Tools from the
Office for Civil Rights
Are you an educational leader seeking to lead courageously for greater equity?
I work with schools and districts interested in improving equity for students, whether in response to an Office for Civil Rights (OCR) complaint, or proactively to bring real change to the lives of students. As a former school leader and founder, I understand the realities of running a school and meeting the needs of a wide range of students. As an experienced OCR staff attorney, I also bring considerable knowledge of the federal anti-discrimination laws as applied to public educational institutions. My expertise encompasses the civil rights laws that address discrimination on the bases of: race and ethnicity (Title VI); sex (Title IX); and disability (Section 504, the IDEA and the Americans with Disabilities Act).
I brought all these experiences to the table as a member of the Working Group that steered the community-based redesign of Brooklyn’s District 15 middle school admissions and developed its groundbreaking diversity plan. The new process eliminated competitive school screens in favor of a weighted lottery, and has yielded dramatic, more equitable results in its first year of implementation.
I offer a range of services aimed at building the capacity of leaders to remove barriers large and small that often result in the marginalization of students of color:
Engaging and practical workshops intended to teach district and charter leaders legal standards, data analysis methodology, and best practices for correcting entrenched disparities.
Policy and procedure development and revision.
Equity audits providing a comprehensive, systemic review of structural inequities that may be present for students within a given school, district or charter network.
Implementation of OCR Resolution Agreements.
Consulting and Training Topics…
My Three Pillars
Of Student Equity
The school’s mission is rooted in meeting the needs of students of all backgrounds and abilities.
The educational program is structured in ways large and small to embrace diversity in all its facets.
The staff is deeply engaged in self-reflection practices that promote an anti-racist school climate.
Resources
Publications
Opinion: DOE’s Desegregation Plans Offer Hope, Need Improvement: “Without significant reform of the zoning, choice, and screening policies that have contributed to extreme racial and socio-economic isolation of children across the city’s schools, we will never achieve a truly integrated school system that provides, for all students, the equal and adequate education to which they are entitled.”
Scoring States on Charter School Integration: “The overall pattern of these results is clear: states are failing when it comes to supporting integration in charter schools.”
How Can the Federal Government Support Integration in Charter Schools?
NYC Alliance for School Integration and Desegregation Policy Platform: “We believe that all schools should be welcoming to and accountable for all students. We believe this work is necessary, urgent and achievable . . .”
School Integration Work
Nice White Parents, Episode 5 New York Times/Serial Productions podcast on the role of white parents in perpetuating educational inequality. It describes how Brooklyn's "District 15 rolled out a diversity plan to integrate its schools. And it was a real plan — not just for a few curated schools, but every single middle school in this one district that on its own is larger than the entire school system of St. Louis. [Reporter Chana Joffe-Walt] didn’t even know who started it. Miriam Nunberg — that was the name [she] kept hearing. Talk to Miriam."
We Know it When we See it: How Parents Can Help Dismantle School Segregation "This is the story of how a handful of women didn't look the other way after recognizing that their school enrollment system, for years, had been explicitly set up to advantage White families and disadvantage families of color."
District 15 Diversity Plan (Working Group Member)
Some High-Performing New York City Middle Schools Make Diversity Gains
Brooklyn middle schools may eliminate academic ‘screening’ in effort to integrate: "The proposal to eliminate “screens” adds fuel to a growing debate over whether public schools should be allowed to sort students based on their academic achievement — a bedrock tenet of how New York City’s education system currently works...“You see that all these criteria have a significant disparate impact on the black and Latino students, and on the low income students,” Miriam Nunberg, a District 15 parent who was involved in the integration effort."
Past Workshops & Trainings
Pennsylvania Conference Of Public Charter Schools 2019 Annual Conference: Breakout Group Panel Member - Designing for Diversity: Legal, Demographic, and Practical Considerations for Pennsylvania Charters.
Teachers College Reimagining Education Summer Institute 2016-2019
Grassroots Integration Design: Lessons from NYC's District 15 How Should Teachers be Supported as We Integrate Schools? Designing for Integration: A Community-Based Framework How Do We Sort Our Students? Increasing Equity in Student Discipline, High Track Programs and Special Education Equity in Student Assignment: Tools from the Office for Civil Rights Part 1 – School Admissions and the Law Part 2 – Access to Gifted, Advanced and Special Opportunity Programs Part 3 – Ensuring Equity in Special Education Placement: a Delicate Balance
New York City Alliance For School Integration And Desegregation (nycASID): Dare to Reimagine Integration for New York City’s Public Schools, 2018 Presentation of Policy Platform
National Coalition Of School Diversity, Annual Conference 2017: School Integration in New York, Plenary Panel Member
New York City Special Education Collaborative
Anti-Racism and Disproportionality: Local Actions for Systemic Change Workshop, Annual Conference, June 2018 Section 504 and the ADA in Charter Schools Training, November 2017
School Integration Forum With Nikole Hannah-Jones: Organized panel discussion that included Nikole Hannah-Jones and Park Slope Collegiate Principal Jill Bloomberg, March 2017
Why New York? Our Segregated Schools Epidemic: Member of panel discussion moderated by Nikole Hannah-Jones, 2016
Title IX Sexual Harassment Student Training, Hostos Community College, 2016
Reimagining the Middle School Admissions Process in District 15, 2015: D15 Parents for Middle School Equity Panelist