Why Talk About Whiteness?

Why Talk About Whiteness?

Toolkit for Why Talk About Whiteness

Don’t take it personally—it’s not about you! 

White people have come to expect a level of racial comfort. When that expectation is met with racial stress, DiAngelo explains the result can be White Fragility: “White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.”

No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning by Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom

No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning 

by Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom

352 pages, Simon & Schuster, 2004

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The racial gap in academic performance between whites and Asians, on the one hand, and Latinos and blacks, on the other hand, is America's most urgent educational problem. It is also the central civil rights issue of our time, say Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom. Unequal skills and knowledge are the main sources of ongoing racial inequality, and racial inequality is America's great unfinished business. 
A wide and tragic gap in learning is evident in affluent suburbs as well as inner cities. But great schools are scattered across the country, as described in inspiring detail by the Thernstroms. These schools are putting even the most highly disadvantaged children on the American ladder of economic opportunity. 
There are no good excuses for the perpetuation of long-standing inequalities, the Thernstroms argue eloquently. The problem can be solved, but conventional strategies will not work. Fundamental educational reform is needed. Carefully researched, accessibly written, and powerfully persuasive, this book offers both a close analysis of the current landscape and a blueprint for essential and overdue change.

Look inside.
Must Schools Fail? A review from the New York Review of Books here.
Comments and Reviews here.

Educational Equity: Examples of School Equity Policies in the United States

Minneapolis Public Schools Policy 1304 Equity and Diversity

RACIAL EQUITY POLICY BRIEF 16 Solutions that Deliver Equity and Excellence in Education By Jermaine Toney and Hillary Rodgers

Portland Public Schools Racial Educational Policy

ENSURING EDUCATIONAL AND RACIAL EQUITY - Seattle Public Schools

Bellevue School District Equity Department

Bloomington Public Schools Office of Educational Equity

Hopkins School District - Equity Strategy Framework

Portland Public Schools Racial Equity Plan (DRAFT)

Vision and Mission for Equity and Diversity in Our School/District - Nebraska Department of Education

A Promise to Act: Educational Equity and Excellence for All of Our Children - Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe leaders, Isle Schools, Nay Ah Shing Schools, Onamia Schools, Wewinabi Early Childhood Program, and Central Lakes College 

Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) - Ensuring Equity in Education

Denver Public Schools - Definitions Helpful to Understand Equity and Inclusion in Education

How Does Your Organization Define Equity? Education Funding Advisory Board - Illinois State Board of Education

Saint Paul Public Schools Policy - Racial Equity

REIMAGINING EQUITY AND DIVERSITY: A Framework for Transforming the University of Minnesota

Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences That Make a Difference by Howard C. Stevenson

Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences That Make a Difference 

by Howard C. Stevenson 

240 pages Publisher: Teachers College Press (December 20, 2013)

Based on extensive research, this provocative volume explores how schools are places where racial conflicts often remain hidden at the expense of a healthy school climate and the well-being of students of color. Most schools fail to act on racial micro-aggressions because the stress of negotiating such conflicts is extremely high due to fears of incompetence, public exposure, and accusation. Instead of facing these conflicts head on, schools perpetuate a set of avoidance or coping strategies. The author of this much-needed book uncovers how racial stress undermines student achievement. Students, educators, and social service support staff will find workable strategies to improve their racial literacy skills to read, recast, and resolve racially stressful encounters when they happen.
Book Features:
* A model that applies culturally relevant behavioral stress management strategies to problem-solve racial stress in schools.
* Examples demonstrating workable solutions relevant within predominantly White schools for students, parents, teachers, and administrators.
* Measurable outcomes and strategies for developing racial literacy skills that can be integrated into the K-12 curriculum and teacher professional development.
Teaching and leadership skills that will create a more tolerant and supportive school environment for all students.

See inside here.

There is Nothing Wrong with Black Students by Jawanza Kunjufu

There is Nothing Wrong with Black Students 128 pages, $12.95

Publisher: African American Images (February 24, 2012)

Refuting common ideas about the racial achievement gap, this exploration of the education system posits that the gap is not the result of the students, their parents, or the larger community, but rather stems from the limited effectiveness of the schools they attend. With a focus on what principals and teachers can do, this instructive resource explores ways that schools can change in order to better serve the needs of these students, such as gaining a better understanding of different learning styles, implementing a curriculum that is more relevant to students’ lives, focusing on the amount of time each task takes each student, and experimenting with single-gender classrooms. This book also looks at examples of the success of black students in schools that have taken the time to apply some of these policies, demonstrating that any student can thrive when benefited with a passionate and comprehensive education.

Read pages here.

Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools by Glenn Singleton

 Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for 

Achieving Equity in Schools 

312 pages Publisher: Corwin; Second Edition (October 21, 2014) $36.95

Create a system wide plan for transforming the district office, schools, and classrooms into places that truly support ALL students achieving their highest levels!

This updated edition of the bestseller continues to explain the need for candid, courageous conversations about race so that educators may understand why achievement inequality persists and learn how they can develop a curriculum that promotes true educational equity and excellence.

·    Revised Courageous Conversation Compass

·    Racial autobiographies

·    Case study on St. Paul Public Schools, which has stayed on track with the Courageous Conversation protocol and framework

·    Links to video segments of the author describing the work

·    Activities and checklists for school and district leaders

·    Action and implementation steps

The Right to Learn: A Blueprint for Creating Schools that Work and The Flat World: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future by Linda Darling Hammond

           

         The Right to Learn: A Blueprint for Creating Schools that Work

          394 pages Publisher: Jossey-Bass (August 3, 2001) $26.95 

"While she recognizes the necessity for school reform and the complexity of implementing it, Darling-Hammond remains optimistic that systemic changes to ensure access to a meaningful education for all children are possible. Her book is positive and hopeful and serves as a fascinating account of American education and its promise of 'the right to learn' for all children." --Washington Post "Darling-Hammond's central claim is well worth listening to. She argues that American students do so poorly by comparison with students in other industrialized countries not because we don't give them enough work, but because our teaching is less thoughtful, and because we are obsessed with bureaucratic processes rather than educational outcomes." --New York Times Book Review One of the nation's most respected educators provides a vision of exceptional, learner-centered schools and describes the policies and practices that are needed to create these schools on a system-wide basis.

Read Chapter 1 of The Right to Learn here.

The Flat World: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future

Drawing on her broad experience, Darling-Hammond examines the roots of the U.S. modern education system and shows how the skills required for our 21st-century global economy cannot be learned in traditional education systems, which have been in place since the early 1900s. She identifies an "opportunity gap" that has evolved as new kinds of learning have become necessary, a gap where low-income students, students of colour, and English language learners often do not have the same access as others to qualified teachers, high-quality curriculum, and well-resourced classrooms.

After setting the stage on current conditions in the U.S., Darling-Hammond offers a coherent approach for effective reform that focusses on creating successful systems, inducting and supporting quality teachers, designing effecting schools, establishing strong professional practice, and providing equitable and sufficient resources. The Flat World and Education lays out what the U.S. needs to do in order to build a system of high-achieving and equitable schools that ensures every child the right to learn.

Preview this book on Google Books here.

Multiplication is for White People: Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit

Multiplication is for White People: 

Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children 

256 pages Publisher: The New Press; Reprint edition (March 5, 2013) $17.95

Lisa Delpit’s Other People’s Children—which has sold more than a quarter-million copies to date—is a paradigm-shifting, highly acclaimed exploration of the cultural slippage between white teachers and students of color. In her long-awaited and now bestselling second book, "Multiplication Is for White People," the award-winning educator reflects on the last fifteen years of reform efforts—including No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, alternative teacher certification paths, and the charter school movement—that have left a generation of poor children of color feeling that higher educational achievement is not for them.
Hailed as "illuminating" (Publishers Weekly), "thought-provoking" (Harvard Educational Review), and a "much-needed review of the American educational system" (Kirkus Reviews), "Multiplication Is for White People" is a passionate reminder that there is no achievement gap at birth. Poor teaching, negative stereotypes, and a curriculum that does not adequately connect to poor children’s lives conspire against the prospects of poor children of color. From K-12 classrooms through the college years, Delpit brings the topic of educating other people’s children into the twenty-first century, outlining a blueprint for raising expectations based on a simple premise: that all aspects of advanced education are for everyone.

            Overview from Harvard Educational Review