Chapter 1: Towards Synergistic Critical Race Improvement Science

As a result of the large investment in “hearts and minds” work that occurred in Bronx public schools in the preceding years, including workshops on Implicit Bias (internally provided) and Beyond Diversity (Pacific Education Group), building and district administrators, teachers, and support staff had exposure to social justice theories and in many cases, language to use when beginning conversations around race centered school improvement (Singleton, 2014). Still, many leaders and practitioners were unclear of where to begin. When I first arrived in the Bronx, New York City Department of Education (DOE), as an assistant superintendent serving as the director of the Bronx wing of a new initiative from the First Deputy Chancellor’s Office called the Academic Response Team (ART), intended to provide 6–12 weeks bursts of centralized, inquiry based support, I interviewed approximately two dozen principals who recently attended diversity based workshops. In almost every case, they found the workshops to be at the least thought provoking, and at best, perspective altering, positively challenging, or affirming.