The Integrated Schools Podcast

As Season 7 comes to close, Val and Andrew reflect on 17 episodes and share our most valuable takeaways and thoughts from this season, then we get into some juicy listener questions, as well as some announcements! Spoiler alert! Val has agreed to return for Season 8!!

As we reflect on the season, we have to take a moment to say thank you to a bunch of people who have made this season possible. First of all, all of our guests, who have shared their research, their stories, and their personal reflections. We are humbled to be in conversation with you all:

• Sarah and Anna
• Stefan Lallinger
• Tomàs Monarrez
• Sarah Soonling-Blackburn
• Zoe and Kara
• Chrissy Colón Bradt
• Heather McGhee
• Susan Faircloth
• Brittany Brazzel
• Carol Anderson
• Chantal Hailey
• Tricia and Daniella
• James Haslam

Additionally, the podcast staff collective at Integrated Schools, for brainstorming guests and stories, for working on transcript, and promotional graphics, and social media posts, and, most importantly, for being great thought partners in this important work:

• Darci Craghead
• Courtney Epton
• Anna Lodder
• Emily Moores
• Jennifer Patton
• Alex Stevens
• Ali Takata

Stay tuned this summer – we have a couple of bonus episodes planned, and we are re-releasing the Between We and They series from 2019 with some new reflections. We’ll also be hard at work recording conversations for next season. If you’d like to support this work, we’d be grateful if you went to our Patreon and became a supporter.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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When the backlash against “CRT” started, we thought it would blow over. It felt as though the attacks were in such bad faith that they didn’t even deserve a response. With nearly 35 states at least considering some type of classroom censorship bill, clearly, we were wrong. And yet, the question of what to do about it felt daunting to take on. And then, we found HEAL Together, an initiative from Race Forward.

H.E.A.L. (Honest Education Action & Leadership) Together, is building a movement of students, educators, and parents in school districts across the United States who believe that an honest, accurate and fully funded public education is the foundation for a just, multiracial democracy. In addition to serving as a hub to connect organizations across the country already engaged in the fight for educational justice, they also provide tools and trainings so that anyone can become an organizer and lend their voice to this effort.

We are joined today by James Haslam (he/him/his), who serves as Senior Fellow at Race Forward leading the HEAL Together Initiative. He shares about his organizing work, and what caregivers can do to push back against bad-faith narratives and act to support a fully funded, honest, accurate public education for all kids.

LINKS: 

• HEAL Together’s Website
• Sign the HEAL Together Pledge
• Register for the HEAL Together Training Series
• James and Cathy Albisa – OpEd in TruthOut
• Rights And Democracy – The organization James founded in New Hampshire
• Southlake Podcast
• White Rage – Dr. Carol Anderson
• Dr. Anderson on our show
• Mother’s of Massive Resistance – Dr. Elizabeth McRae

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Some of the most meaningful episodes we record for this show are the conversations we have with parents and caregivers reflecting on the choices they make for their kids and their own learning journeys. Our last episode with Dr. Chantal Hailey examined the role of anti-Black racism in school preferences across racial identities. One of the themes was the many ways that anti-Blackness shows up in White communities, but also in communities of color. We deeply believe in the power of multiracial dialog and so thought we would pair that episode with a conversation with a multiracial group of parents reflecting on Dr. Hailey’s research.

We’re joined by Dr. Daniella Boyd, a Latina daughter of Ecuadorian immigrants, and Tricia Ebarvia, an Asian American daughter of Filipino immigrants. Through love and a commitment to knowing better and doing better, we explore many of the ways that anti-Blackness shows up for each of us, and in our respective communities.

Content warning, particularly for Black listeners, there is discussion of anti-Black racism that can be difficult to hear. This conversation is grounded in love and community, but please take care of yourself.

LINKS:

• Dr. Chantal Hailey
• Dr. Hailey’s recent research on racial preferences in school choices
• Teaching Hard History – podcast from Learning for Justice
• Just Mercy – Brian Stevenson

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dr. Chantal A. Hailey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research is at the intersections of race and ethnicity, stratification, urban sociology, education, and criminology. She is particularly interested in how micro decision-making contributes to larger macro segregation and stratification patterns and how racism creates, sustains, and exacerbates racial, educational, and socioeconomic inequality.

Her recent paper, Racial Preferences for Schools: Evidence from an Experiment with White, Black, Latinx, and Asian Parents and Students uses the New York City High School Admissions Process as a case study to understand how individual choices are shaped by race and racism. Employing experimental and quantitative methods, her study reveals the various ways that the racial demographics of a school influence the perceived desirability of that school across racial identities, as well as for students and their parents.

She joins Val and Andrew this week to discuss her research and expand the conversation beyond the Black/White binary.

LINKS:

• Racial Preferences for Schools – Dr. Hailey
• A NY Daily News OpEd about her research
• No Choice is The Right Choice – Dr. Linn Posey-Maddox
• Original research from Chase Billingham and Mathew Hunt on White parents’ preferences for schools

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Last episode, Carol Anderson on White Rage, was a lot, so we’re taking today’s episode to discuss.

LINKS:

• White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide
• We Are Not Yet Equal – a young readers version of White Rage
• One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy
• The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America.
• Eye’s Off The Prize – Dr. Anderson’s 2003 book on the shift from a fight for human rights to civil rights at the NAACP

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

“Since the days of enslavement, African Americans have fought to gain access to quality education. Education can be transformative. It reshapes the health outcomes of a people; it breaks the cycle of poverty; it improves housing conditions; it raises the standard of living. Perhaps, most meaningfully, educational attainment significantly increases voter participation. In short, education strengthens a democracy.” Dr. Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy, and The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. At the core of her research agenda is how policy is made and unmade, how racial inequality and racism affect that process and outcome, and how those who have taken the brunt of those laws, executive orders, and directives have worked to shape, counter, undermine, reframe, and, when necessary, dismantle the legal and political edifice used to limit their rights and their humanity. She joins us to discuss her work, in particular, chapter 3 from White Rage – “Burning Brown to the Ground”, which looks at the White rage backlash to the Brown v. Board decision, and all of the ways that the progress promised in the decision were undermined both in the immediate aftermath of the decision, and continuing through to today. With a gift for making the illegible legible, Dr. Anderson provides us with a clear eyed look at the history that has led to the widely inequitable education system we have today. And while the topic is heavy, she brings joy and laughter to the conversation in a way that can only leave you smiling through the pain.

 

LINKS:

• White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation’s Divide
• We Are Not Yet Equal – a young readers version of White Rage
• One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy
• The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America.
• Eye’s Off The Prize – Dr. Anderson’s 2003 book on the shift from a fight for human rights to civil rights at the NAACP
• Charles Hamilton Houston – The first general counsel of NAACP
• Plessy v Ferguson (also, listen to our episode about the Plessy case 125 years later).
• Brown II – The implementation decision – “All deliberate speed . . .”
• Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker – listen to her episode on our podcast.
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Shelby County v. Holder
• Mothers of Massive Resistance – Dr. Elizabeth McRea
• Gabriel’s Revolt
• The Sum Of Us – Heather McGhee (also, hear her episode on our podcast)
• My Grandmother’s Hands – Resmaa Menakem
• The Fisk Jubilee Singers
• Maceo Snipes

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Founded in 2021, the Center for Antiracist Education’s (CARE) mission is to equip antiracist educators with the knowledge and curriculum to create schools and classrooms that push back on the destructive legacy of racism. Our co-host Val, serves as their academic director in her day job.

They recently released a framework for antiracist education that provides teachers and school leaders with concrete, actionable steps to take in their journey towards being antiracist. These steps are organized by the five CARE Principles – the core areas that CARE believes require attention in order to move towards antiracism. They are:

• Affirm the dignity and humanity of all people.
• Embrace historical truths.
• Develop a critical consciousness.
• Recognize race and confront racism.
• Create just systems.

The framework presents actionable steps related to each principle, with indicators that specify the associated knowledge, skills and behaviors required. And while this framework is designed for teachers and school leaders, the lessons are more broadly applicable, and really serve as a guide to living an antiracist life.

We’re joined by CARE Professional Development Specialist, Brittany Brazzel, who contributed to the framework to discuss.

LINKS:

• The Framework
• Center for Anti-Racist Education (CARE)
• Clear the Air (twitter)
• Walter Reuther’s March on Washington Speech

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network.

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We keep a running list of ideas for episodes – topics to cover, guests we’d like to interview, conversations with parents we’d like to have – and near the top of that list, for far longer than we’d care to admit, has been a conversation about Native and Indigenous education. Finding the right voices to tell the right stories is always a challenge, but, if we’re being honest, it felt somehow acceptable that we hadn’t gotten to it yet.

The conversation we haver to share today completely changed that for us, and is a great opportunity to recommit ourselves to knowing better and doing better. Dr. Susan C. Faircloth is an enrolled member of the Coharie Tribe, and a professor of education at Colorado State University. She has spent her career working on Native issues, and brings a wealth of historical knowledge, as well as family history that brings to light the challenges facing Native people, especially students, today. From Native boarding schools to her own struggles finding a school for her Native daughter, she shares deeply personal stories that force us to reckon with the repairs that are needed to begin the healing process for the sovereign Native tribes and nations on whose land we currently reside.

LINKS:

• We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy – Kliph Nesteroff
• An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States – Kyle T Mays
• Richard Henry Pratt
• The Coharie Tribe
• Native Land Finder
• List of Federally Recognized Tribes
• The East Carolina Indian School
• American Indian Leadership Program
• John Tippeconnic
• The Trail of Tears

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network.

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Heather McGhee has been in public policy for the past 20 years, largely focused on economics. After nearly 16 years at Demos, a “think-and-do” tank, including four years as president, she realized that despite incredibly compelling economic research, at times, decision makers made decisions counter to what the best evidence showed. She took a leave of absence as president, and embarked on a journey to try to answer a simple question – Why can’t we have nice things? We, being all Americans, and nice things being things that most developed nations have managed to provide for their people – health care, parental leave, a social safety net, and, of course, a good school in every neighborhood. Her journey took her across the country for conversations with all sorts of people, and led to the new book, The Sum of Us, which was released on paperback today, Feb 8th, 2022, and includes a new afterword. We revisit the episode with new commentary from Andrew and Val. If you heard the interview already, the new commentary starts around the 50 minute mark.

LINKS:

• The Sum Of Us
• Our Bookshop.org Storefront
• Demos – Public Policy “Think-and-Do” Tank
• Ta-Nehesi Coats – The Case for Reparations
• Dr. Gail Christopher
• HealOurCommunities.org
• Adrian Piper – Conceptual Artist
• Sherrilyn Ifill
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund
• Black Doll Test
• Debra Holoien
• Chase Bellingham and Matthew Hunt
• Kellogg Foundation
• The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander
• The Color of Law – Richard Rothstein
• Bryan Stevenson of Equal Justice Initiative

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network.

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Angela Berkfield, a White woman living in Brattleboro, Vermont, was deeply committed to social justice. In 2013, she was a co-founder of The Root Social Justice Center, a hub for social justice organizing in Vermont. From food insecurity, to youth empowerment, they have been focused on racial justice organizing, community advocacy, and relationship building for nearly a decade.

In 2014, a friend of Angela’s, Annique, asked her if she would be willing to do trainings for parents about how to talk with their kids about topics like racial microaggressions, gender-neutral pronouns, and Black Lives Matter — topics she was discussing on the regular in adult contexts.

Her boys, River and Birch, were 3 and 6 at the time. Although the concept of translating social justice concepts into language that would work for kids their age was daunting, she saw the value, and her friend helped her to see how her years of community work naturally fed this new focus.

Thus began Angela’s journey of parenting for social justice — starting in her own home.

She had some good support from truth-telling authors like Jacqueline Woodson and Kate Schatz, whose books opened up powerful conversations with her kids, and she recognized and took more opportunities for social justice chats with her family in the day to day.

Angela felt eager to connect and share ideas with other parents. In 2016, she and dear friend and parenting book co-author Abi Healey started a blog about how they were bringing social justice into their parenting, and that same year started hosting Parenting 4 Social Justice (P4SJ) Chats for parents and caregivers looking to share and receive this support. The response was positive and the idea for a book was born. In June of 2021, Parenting 4 Social Justice was released to the world.

Tragically, in September of 2021, Angela died from breast cancer. While the community in Vermont, and across the country reeled from her loss, the Parenting 4 Social Justice team wanted to continue to share her message. Chrissy Colón Bradt is the co-author of the chapter on parenting for racial justice, and agreed to come on the podcast to share a bit of Angela’s spirit with us. As an Afro-Latina and mother of two, she has thought long and hard about how to instill a positive racial identity in her own kids, and shared much of that ongoing journey in book.

LINKS:

• Parenting 4 Social Justice from Bookshop.org
• The Parenting for Social Justice website
• The Root Social Justice Center
• Angela Berkfield Tributes
• JPB Gerald – Checklists and Merit Badges
• I’m Your Peanut Butter Big Brother – by Selina Alko

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

We are a proud member of The Connectd Podcast Network.

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

NOTE: In the original version of this episode, we got the origin story of the Parenting 4 Social Justice workshops mixed up. We have updated the episode. Our apologies to all at Parenting 4 Social Justice.

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