How should race be addressed in K12 classrooms in America? The Local History of a Nationalwide Controversy.
That question -- which has proved so controversial over the past year -- raises fundamental questions about the contentious role of public education in America.
Ebony Duncan-Shippy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at Washington University in St. Louis. She examines the impacts of race & racism on education reform policy, school-community relationships, and the schooling experiences of marginalized youth in the United States. Her current work examines the implications of charter schools and school choice for racial disparities in education and the social correlates and determinants of school closures in predominately African American communities. Her newest book, Shuttered Schools: Race, Community, and School Closures in American Cities (Information Age Publishing, 2019), analyzes the disproportionate impact of public school closures on African American students in cities across the United States.
Curtis O’Dwyer is a passionate educator who is committed to doing what’s best for kids, and a champion for educational equity and justice. This is his sixth year teaching middle school science since graduating with his Masters of Art in Teaching from Washington University in St. Louis in Spring 2016. He is also the founder of STEAMaster, a program that remixes science education by integrating a hip-hop praxis, pedagogy, and critical lens into science curriculum to encourage student mastery and support students’ science identity development. Currently, Curtis serves as a science teacher in the University City School District and a board member for Educators for Social Justice.
Anna-Stacia Allen is originally from Toledo, Ohio and a graduate of The Ohio State University. Anna-Stacia has spent her career working in non-profit and education-based organizations. She returns back to the St.Louis area extremely passionate about helping to provide equitable access to education for all families.