February is Black History Month

Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development, edited by Enid Lee, Deborah Menkart, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Washington, DC: Network of Educators on the Americas, 1998. 
A 463-page collection developed by educators, parents, and activists determined to create a valuable resource for change. Lesson plans and staff development activities are included, as well as critical examinations of controversial school issues such as bilingual education and tracking. Contains an extensive resource guide of teaching and learning resources and many helpful Internet sites.

Table of Contents here:

Here's the link to reviews at Teaching for Change

40+ Children's Books about Human Rights & Social Justice

40+ Children's Books about Human Rights & Social Justice

An education capable of saving humanity is no small undertaking; it involves … the preparation of young people to understand the times in which they live.

— Maria Montessori, Education and Peace

What is Discriminology?

Discriminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, consequences, and prevention of modern day racism and discriminatory behavior, both on the individual and Institutional levels. Discriminology is an interdisciplinary field drawing especially upon the research of sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social anthropologists, as well as scholars of law.

Discriminology Home Page

Discriminolgy was founded in 2015 to document and publicize the mass racial inequalities that still exist in our education system. Through the use of descriptive statistics, public data portals & innovative social media work, we are empowering communities of color by making school data more transparent.

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.

Race, Whiteness, and Education by Zues Leonardo

Race, Whiteness, and Education 

232 pages Publisher: Routledge; 1st edition (March 25, 2009) $48.95

In the colorblind era of Post-Civil Rights America, race is often wrongly thought to be irrelevant or, at best, a problem of racist individuals rather than a systemic condition to be confronted.  Race, Whiteness, and Education interrupts this dangerous assumption by reaffirming a critical appreciation of the central role that race and racism still play in schools and society.  Author Zeus Leonardo’s conceptual engagement of race and whiteness asks questions about its origins, its maintenance, and envisages its future. This book does not simply rehearse exhausted ideas on the relationship among race, class, and education, but instead offers new ways of understanding how multiple social relations interact with one another and of their impact in thinking about a more genuine sense of multiculturalism. By asking fundamental questions about whiteness in schools and society, Race, Whiteness, and Education goes to the heart of race relations and the common sense understandings that sustain it, thus painting a clearer picture of the changing face of racism.  

Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America by Paul Tough

            Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America 

310 pages Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (September 10, 2009) $14.95

What would it take to change the lives of poor children—not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in big numbers, and in a way that could be replicated nationwide? The question led him to create the Harlem Children’s Zone, a ninety-seven-block laboratory in central Harlem where he is testing new and sometimes controversial ideas about poverty in America. His conclusion: if you want poor kids to be able to compete with their middle-class peers, you need to change everything in their lives—their schools, their neighborhoods, even the child-rearing practices of their parents.
Whatever It Takes is a tour de force of reporting, an inspired portrait not only of Geoffrey Canada but of the parents and children in Harlem who are struggling to better their lives, often against great odds. Carefully researched and deeply affecting, this is a dispatch from inside the most daring and potentially transformative social experiment of our time.

Harlem Children's Zone Website

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

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Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

• 368 pages Publisher: Spiegel & Grau; Reprint edition (August 18, 2015)
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A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time
Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.
 Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.

Book Review from The Washington Post

We Need to Talk about an Injustice: Bryan Stevenson's TED Talk