{"id":5183,"date":"2014-02-10T17:59:22","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T22:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/?p=5183"},"modified":"2014-02-10T20:30:52","modified_gmt":"2014-02-11T01:30:52","slug":"reflecting-on-the-past-and-advocating-for-a-better-future-the-sheff-movement-celebrates-its-history-while-recommitting-to-its-mission-of-integrated-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/2014\/02\/reflecting-on-the-past-and-advocating-for-a-better-future-the-sheff-movement-celebrates-its-history-while-recommitting-to-its-mission-of-integrated-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheff Movement Reflects on the Past While Recommitting to Its Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the coming 26th of April, Sheff Movement<\/a> leaders and supporters will join to reflect on 25 years of successful advocacy and to look forward to their future efforts of scholastic integration. Since their triumph in the landmark case, Sheff v. O\u2019Neill<\/a>, the Sheff community has worked tirelessly in an effort to promote a mission of \u201cQuality Integrated Education for All Children.\u201d This coming anniversary will not only serve as a celebration of the Movement\u2019s success thus far, but as a reminder and promoter of future goals for the organization. This past Saturday, February 8th, Sheff movement leaders met with representatives from Hartford Public Schools<\/a>, the Capitol Regional Education Council,<\/a> and several allied groups as they do monthly, to discuss their upcoming education and advocacy agenda. Two major topics of discussion: the newly proposed Parent Organizing Plan and the proposed agenda for the current Connecticut Legislative session.<\/p>\n

With the planning of the Movement\u2019s 25-year Anniversary celebration underway, the day\u2019s agenda focused largely on the goals for the event. One objective taking primary importance was the promotion of the Parent Organizing Plan. The first intention of the plan was to create the initial awareness among Hartford parents surrounding the level of education their children were receiving. It expanded upon this by then educating parents on the racial disparity within Connecticut school districts, most notably, the class and racial imbalance between city and suburb school zones, and the fundamental role this plays in a child\u2019s educational opportunities. With this information in mind, parents would be better equipped to draw the connection between the goals of the Sheff Movement and the realization of equal educational opportunities for their children. As founder and co-chair (as well as mother of the historic case\u2019s lead plaintiff Milo) Elizabeth Horton Sheff<\/a> describes it, \u201cPeople need to realize the connection between public policy advocacy and their children receiving a quality education.\u201d Hopefully their outreach efforts will also help people realize, as we now do role the Sheff Movement plays in making this quality education a reality.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Sheff Movement\u2019s reflective and educational missions, policy advocacy remains an integral part of the Sheff Movement\u2019s operations. \u00a0With the Connecticut General Assembly\u2019s 2014 Regular Session now in its first week, Sheff leaders are ready to make their voices heard by Connecticut policymakers. \u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re looking to organize for this legislative session,\u201d said Mrs. Sheff. \u00a0The Movement\u2019s organization was evidenced by their Legislative and Advocacy Agenda, which clearly outlined nine major points on which the Movement will seek to affect change towards equal access to education in the state legislature. \u00a0A particular focus of Sheff leaders during this legislative session is emphasizing high degrees of access and integration in magnet schools, with the agenda specifically including the creation of \u201cdual language immersion magnet schools in the Sheff region\u201d because, according to the Movement\u2019s printed agenda, \u201cstudies indicate the dual-immersion model is strongly associated with closing the achievement gap between native and non-native English speakers.\u201d \u00a0Other magnet school policy interests of the Sheff Movement include the continuation of state funding for free Pre-K magnet school tuition, and the development of the interdistrict magnet schools outside of the Hartford Area. \u00a0Another key point of emphasis is the opening of more Open Choice seats in suburban districts. \u00a0Sheff leader Phil Tegeler said that \u201cthe Commissioner [of Education] should be given authority to require districts to open seats,\u201d although acknowledging it to be an uphill battle. \u00a0This is the sixth consecutive year that Sheff has asked this of the legislature, and they show no intention of easing off of this pressure.<\/p>\n

John Humphries, the Movement\u2019s Outreach Coordinator who recently met with several state legislators, raised an alarming statistic during the meeting. \u00a0Representative Doug McCrory<\/a> told Mr. Humphries that over 100 of 169 school districts in Connecticut currently employ no teachers of color. \u00a0While not all attendees were ready to accept this shocking statistic without further research, and while it was noted that this statistic did not include minority individuals in school administrations and other leadership positions, it was agreed upon that, given the Movement\u2019s position of the forefront of educational integration, the Movement would look further into this statistic and work towards increased diversity among educators.<\/p>\n

The lesson to be gained from the Sheff Movement\u2019s passionate, thorough, and organized advocacy was summed up well by Jan\u00e9e Woods-Weber, a representative from Everyday Democracy<\/a> who attended the meeting: \u201cWe want [people] to not only reflect of the past 25 years, but look forward to the next 25. \u00a0People need to understand that Sheff [v. O\u2019Neill] was not a static moment in time.\u201d \u00a0Given the outstanding level of organization, work ethic, and persistence that were evident among the ranks of the Sheff Movement, we are confident that the next 25 years of Sheff will be as remarkable as the last 25 have been.<\/p>\n

\n

Madison Starr is a student at Trinity College (Class of 2016) studying French and American Studies<\/p>\n

Evan Turiano is a student at Trinity College (Class of 2016) studying American Studies<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Madison<\/a>
Madison and Evan sitting alongside Sheff leaders, including Elizabeth Horton Sheff (fourth from the right) [photograph courtesy of Jack Dougherty]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the coming 26th of April, Sheff Movement leaders and supporters will join to reflect on 25 years of successful advocacy and to look forward to their future efforts of scholastic integration. Since their triumph in the landmark case, Sheff v. O\u2019Neill, the Sheff community has worked tirelessly in an effort to promote a mission … Continue reading Sheff Movement Reflects on the Past While Recommitting to Its Future<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":735,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5183"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5194,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183\/revisions\/5194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}