<<Return to State & Local Campaigns Page
BACKGROUND
New York State has been home to several desegregation efforts, including the now abandoned court-ordered effort in Buffalo and the nation’s first voluntary interdistrict effort in Rochester. However, following a 2014 report from the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA naming New York the most segregated state in the nation, desegregation efforts in the state have taken on a renewed vigor. In late 2014, the state announced a socioeconomic integration pilot program using federal School Improvement Grant funds. In 2015, following a concerted advocacy effort by principals and civil rights groups in New York City, Mayor de Blasio’s administration announced a student admissions pilot program designed to increase and preserve student diversity.
MEDIA
- New York, NY — Policies Shift, Neighborhoods Change, but Elementary School Segregation Holds On (March 2017)
- New York, NY — It’s not about quotas: The real story behind how two Brooklyn schools have begun to diversify (June 2016)
- New York, NY — City took steps to boost academic diversity in 2015, new report shows (December 2015)
- New York, NY — 7 Elementary Schools Will Try to Boost Student Diversity in Pilot Program (November 2015)
- New York, NY — Why New York City Is Experimenting With New Ways to Desegregate Public Schools (July 2015)
- New York, NY — De Blasio signs law requiring new school diversity reports (June 2015)
- New York State — “Socioeconomic Integration Pilot Program” announced funding to support school integration plans in up to 25 of the state’s low-performing Priority and Focus Schools. See the RFP and the Department’s press release here. (December 2014)
- New York, NY — City Council Takes on School Segregation (October 2014)
- New York, NY — A Portrait of Segregation in New York City’s Schools (May 2012)
- New York State — Op-ed: School segregation on Long Island (June 2011)
ADVOCACY
- New York, NY — December 11, 2014 public hearing on school diversity bills in New York City Council
- “Diversity in New York City Schools” (description of proposed bills)
- Press release on NYC school diversity bills
- NCSD testimony
- Testimony from representatives from NYC School Districts 1, 3, 13
- Linda Tropp testimony
- New York State — Letter from New York advocates: discriminatory impact of state rules on charter schools “weighted lotteries” (October 2013)
OTHER RESOURCES
- New York City Elementary Schools: A Tale of Two Cities (New York Appleseed, 2016)
- Local Law 59 School Diversity Accountability Act (New York City Department of Education, 2015)
- Segregated and Unequal: The Public Elementary Schools of District 3 in New York City (Center for Immigrant Families, 2014)
- Within Our Reach – Segregation in NYC District Elementary Schools and What We Can Do About It: Addressing Internal Segregation and Harnessing the Educational Benefits of Diversity (New York Appleseed, 2014)
- New York State’s Extreme School Segregation: Inequality, Inaction and a Damaged Future (Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA, 2014)
ACTIVE NCSD MEMBERS
- National Organization (based in New York, NY) — NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund
- National Organization (based in New York, NY) — American Civil Liberties Union (Contact: Dennis Parker, dparker@aclu.org)
- National Organization (based in New York, NY) — Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
- New York State — Equity Assistance Center (Region II) at Touro College
- Long Island, NY — ERASE Racism (Contact: Elaine Gross, elaine@eraseracismny.org)
- New York, NY — NY Appleseed (Contact: David Tipson, dtipson@nyappleseed.org)
- New York, NY — IntegrateNYC4Me
- New York, NY — Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College
- Rochester/Buffalo, NY — Empire Justice Center
RESEARCH ADVISORY PANEL MEMBERS
- Amy Stuart Wells, Columbia University