Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity
and the Transformation of Schools
th
726 Broadway, 5 Floor
New York, NY 10003
212-998-5100
steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter
Beginning this fall, the Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of
Schools (Metro Center) will be holding a monthly reading group for staff to share perspectives
and understandings around seminal texts that inform our work. This fall the reading group’s
inquiry focus will be: What informs school resistance to the school-to-prison pipeline?
Our reading group will use a process for close reading the text in three different ways:
1. Reading within the text
What is the essential argument? What is the author trying to say? How do we know? Where is
the evidence in the text?
2. Reading around the text
In what context was this text written? To what other text is this speaking? Against what other
text is this speaking? How does the identity of the author matter?
3. Reading against the text
How might we disagree with the author? How and where do those disagreements exist? What
holes exist in the argument? How do these holes lead to possibilities? What questions can we
ask based on what is not here?
Check our website and @metronyu during the fall semester for reflections on our reading group
conversations!
The following are the texts selected for discussion. Several suggested complementary readings are also
included for each date.
Oct. 2: Between the World and Me by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Suggested complementary readings:
The Making of Ferguson: Public Policies at the Roots of Its Troubles by Richard Rothstein
http://www.epi.org/publication/making-ferguson/
The Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods- A
Constitutional Insult by Richard Rothstein (2014) http://www.epi.org/publication/the-racialachievement-gap-segregated-schools-and-segregated-neighborhoods-a-constitutional-insult/
Segregation Now: Investigating America’s Racial Divide
http://www.propublica.org/series/segregation-now
Nov. 6: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Suggested complementary readings:
I’m a Public Defender. It’s impossible for me to do a good job representing my clients. by Tina
Peng https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/our-public-defender-system-isnt-just-broken-its-unconstitutional/2015/09/03/aadf2b6c-519b-11e5-9812-92d5948a40f8_story.html
This Man Sat in Jail for 110 Days- After He Already Did His Time by Marc Bookman (2015)
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/08/public-defender-cordele-georgia-eric-wyatt
Putting Fewer Innocents Behind Bars by Tina Rosenberg (2015)
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/03/putting-fewer-innocents-behind-bars/
Dec. 4: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Suggested complementary readings:
The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015)
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-black-family-in-the-age-of-massincarceration/403246/
Before the Law by Jennifer Gonnerman (2014)
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/before-the-law
The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2014)
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
Segregation as Splitting, Segregation as Joining: Schools, Housing and the Many Modes of Jim
Crow by Andrew Highsmith and Ansley Erikson (2015)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/681942?origin=JSTORpdf&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
2 of 2