Focus Questions

1. Is Long Island becoming more racially diverse?
What groups of population are growing at the fastest rate?
2. What is racial segregation? What is economic segregation?
Can racial and economic segregation overlap?
3. Are Long Island school districts segregated?
4. What are "high poverty schools" and why do some public schools become
"high poverty schools"? What are the problems facing students in "high poverty" schools?
5. What do Long Islanders think about the educational disparities on Long Island?
6. What are potential remedies to inequality in Long Island's public schools?
7. What could be done to reduce the economic segregation of the minority population?
8. What can we do to reduce racism in society?
9. Is there racial diversity in your community and/or school district?

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E-Links for Focus Questions

1. Is Long Island becoming more racially diverse?
What groups of population are growing at the fastest rate?

Long Island Index:
http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/2012_Reports/LI%20Profile%202012.pdf

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/Other_Research/tcSegregationReport.pdf

NY CBS Local:
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/02/24/long-island-among-americas-most-segregated-metro-areas/

2. What is racial segregation? What is economic segregation?
Can racial and economic segregation overlap?

Long Island Index:
http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/2012_Reports/LI%20Profile%202012.pdf

http://www.stonybrook.edu/surveys/files/2009%20Long%20Island%20Index%20Survey.pdf

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/pdf/2009_Index_Files/Education.pdf

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/Other_Research/2009_Why_Boundaries_Matter_
UNABRIDGED.pdf

NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/nyregion/soapbox-the-tone-of-inequality-in-education.html

Erase Racism:
http://www.eraseracismny.org/html/education/education.php

http://www.eraseracismny.org/storage/documents/education/IRP_Full_Report_with_Maps.pdf

Long Island Press:
http://www.longislandpress.com/2011/02/24/study-li-still-among-most-segregated-regions-in-us/

NAACP:
http://www.naacp.org/programs/entry/economic-opportunity

3. Are Long Island school districts segregated?

Erase Racism:
http://www.eraseracismny.org/our-work/race-and-racism

http://www.eraseracismny.org/html/education/education.php

http://www.eraseracismny.org/storage/documents/education/ERASE_Racism-long-island-district-facts.pdf

Long Island Index:
http://www.longislandindex.org/School-Poverty-2012.947.0.html?&tx_felogin_pi1[forgot]=1

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/Other_Research/tcSegregationReport.pdf

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/2012_Reports/LI%20Profile%202012.pdf

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/pdf/2009_Index_Files/Stony_Brook_Survey_for_2009__Long_Island_Index.pdf

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/pdf/2009_Index_Files/SpecialAnalysis.pdf

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/Other_Research/2009_Why_Boundaries_Matter_
UNABRIDGED.pdf

Long Island Wins:
http://longislandwins.com/index.php/features/detail/long_islands_segregated_schools_cheat_black_and_latino_students/

North Shore of Long Island:
http://www.northshoreoflongisland.com/Articles-i-2009-02-05-78145.112114-sub_Pop_quiz_on_LI_schools.html

Hofstra High School Journalism:
http://hssji.htvinteractive.com/?p=172

Long Island:
http://www.longisland.com/articles/0312/long-island-schools-integration-or-segregation.html

PR WEB:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9463492.htm

4. What are "high poverty schools" and why do some public schools become
"high poverty schools"? What are the problems facing students in "high poverty" schools?

Erase Racism:
http://www.eraseracismny.org/storage/documents/education/ERASE_Racism-long-island-district-facts.pdf

Long Island Index:
http://www.longislandindex.org/School-Poverty-2012.947.0.html?&tx_felogin_pi1[forgot]=1

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/2012_Reports/LI%20Profile%202012.pdf

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/Other_Research/tcSegregationReport.pdf

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/pdf/2009_Index_Files/Education.pdf

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/Other_Research/2009_Why_Boundaries_Matter_UNABRIDGED.pdf

NAACP:
http://naacp.3cdn.net/e5524b7d7cf40a3578_2rm6bn7vr.pdf

5. What do Long Islanders think about educational disparities on Long Island?

Long Island Index:
http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/pdf/2009_Index_Files/Stony_Brook_Survey_for_2009__Long_Island_Index.pdf

http://longislandindex.org/fileadmin/pdf/2009_Index_Files/SpecialAnalysis.pdf

6. What are potential remedies to inequality in Long Island's public schools?

Erase Racism:
http://www.eraseracismny.org/html/education/the_future_of_public_school_education.php

Long Island Index:
http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/pdf/2009_Index_Files/Stony_Brook_Survey_for_2009__Long_Island_Index.pdf

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/Other_Research/2009_Why_Boundaries_Matter_UNABRIDGED.pdf

7. What could be done to reduce the economic segregation of the minority population?

Erase Racism:
http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/irp.pdf

http://www.eraseracismny.org/our-work/race-and-racism

Long Island Regional Planning Committee:
http://www.lirpc.org/3.2010-12-02_LI2035StrategiesReport.pdf

Policy Archive:
http://www.policyarchive.org/handle/10207/bitstreams/95997.pdf

Long Island Index:
http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/2012_Reports/LI%20Profile%202012.pdf

8. What can we do to reduce racism in society?

Erase Racism:
http://www.eraseracismny.org/

The Community Tool Box:
http://ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/sub_section_main_1173.aspx

Gay Lesbian & Straight Education Network:
http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/news/record/362.html

Long Island Index:
http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/Other_Research/tcSegregationReport.pdf

9. Is there racial diversity in your community and/or school district?

Long Island Index:
http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/Other_Research/tcSegregationReport.pdf

http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/2012_Reports/LI%20Profile%202012.pdf

Erase Racism:
http://www.eraseracismny.org/storage/documents/education/IRP_Full_Report_with_Maps.pdf

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Organizations that work to improve education on Long Island
Erase Racism, Long Island Progressive Coalition, NAACP

Useful Websites to Explore

www.eraseracism.org
www.longislandindex.org
www.lipc.org
www.naacp.org

In this workshop participants will discuss social and economic inequalities that prevent many Long Islanders from fulfilling their best educational and work potential.  Students will focus on social, economic and political factors that contribute to such inequalities and work on proposals that may help to effectively address these issues.  Diana Coleman, Co-chair of the Long Island Progressive Coalition (LIPC), and Dr. Nathalia Rogers, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the American Communities Institute at Dowling College served as experts for this workshop in 2012.

High school students in the Race, Class, and Education workshop tackled the difficult issues of economic inequality and racial and economic segregation. Currently, Long Island is ranked as the seventh most racially segregated area in the United States. The combination of racial and economic inequality leads to great disparities in the quality of public education and prevent many Long Islanders from reaching their full economic and social potential. Diana Coleman, Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Long Island Progressive Coalition (LIPC) and of the Economic Opportunity Commission (EOC) of the Nassau County, and Dr. Nathalia Rogers, Director of the American Communities Institute at Dowling College (ACI) and an Associate Professor of Sociology at Dowling College served as experts for this workshop. Students proposed solutions to the issue of inequality in education on three different levels: institutional level, school level, and personal/individual level.

 The institutional solutions included: merging smaller school districts with student population of less than 1000 students; and making sure that all schools within each school district have universal (high) achievement standards across the board, standardized curriculum, and small class sizes (20 to 25 students). On the school level, students proposed to model programs in every high needs school district after an original and highly innovative program “No Friend Left Behind” developed and implemented by the Student Organization of Unified Leaders (S.O.U.L.) of the Walter G. O’Connell Copiague High School. S.O.U.L. students find the resources within the school to inspire their peers to have higher academic achievement. In the program over two dozen school clubs are organized around students’ interests such as hip-hop music, law and immigration, health and medical issues, and many others.

 Fellow club members not only share their interests for the club’s subject but also help each other to achieve a higher GPA. A student can only be a club member if he or she maintains a higher GPA. Among other school-level recommendations, students suggested that teachers in every school should be required to stay an extra half-an-hour after classes end to help students who are need (this model already exists in a number of schools on Long Island). On a personal/individual level students suggested starting an education to prevent racism from a very young age; counteracting racial stereotypes in the mass media though inviting a diverse group of role model adults to speak in high schools or at youth summits; and working with school teachers to reduce their own racial stereotypes to help them support academic achievement of students of all races to an equal extent.

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