In the two decades following the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, tens of thousands of Southern Black teachers lost their jobs. However, few scholars have studied how Brown affected Black teachers in the North. In “The Impact of Brown v. Board of Education on Black Teachers Outside of the South, 1934-1974,” Professor Zoë Burkholder traces this complex history before and after Brown.

The research offers nuance to the broader discourse surrounding desegregation’s impact on Black educators. The report will serve as a foundation for a panel discussion exploring historical tensions that continue to exist in education policy debates, including the extent to which Black communities should prioritize integration and/or support for Black-led schools.

Join the Annenberg Institute and NCSD for a presentation of this new research and an interdisciplinary panel discussion that examines the historical link between desegregation, Black educators, and racial justice.

The Annenberg Institute will host Francisco Santelli for a discussion on pathways into school leadership and the principal pipeline. The talk will explore research examining why educators who hold leadership licenses may not pursue principal positions and consider broader questions about leadership preparation, career pathways, and the development of effective school leaders.

In The Culture Trap, Derron Wallace argues that the overreliance on culture to explain Black students’ achievement and behavior in schools is a trap that undermines the historical factors and institutional processes that shape how Black students experience schooling. This trap is consequential for a host of racial and ethnic minority youth in schools, including Black Caribbean young people in London and New York City.

Since the 1920s, Black Caribbeans in New York have been considered a high-achieving Black model minority. Conversely, since the 1950s, Black Caribbeans in London have been regarded as a chronically underachieving minority. In both contexts, however, it is often suggested that Caribbean culture informs their status, whether as a celebrated minority in the US or as a demoted minority in Britain.

Drawing on 16 months of ethnographic observations, 184 interviews and archives in London and New York City schools, Wallace suggests that the use of culture to justify Black Caribbean students’ achievement obscures the very real ways that school structures, institutional processes, and colonial conditions influence the racial, gender and class inequalities Black youth experience in schools. Wallace reveals how culture is at times used as an alibi for racism in schools, and points out what educators, parents and students can do to change the beliefs and practices that reinforce racism.

Biography

Derron O. Wallace is the Jacob S. Potofsky Chair in Sociology and an associate professor of sociology and education at Brandeis University. He is a sociologist of race, ethnicity, and education who specializes in comparative analyses of structural and cultural inequalities as experienced by Black youth, nationally and internationally. He is the author of The Culture Trap: Ethnic Expectations and Unequal Schooling for Black Youth (Oxford University Press, 2023), recipient of the 2024 Pierre Bourdieu Award for the Best Book in Sociology of Education and the 2024 Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award (for Anti-Racist Scholarship) from the American Sociological Association, among other prizes. Wallace has also received Distinguished Early Career Awards from the American Educational Research Association, the American Sociological Association, and the Comparative and International Education Society.

Wallace holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Marshall Scholar and a Gates Cambridge Scholar. His research has been supported by several grants from the Fulbright Commission, the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, the National Academy of Education, the Spencer Foundation, and the Stuart Hall Foundation. Wallace is a former community organizer, and his work on youth safety, immigrant rights, fair housing, and public education has been featured by BBC News, BBC Radio, the Guardian,ITV, and NBC News.

We’re excited to host Dr. Erica Turner for the upcoming Annenberg Seminar on Educational Policy. They are an Associate Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Her research examines racism and inequity—and diverse stakeholders’ efforts to challenge those—in education policy and practice. She is the author of an award-winning book, Suddenly Diverse: How School Districts Manage Race and Inequality and recently edited a special issue on critical policy analysis in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.  

The Annenberg Institute will host John Eason and Chloe Haimson for a discussion on the impacts of prison closures in communities of color. The talk will explore research examining how the transition away from prison-based economies affects families, youth, and local communities, and will consider the broader social and economic implications of decarceration and community change.

With looming staffing shortages, potential budget reductions, and increasing demands to support student needs, state and district leaders are actively grappling with numerous thorny school staffing issues. In May 2024, Annenberg brought together 90 district leaders, researchers, state-level personnel, and representatives of Rhode Island’s educator preparation programs for our second annual Superintendents Convening, hosted in partnership with the Rhode Island Foundation and the Rhode Island School Superintendents Association (RISSA).

The convening is one part of the local partnership work, engaging with the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE), the Providence Public School District (PPSD), and other districts across the state through RISSA. Staffing schools has been a central focus of Annenberg’s partnership research over the past several years as districts have navigated shifting landscapes before, during, and after the pandemic.

The Annenberg Institute will host a discussion on emergency teacher certifications in special education and their implications for teachers and students. The talk will explore how alternative certification pathways shape the special education workforce, teacher preparation, and the educational experiences of students receiving special education services.

The Annenberg Institute will host Victor M. Hunt for an Education Policy Workshop Series seminar on improving local education through catalytic advocacy. The talk will explore research on how advocacy efforts and community engagement can contribute to educational change, examining the relationship between local action, education systems, and opportunities for improvement.

We’re excited to host Dr. Marissa Thompson for the upcoming Annenberg Seminar on Educational Policy. They are an assistant professor of Sociology at Columbia University.

Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of racial and socioeconomic inequality, with an emphasis on understanding the role of education in shaping disparate outcomes over the life course. Marissa’s current research investigates, for example, parental preferences regarding school segregation, the causal effects of first-dollar scholarship policies on college access, and the role of genetic ancestry tests in racial boundary-making processes. She employs a range of quantitative and computational methods using large national datasets, administrative data, and novel survey experiments. Prior to beginning her role at Columbia, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education and Education Policy from Stanford University, an M.A. in Sociology from Stanford University, and a B.S.E in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.