There’s nothing funny about the violation of children’s educational rights, especially when those rights relate to students’ preparation to participate in and help shape our democracy as active and effective civic participants.

That said, we think you’ll both laugh at and learn from this brand-new The Daily Show with Trevor Noah episode featuring Cook v. Raimondo, the federal lawsuit filed by Center for Educational Equity executive director Michael Rebell last fall.

The Daily Show correspondent/comedian Jaboukie Young-White sat down with Michael Rebell as well as high school students Aleita Cook and Musah Mohammed Sesay, two of the lead plaintiffs who are standing up for all students whose civic-education rights have been violated.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE CLIP!

Summary of Cook v. Raimondo

In addition to this national legal effort, the Center for Educational Equity is leading a number of state-level initiatives focused on policy development, research, and public engagement to advance students’ educational rights.

Cook v. Raimondo was filed in the U.S. District Court in Providence, Rhode Island, to confirm the constitutional right of all public school students to a civic education that prepares them adequately to vote, exercise free speech, petition the government, actively engage in civic life, and exercise all of their constitutional rights under the 14th Amendment, and under Article 4, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution. Oral argument on plaintiffs’ and defendants’ recent motions is expected to take place this summer, before the Honorable William E. Smith, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island, and a decision is expected to be rendered in the fall.

CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE LAWSUIT

The legal history of educational equity in New York State, from the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) case to current legal efforts to compel the state government to honor students’ rights, has never been told–until now.

On June 12th, Center for Educational Equity (CEE) executive director Michael Rebell testified before the New York State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which is preparing to issue a report on equity and funding in New York. As lead counsel in the CFE lawsuit and–in his independent, pro bono capacity–as co-counsel for the families and organizations who in 2014 filed the follow-up suit, New Yorkers for Students’ Educational Rights (NYSER), Rebell is exceptionally qualified to tell that story. And although CEE, as a part of Teachers College, is not participating in the NYSER lawsuit, the core aims of that endeavor align with our vision of educational equity and justice, and we believe that all education stakeholders should be aware of it.

The CFE case began in 1993, 26 years ago, and yet, today, as both research and the lived experiences of families affected by educational-rights violations show, students throughout our state, particularly those living in poverty and those who are Black or Brown, are still not receiving even the basic learning opportunities to which they are entitled.

Needless to say, that has major implications, not only for the young people themselves but for the kind of society we live in and whether we will one day live up to our stated values of liberty, equality, and justice for all. But, as they say, in order to get where we’re going, we have to know where we’ve been.

CLICK HERE to read “A History of New York State’s Failure to Meet Constitutional Requirements for Providing All Students the Opportunity for a Sound Basic Education.”

This new report from the Center for Educational Equity offers insights into the resources and practices necessary to prepare students for civic participation in accordance with students’ constitutional rights. The pilot study on which the report is based documented major disparities in learning opportunities among the study schools, including in the following areas: (1) quality, up-to-date history, civics, and government courses; (2) experiential learning opportunities in and outside of the classroom; and (3) access to a full basic curriculum. 

• Read the Executive Summary
• Read the Full Report
• Download our Civic Learning “Inventories” (the questions we used in our school-based interviews) to assess and discuss these issues in your own school or district

Preparing future generations for their civic roles in a democracy has historically been an essential purpose of schooling in the United States. In most states, including New York, preparation for civic participation is also central to the right to education, afforded to all students by the state constitution. 

New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) case that the state government has a constitutional obligation to provide all students “the opportunity for a sound basic education ” that prepares them to “function productively as civic participants.” It further held that adequate resources for that purpose must be available in every school.

New York State is poised to be a leader in this area. The Board of Regents (the state’s top education policy-making body) and the State Education Department have taken important steps to elevate New York schools’ civic mission. They included “civic readiness” among the measures of student performance to be used for school accountability and support in their federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan that was approved in January 2018. In September 2018, they established a statewide Civic Readiness Task Force. 

However, efforts to understand and promote civic readiness have not explored the school-level specifics–that is, the extent to which individual schools are or are not equipped to provide the learning opportunities needed for civic preparation and how access to necessary resources and practices varies across schools. These details establish key reference points for families, educators, school officials, and policymakers who want to understand the relationship of civic learning opportunities to outcomes and to develop and advocate for more effective and equitable civic-learning practices.

In 2017, the Center for Educational Equity decided to take a closer look. Through in-depth interviews with educators, among other sources of information, our researchers compared three typical New York City high schools and three suburban high schools in the New York City metro area, obtaining insights into the resources and practices necessary to prepare students for civic participation, and explored the extent to which these and other learning opportunities were actually available in each school. 

We found disparities among our schools in many of the civic learning areas we examined, including

• Disparities in access to quality, up-to-date history, civics, and government courses;
• Disparities in access to experiential learning opportunities in and outside of the classroom; and
• Disparities in access to a full basic curriculum.

This research suggests trends and issues that should be tested and explored through further research with a larger, fully representative sample of public schools, including elementary and middle schools as well as schools in rural schools and small cities.

The broad disparities in civic learning opportunities also suggest the need for statewide public dialogue to develop a shared understanding of the civic competencies that students must develop and the civic learning opportunities that students must be provided.

We hope this study contributes to that effort by advancing an understanding of how to ensure that all schools can prepare students to be civic ready.

Please email us at equity@tc.columbia.edu and let us know how you decide to use these resources and tools.