New York City’s school system is deeply segregated. Only 28% of public schools qualify as diverse when diversity is defined as no one racial group exceeding 50% of enrollment and no two groups exceeding 80%. A well-documented racial achievement gap persists despite attempted interventions to close it. What’s more, compelling analysis seems to indicate that the racial wealth gap is inextricable from the achievement gap, pointing to the fact that the micro-interventions we have proposed to this point are insufficient to address the underlying causes of the disparate outcomes. On October 22, with partners Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York (CCC), and FPWA, we considered how larger systems play into educational equity. Hundreds joined UNH Executive Director, Susan Stamler, in conversation with panelists Takiema Bunche Smith, Executive Director of the Center on Culture, Race undefined Equity, Bank Street College of Education; Dr. Michelle A. Paige, Associate Executive Director, University Settlement; and Anne Williams-Isom, James R. Dumpson Chair, Child Welfare Studies, Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service.
