Roots ConnectED is a national professional development organization committed to ensuring that each child recognize the humanity in one another by creating intentionally integrated and inclusive school communities. Roots ConnectED is the only training for educators that teaches the practical skills of community building and critical thinking needed for creating intentionally integrated and inclusive school communities. It is for anyone who seeks ways to build community and connection across lines of differences in an era of racial and economic divisiveness.
Roots ConnectED gives educators the tools to encourage deep connection among children not despite of their differences, but through honoring them. We know this work is hard and on-going and we value the process. We also believe that, to do this work well, we must approach it with love, patience, and a commitment to ongoing work.
In Fort Greene, Brooklyn, we’ve been learning real life, hands-on lessons about what it takes to build an integrated and inclusive school. Since opening Community Roots Charter School in 2006, we’ve learned that school integration is not a one-time fix and that merely desegregating is not enough. Research has shown, that as children learn alongside people who are different from them, the deeply etched racial gap in this country can close rapidly and definitively. Most Americans live extremely segregated lives. Our schools, unfortunately, reflect that segregation. As the national discourse in education sways towards policy makers, researchers, and districts across the country recognizing the inhumane ways in which the system of education systematically disenfranchises one group over another, a rise in diverse by design schools and diversity initiatives have followed. However, what matters is what happens once the kids are all in school together. Without very clear and intentional programming, curriculum, and professional development, we will wind up perpetuating the stereotypes that exist outside the school walls, within our very classrooms.
This is where Roots ConnectED comes in. Since our establishment in 2016, we have codified our learnings at Community Roots and now support school communities in practices of inclusion and diversity. We believe that to develop strong equitable communities, they must include:
School communities can engage with Roots ConnectED in a few different ways:
Roots ConnectED is a national professional development organization committed to ensuring that each child recognize the humanity in one another by creating intentionally integrated and inclusive school communities. Roots…