The South Central Collaborative for Equity is one of 10 federally-funded equity assistance centers that provide technical assistance and training to school districts and other local education agencies in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The center is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Immigrant Students’ Rights to Attend Public Schools
Many educators are not aware that the education of undocumented students is guaranteed by the Plyler vs. Doe decision or that certain procedures must be followed when registering immigrant children in school. The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education recently reminded schools that activities that deny or discourage students to attend school are unlawful. See IDRA’s School Opening Alert for details. Available in pdf in English and Spanish. 

IDRA’s book, Courage to Connect: A Quality Schools Action Framework™. See how communities and schools can work together to strengthen their capacity to be successful with all of their students. Visit the book’s web page to get a table of contents, excerpt, related podcasts and other resources related to this book. Order your copy today!

IDRA Director of Policy, Dr. Albert Cortez, Testifies in School Finance Case
Dr. Albert Cortez, IDRA director of policy, presented expert testimony this week based on IDRA’s analysis of school funding equity across the state. “We found that the Texas system of school finance is still inequitable, inadequate, arbitrary and inefficient,” summarized Dr. Cortez. His testimony addressed funding disparities, related tax yield disparities, underfunding for English learners and low-income students, impact on high school attrition, and the effects of the recent special program cuts. “In Texas, the quality of schooling still seems to be markedly affected by the neighborhood in which you happen to reside.”

Opportunity Matters, IDRA 2011 Annual Report
IDRA’s annual report tells stories of how we incorporated the Quality Schools Action Framework throughout our work to build school capacity to engage parents, secure equal rights and civil rights in public education, strengthen school holding power, seed the future of early education, transform teaching and learning in science and mathematics in diverse schools, redesign teacher preparation for a new Texas, strengthen youth voice and leadership to transform schools, and more!

Mendez and Brown ~ Youth Picture Pathways to Graduation
With the civil rights promises of Mendez vs. Westminster and Brown vs. Board of Education as a backdrop, IDRA and Critical Exposure worked with a group of Canton high school students as they took up 35 millimeter cameras to reflect on barriers and opportunities for building pathways to high school graduation and college in Canton , Mississippi . See their perspectives: Movie format or PowerPoint format.

Anti-Bullying Program Launched by Tulsa Public Schools
Tulsa Public Schools have launched a new online anti-bullying program that looks to encourage students, teachers and staff to report bullying. (Story by educationnews.org)

IDRA Calls for Greater Federal Role in Education
In testimony presented before the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission, IDRA stated that it is imperative that new federal policies be adopted to protect the right to equal educational opportunities for all of our students in every state. “When families can’t count on their neighborhood public school to be funded equitably, something has gone deeply wrong in America .” See IDRA’s three recommendations.

Fair Funding is Essential to Having Excellent Schools for All Texas Students
In a statement released today, Dr. Robledo Montecel, IDRA President, applauds MALDEF for filing its lawsuit against Texas on behalf of four poor school districts. “It is unfortunate – scandalous in fact – that it takes litigation to convince our state leaders to invest in education, to invest in children – all children, to invest in the future of Texas.” IDRA has focused on this issue since its founding almost four decades ago. We will not stop until Texas truly has a strong public school system that provides an excellent education for all children.

See Univision San Antonio story: Demandan a Texas por desigualdad educative (with Dr. Albert Cortez ) 

IDRA Classnotes Podcast – conversational audio program with episodes on educational equity.

Fulfilling the Promise of Brown and Mendez – web site for communities working across sector and race to transform their neighborhood schools.

Graduation for All – monthly e-letter for people who are concerned about our nation’s dropout problem and are poised to take action to turn the tide.

IDRA eNews – occasional e-letter with updates, alerts, resources and education news you can use to help create schools that work for all children.

U.S. Department of Education’s Equity Assistance Centers web site