Community Roots Charter School

As noted in the schools experiences, CRCS implements an anti-bias approach to teaching and learning. This entails having a curriculum that prioritizing topics related to bias, makes connections between history and the presents, and present many perspectives and stories. It also entails instructional moves that help students build connections to the content they are learning, have open conversations on difficult topics, build a deeper understanding of themselves, share and welcome many perspectives. Across the curriculum and instructional approaches identity, inclusion, diversity, social action, and justice are prioritized. You can read a detailed narrative from a visit to Community Roots to gain a deep understanding of academics (and community, and more).

Since its founding, CRCS has been committed to creating a learning environment which is diverse and inclusive. Students are offered the opportunity to learn and grow side by side with peers from varied backgrounds and abilities, so that graduates will leave school with a sense of community which transcends the traditional borders of race, culture and socioeconomic status, as well as an ability to challenge the misconceptions around gender and sexuality. Structures such as Conflict Resolution and Community Building, SEL, Crew, etc. help ensure the school climate stays healthy. They also commit to a ton of initiatives to build community and connection, which you can read about here.

Professional development is a crucial element in creating a strong infrastructure for diversity and inclusion and CRCS does this through three key adult groups: the Diversity Working Group, the Anti-Bias Education Collective and the Inclusive Practices Group.

THE DIVERSITY WORKING GROUP

Community Roots is intentional in the creation of opportunities for school leaders, learning specialists, coaches, teachers, social workers, and other members of staff to grow as professionals who are prepared to facilitate the creation of integrated and inclusive schools. CRCS’s development as an integrated and inclusive school is advanced considerably through the work of the Diversity Working Group (DWG). The DWG meets regularly to support the development of anti-bias curriculum and to facilitate conversation sand support staff in addressing issues surrounding power, privilege, and bias through the lens of their own identities.

THE ANTI-BIAS EDUCATION COLLECTIVE

In 2012, CRCS formed the Anti-Bias Education Collective (ABC) to help their faculty create classroom communities that honor the different identities represented in their school and to build a developmentally appropriate anti-bias curriculum that is centered on justice. Throughout this work, staff members address and reflect upon their own biases as well as the biases they feel towards others, both inside and outside the classroom. Made up of a team of staff members from within the school community, the ABC’s initial focus was to support the work of creating a social justice scope and sequence that was thoughtfully integrated into CRCS’s existing social studies units. These efforts were reinforced through the deeper integration of critical literacy skills, the incorporation of multiple perspectives, and by creating opportunities for students to engage in social action. The ABC continues to meet regularly to design and facilitate staff trainings on topics related to equity. In addition, each summer, the ABC puts together a reading list that allows all members of the community to reflect upon issues connected to identity, racism, power, privilege, and inclusion.

THE INCLUSIVE PRACTICES GROUP

CRCS believes that knowledge and connections to the community are deepened when people are provided with the opportunity to learn from those who live, think and learn differently. CRCS aims to provide all students with an educational environment where individual variability is acknowledged, valued and supported. This variability is seen as an inherent strength of the community and is used to inform classroom practices and lesson design. The Inclusive Practices Group (IPG), established in 2015, upholds these beliefs and goals by providing professional development around establishing inclusive learning environments in classrooms. The IPG, which is comprised of faculty members from within the school community, meets regularly to discuss educational theories that address learner variability as well as current research on inclusive education. The group facilitates workshops for staff to explore ways to incorporate these ideas into their planning and instruction. IPG members are committed to thinking creatively about how to support students' growth and learning; and ensuring staff have the tools and understanding necessary for students to access social, emotional and academically rigorous and engaging curriculum and community.

In order to offer extended day programming, CRCS works with community-based organizations with track records of success such as LPZ Cinetech, Learning Through Chess, and BEAT Global.

"Community Roots is located in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. As a means of safeguarding the socio-economic diversity​ of the school in a neighborhood with constantly shifting demographics and intense demand for quality elementary education, the school’s admissions lottery was weighted to ensure that 40% of incoming Kindergartners are from the Ingersoll Houses, Walt Whitman Houses, and Farragut Houses, public housing directly surrounding the school building."