Using Data to Guide Difficult Conversations around Structural Racism

Lesli C. Myers is superintendent of Brockport Central School District in New York. Kara S. Finnigan is associate professor of education leadership at the Warner School of Education of the University of Rochester.

The superintendent and an education researcher in Rochester (NY) present a framework for grounding difficult conversations on race and implicit bias in system-level data, to avoid blaming and shaming and to break through defensiveness to arrive at solutions.

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Issue 48

The Boys Aren’t Broken, The Systems Are: Changing the Narrative about Young Men of Color

Scholars and practitioners in school districts around the country are collaborating to build an asset-based counter-narrative about young men of color and develop evidence-based strategies to better serve them. However, these change agents do not always have a chance to work with their peers in other districts to collectively challenge structural racism.

This issue of Voices in Urban Education builds on a 2017 conference, sponsored by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and organized by NYU and AISR, that aimed to address this need. Researchers and practitioners from seven sites gathered in New York City to share system-level strategies that challenged deficit mindsets and implicit bias, nurtured healthy and respectful relationships, and developed culturally sustaining practices. In this VUE issue, you will read some of their stories.

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