Bringing a New Vibe to the Classroom

Glenn Cantave is bridging two worlds- AR technology and school curriculum, in order to educate students about Black and Brown people's history. With a team of coders he created an app called “Movers and Shakers.” The app has a catalog of “heroes you never learn about in school.” Student users navigate the app to learn about the heroes; women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community. The app is being tested in one school district. “This sounds horrible, but we need to see what white people actually did to Black people because textbooks only tell you this much — and it’s not enough."

Despite segregation being deemed unconstitutional, nationally, many schools remain segregated along racial and class lines. Integrate Schools, a national grassroots movement, is focused on integrating schools.

As tensions over race and education continue to be compounded by growing economic inequality and political rhetoric, one school in Connecticut bridges an otherwise widening divide. Schools like R.J. Kinsella Magnet School of Performing Arts - once the poorest and one of the most racially segregated schools in the state - are inspiring voluntary desegregation by offering successful magnet programs and busing students safely and efficiently across neighborhoods. The successful demonstration of integration in Kinsella is serving as a positive model for other schools around the nation.

At the height of desegregation, the achievement gap between white and black students decreased to 18 percent, compared to 49 percent. Evidence suggests integrating schools works, because it gives students of color access to the same resources as white students. Yet, schools remain largely segregated along class and racial lines. In Missouri, after Normandy School District in Normandy lost its accreditation, black students were given an opportunity to transfer into the much more affluent, and mostly white school district, Frances Howell. This episode shows the challenges of integrating schools.

In 2019, close to half, or 45 percent of white students scored proficient or above in reading comprehension, compared to 18 percent of Black fourth graders, and 23 percent of Latinx fourth graders. However, research shows that exposing students of color to books that reflect their culture increases reading comprehension and motivation. In the wake of those disparities, American teachers are beginning to reckon with the lack of diverse authors they teach. Some teachers are launching social justice classes, requiring more diverse books, and challenging norms.

Science is dominated by white men, and some of the most well-regarded scientists were notoriously racist. Some science teachers are not shying away from the history of racism embedded in science but are embracing it. In this episode of Short Wave, three teachers share how they’re integrating race into the curriculum from delving into the ethics of experiments, to journaling, to reading “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." “To fix the lab we have to fix the classroom.”

Meet A Jew is a volunteer organization in Germany helping combat anti-semitism and bigotry by educating students in elementary and secondary schools about Jewish culture and traditions of those living in Germany. The organization has about three hundred volunteers from a variety of different backgrounds, who then hold 90-minute sessions where students are welcomed to ask anything.

Students and educators across the country are discussing how to implement anti-racism curriculum in the classroom. Although it can be challenging, educators are using a myriad of methods to teach students about racism. “We are a part of the curriculum, the way that we show up, the way that we enter spaces.”

Male teachers of color are often called on to do extra disciplinary work and mentor students of color in other classes in addition to their own. A weekly virtual meetup for Mississippi's male teachers of color provides a forum for instructors to discuss their unique experiences and share strategies.

The rosters of sports teams at small liberal arts schools are often predominantly white and wealthy. Amherst College in Massachusetts has made a concerted effort to stop recruiting from the same "pay to play" pool and reach more student-athletes of color and student-athletes from different socio-economic backgrounds.