Deep Roots: A People's History of Education Organizing in the Nation's Capital

• In Event: Roundtable Session 46
  In Roundtable Session: Community Organizing and Public Scholarship

Abstract

In recent years, researchers have heralded community organizing as something of an antidote to the current education reform agenda that has focused on high stakes testing, accountability, and other policies that often have detrimental effects in lower-income communities of color. But far from a new trend, community organizing for public education has made its mark at various junctures in the history of public education. The purpose of this paper is to contextualize current efforts at community organizing for education in the longer history of AERA's host city, Washington, D.C. Through four examples, i illustrate how community organizing has been strongly linked to efforts to address longstanding social inequality and legal discrimination related to public education.

Author

• Esa Syeed, Marymount University