Successful Models of Urban School/University/Community Partnerships: Tools for Advancing the Legacy of Brown

• In Event: Research, Remedy, and Repair . . . Lessons From the 70th Anniversary of Brown

Abstract

Brown v. Board of Educ., 347 U.S. 483 (1954) was among the most significant legal decisions in United States (US) history. In it, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that school segregation by race was unconstitutional; rendered racial segregation illegal; and ordered the integration of US schools that were historically segregated. Achieving full realization and implementation of the Brown decision was among the key drivers of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Despite the gains in several areas of legal and social life, the full intent of racial equality in the Brown (1954) decision has yet to be realized. Forced integration, which resulted in increased violence against Black Americans, coupled with De facto segregation within integrated schools via tracking, segregation in housing practices, “colorblind” school funding formulas, alongside the systemic erasure of Black professionals from schools, allowed racial inequity in education to persist--albeit in new forms (Fenwick, 2022).
Given the new forms of segregation and oppression of Black students and educators in the wake of Brown, educators, policy makers, and citizens must continue to work toward realizing the goal of racial equality in education through systematic programs and policies that address these failures and mitigate their pernicious effects. To accomplish this, we need teachers who understand the community in which they teach, and who have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to work collaboratively with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities as partners in fighting racism.
This paper argues that creating urban teacher preparation programs that prioritize school/university/community partnerships within explicitly anti-racist frameworks is one such strategy that can effectively advance racial educational equity. We begin by going deeper into the post-Brown history to demonstrate the need for and role of anti-racist teacher education in redressing the failures of our current education system, and then lay out three principles—anti-racist/culturally sustaining pedagogies, school/university, and school/university/community partnerships—that are critical to preparing teachers to work with BIPOC students and families in just and powerful ways. Finally, we describe how one teacher preparation program has adopted the principles of each of these three strategic approaches to create a model of educator preparation aimed at preparing both white and BIPOC teachers equipped with the skills to work alongside communities to create schools that truly advance the legacy of Brown (1954). The description of this program highlight some critical ways that university EPPs can intentionally engage with schools and communities to create more equitable and socially just PK-12 schools as they also prepare educators to be agents of such transformation.

Authors

• Nora E. Hyland, Rutgers University

• Cheryl A. McLean, Rutgers University

• Carrie L. Lobman, Rutgers University

• Wanda J. Blanchett, Rutgers University