Dear Colleagues:

Thank you for being part of the network for the Reimagining Integration: Diverse and Equitable Schools (RIDES) project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE).  We have appreciated your time and your dedication to this work.

The RIDES project at HGSE will conclude on June 30, 2021.  We thank the Harvard Graduate School of Education for launching and supporting the project; the Walton Family Foundation for its generous funding; and all our partners in schools and districts around the country who are doing important work to disrupt racism and promote equitable schools.

Over the last five and a half years, RIDES sought to increase the number and quality of intentionally diverse schools through the development of a set of diagnostic surveys, action-oriented resources, and equity improvement cycle tools that will remain available for at least a year on the RIDES website and available for use under Creative Commons license.

Although the project is closing, there is much to celebrate. Since Fall 2020 alone, we held six webinars through our Virtual Community of Practice series that collectively had over 650 registrants. Our last two webinars were “Beyond Brown: Leading for Racial Equity in a Southern Context” and “What Does it Mean to be an Antiracist Leader?” 

We have also served 32 school-based teams and 17 district-based teams across the country in our Institute Reunions or Clinics. We are inspired by the work that so many of you are doing to engage in crucial conversations about power, oppression, and racial / ethnic identity and take deliberate action to promote more equitable and just schools.

We would welcome the opportunity to support you through other programs and resources at HGSE, including our Education Now initiative, our Usable Knowledge website, our Professional Education programs, and our Principals' Network. 

A commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is central to the mission of HGSE. We invite you to explore a variety of resources we have assembled:

• Watch a 30-minute Education Now episode on "Understanding Our Commitment to Anti-Racism". 

• Read our five-part Usable Knowledge series on equity:  Part I: Gender and Sexuality; Part II: Dis/abilty; Part III: Citizenship and Nationality; Part IV: Race and Ethnicity; Part V: Class.

• Explore highly relevant diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging concepts in short-form online workshops, including:

  •  Building Your Entry Plan to Lead for Equity in Education

  • Culturally Responsive Literature Instruction

• Find related titles from the Harvard Education Press in its book series on Race, Equity, and Diversity in Education

We wish you the best as you continue your work, so that one day all children will learn at high levels, feel included, appreciate their own and other cultures, understand racism, and work to dismantle it.

Sincerely,

Candice Bocala

Faculty Director