Three Organizations Fighting for Educational Equity in New York
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
Alliance for Quality Education (AQE)
“The Alliance for Quality Education is a coalition mobilizing communities across the state to keep New York true to its promise of ensuring a high quality public education to all students regardless of zip code.”
AQE is the leading organization in New York State fighting for better and fairer education. They tackle issues such as teacher diversity, lack of a “sustainable community at school,” and a positive school climate, as well as advocate for an increase in adult education.
If you want to learn about ways to get involved click here.
Alliance for School Integration and Desegregation (nycASID)
“nycASID is a burgeoning alliance composed of hundreds of parents, student activists like the ones captured in the present-day protests above, community members, community elders, social justice advocates, and any and all individuals interested in ensuring that NYC’s schools are meaningfully integrated and desegregated.”
The organization works greatly in educating and raising awareness on the issues of school segregation in NYC. Under their mission, they have defined and explained the meaning of critical terms and definitions, such as race, racism, privilege, and other words that may help to get involved in the conversation.
If you want to get involved with nycASID or learn about different ways you can help fight segregation in NYC schools, they have laid out a list on their site called “9 WAYS TO ADVOCATE FOR RACIAL SCHOOL INTEGRATION & TAKE ACTION” that can be found here.
IntegrateNYC takes a direct and hands-on approach to fight NYC school segregation. They have developed a five-part plan to handle segregation in high schools: The 5Rs of Real Integration consists of Race and Enrollment, Resources, Relationships, Restorative Justice, and Representation.
They have multiple campaigns that tackle a range of different issues, such as their spring campaign “FtheTest.” This campaign speaks against the use of standardized tests that greatly favor white students and families. “In partnership with NYC Opt Out, we call on The Board of Regents to cancel Spring 2021 Regents for all high school students and New York State to halt the Spring 2021 3rd-8th grade state tests.”
If you want to learn more about their campaigns and sign their petitions click here.