Access & Diversity Collaborative,
Other Leaders
Meet
as 'Brain Trust’ in DC
The College Board’s
Access & Diversity Collaborative
joined with the National School Boards Association and the EducationCounsel to assemble an influential group of national leaders last month in Washington to discuss a joint effort to help school districts promote diversity in legally and educationally appropriate ways in light of recent Supreme Court decisions.
Richard Riley, former U.S. secretary of education, addressed the group over dinner and served as honorary host of the event, with the help of his staff and his firm. The participants, referred to as a “Brain Trust,” included representatives of the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, as well as school superintendents, academics, attorneys and others concerned about K-12 issues of diversity.
The ADC, which initially worked with diversity efforts at colleges and universities, received a grant from the Ford Foundation to extend its work into the K-12 sector following a June 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision — Parents Involved in Community Schools (PICS) v. Seattle School District No. 1 — which addressed the circumstances under which school districts can consider a student's race and ethnicity while determining a student’s school assignment. This effectively struck down many mechanisms for accomplishing diversity, and school districts must now address a number of key policy and legal questions regarding their race- and ethnicity-conscious practices.
In response to this case, the ADC and the National School Boards Association produced a joint policy paper for school districts, "Not Black and White: Making Sense of the United States Supreme Court Decisions Regarding Race-Conscious Student Assignment Plans," which brought national attention to the key policy issues that have surfaced in the wake of the PICS decision and serves as a resource for school districts and states that are seeking to improve educational outcomes and ensure equal opportunity by enhancing school-based student diversity.
The Brain Trust group gathered in Washington to help develop the next steps for this project, which will likely include meaningful policy development guidance for school districts through a combination of written materials, training institutes and a series of workshops or seminars that will attempt to inform educators of the implications of rulings and the benefits of diversity, so
they can share this information with their colleagues and
their institutions.
The two-day advanced seminars provide an expansive discussion of elements that are central to the process of leading access and diversity policy change, with a focus on managing internal stakeholder issues and establishing foundations for broad, public consensus. The ADC provides a successful model for exploring policy evolution and serving the interests of members.
