we thought we would compile a list of reasons why Judge Berger should never agree to end court supervision of the case.
Here's an initial list of six reasons:
- We don't have to guess what a lack of court supervision looks like: For the first seven years after the 1996 state supreme court's ruling, there was no court involvement, and what happened? Essentially nothing - the plaintiffs had to go to court twice to demand court oversight.
- More than 14,000 students, from both Hartford and the surrounding suburbs, were left on the waiting list after this year's lottery. The state is not moving quickly enough to meet the high demand for quality, integrated education.
- Continuing magnet and Open Choice expansion makes economic sense.
The cost of renovating and running an integrated magnet school is not much different from the cost of renovating and maintaining a high-poverty, segregated school. While we support strengthening and improving neighborhood schools, we also believe that expensive investments in new infrastructure should be used to support high-performing integrated schools. Why does the state want to invest in segregation?
- Are Magnet Schools "unfair"? No! They are specifically designed to erase the unfairness and inequity between the education available to low income Hartford children and higher income suburban children. We have erased that inequity for almost half of Hartford children! The only thing that is "unfair" about this system is that the state has been so slow in meeting the demand among Hartford families for these high quality schools.
- Sheff schools provide both racial and economic integration for Hartford children. The Sheff case was brought because of the severe levels of poverty concentration and racial isolation in the Hartford public schools, compounded by gross resource and achievement disparities between Hartford and predominantly white, higher income suburban districts, and a crumbling educational infrastructure. The Sheff remedy is addressing all of these issues - low income Hartford children are now finally receiving high quality, equally resourced education in beautiful schools that are no longer racially isolated or concentrated in poverty. Why would the state want to stop supporting and growing a system that has met all these goals?
- Nearly two decades have passed since the supreme court's "Every passing day..." decision - but only 12 years since meaningful implementation of the decision began. We cannot continue to force Hartford students to remain in high-poverty, segregated schools that are both separate and unequal.
|
Help JMA Win $100K Award!
|
Hartford's Journalism and Media Academy (JMA) Nominated for Award
The Nellie Mae Education Foundation has announced 6 nominees for its 4th Annual Lawrence W. O'Toole Award: "The award is given out each year to an individual, school, district or non-profit that has exhibited great leadership in moving student-centered approaches to learning forward in the New England region."
The nominee to receive the most online votes by September 30 will win the $100,000 award.
Note that voting is a two-step process:
- Select JMA in the list of nominees on the left, click the "Cast Your Vote" button and enter your e-mail address.
- Check your e-mail and click the link to confirm your vote.
|
"Is school choice really a choice, or a chance?"
CT Mirror (9/10/15)
|
|
| The article includes this useful graphic, listing the proportion of applicants offered seats for each magnet school and Open Choice district. |
When it comes to winning the lottery for a magnet school seat in the Hartford region, some bets are a sure thing.
All 183 students whose first choice was to attend Classical Magnet High School in northwest Hartford were offered a seat this school year. Seven other magnet schools had a 100 percent acceptance rate as well.
But the odds more often are not in the student's favor, though the chance of winning a seat varies depending on which magnet or suburban public school he or she applies to. [ Read more.]
SMC's Aug 2014 policy brief advocated to provide this type of info to parents.
|
Next Sheff Coalition Meeting
|
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Meeting: 10:00am - Noon
at the Sheff Movement office
75 Charter Oak Ave, Hartford (corner of Charter Oak Ave & Wyllys St)
Directions and map here; parking and main entrance on Wyllys St.
We will meet in the conference center on the first floor in Building 1.
|
Upcoming Events of Interest
|
STUDENTS, PARENTS, EDUCATORS, ADVOCATES, RESEARCHERS, INTEGRATION PRACTITIONERS, AND ACTIVISTS:
ARE YOU REGISTERED FOR #NCSD2015? |
Hosted by the National Coalition on School Diversity
September 24-25th
Washington, DC
(Although the deadline for the conference room block has passed, we reserved a few additional rooms for Sheff Movement use. Please email gina.chirichigno@gmail.com for more details.)
Keynote: Nikole Hannah-Jones, an award-winning investigative reporter covering racial injustice for the New York Times Magazine, in conversation with NCSD member Susan Eaton. You may recognize Nikole's name from The Problem We All Live With Part I, a powerful story about school segregation and educational opportunity in Metro St. Louis, which recently aired on This American Life. Two plenary panels:
- School integration policy: progress and challenges at the federal, state and local level
- Gateway2change: Connecting and Empowering Students to Create Change in Metro St. Louis (Following tragic events in Ferguson, Gateway2changewas created as a means to empower students to play a leadership role in improving the St. Louis community.)
Check out the list of confirmed workshops, including the CREC-led "Storytelling in Advocacy: Unleashing the Power of Parent Narratives" (and more to come!).
Help us get the word out about #NCSD2015 on Twitter. NCSD's handle is @diverse_schools and is using the hashtag #integratedschools.
We hope to see you there!
|
| September 16 |
Speak Up at School
5:30pm EDT - Live webinar from Teaching Tolerance
| REGISTER |
| October 6 |
Small State, Big Debate: Race
Sheff Movement at CT Mirror's Public Policy Event
Fairfield University
| More Info |
| October 22 |
Language, Culture and Identity
A Regional Conference on English Language Learners
University of Southern Maine
|
|
|
|
Comments