The NAACP works to ensure that all disadvantaged students and students of color are on the path to college or a successful career by ensuring access to great teaching, equitable resources, and a challenging curriculum. We are dedicated to eliminating the severe racial inequities that continue to plague our education system. Our ultimate goal is that every student of color receives a quality public education that prepares him or her to be a contributing member of a democracy.
The committee on Education shall:
- Seek to eliminate segregation and other discriminatory practices in public education
- Study local educational conditions affecting minority groups
- Investigate the public school system and school zoning
- Familiarize itself with textbook material there from which is racially derogatory
- seek to stimulate school attendance
- Keep informed of school conditions and strive to correct abuses where found
- Investigate the effects of standardized and high stakes testing practices
- Teacher certification
- Promote parental involvement in education
- Aim to be a center of popular education on the race question and on the work of the Association
To achieve these goals, the Education Committee of the national board, in concert with education chairs and leaders from across the Association, have settled upon a four-prong strategy to improve educational achievement for disadvantaged students:
- Increasing Resource Equity: Target funds to neediest kids
- Ensuring College & Career Readiness: A path to success after graduation for all students
- Improving Teaching: Growing our own great teachers now in underserved communities
- Improving Discipline: Eliminate zero tolerance; keep kids in school* All applied to turnaround schools
Position on Charter Schools
In 2016 NAACP National Convention delegates passed, and the National Board affirmed, a resolution calling for a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools. The board subsequently convened a Task Force for Quality Education, which embarked on a national series of hearings to gather data and diverse perspectives on the state of charter schools and their traditional public school counterparts. Read more.
Scholarships
Each year the NAACP, through generous donations, is able to provide scholarships to outstanding students. It is the duty of our dedicated Scholarship Committee to determine the most outstanding individuals to receive these awards. The NAACP does not provide financial aid to individuals, only scholarships through this process.
Read more about the NAACP scholarships available through the POISE Foundation.
Multilingual Curriculum Integrated into Public Schools
In 2016 NAACP National Convention delegates passed, and the National NAACP Board affirmed, a resolution to promote the integration of multilingual curriculum into public schools. The body of that resolution is provided here.
Standard Grading Policies
In 2016 NAACP National Convention delegates passed, and the National NAACP Board affirmed, a resolution to urge NAACP units to encourage their respective States to establish an Office of Consumer Affairs in Testing and Student Evaluation. In addition, the resolution reaffirms the 2014 Resolution, “Accountability and Assessment: Measuring Student Learning. The body of that resolution is provided here.
The recording from the Advancing Equity in Education Webinar can be found here. You can watch the webinar using the link and also download it to your computer by clicking download on the top right.
Also, of interest is an EdWeek article authored by Barbara Dezmon and Lisa Petrides, on how OER can fill the gaps for underserved students: https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/06/07/open-educational-resources-fill-gap-for-underserved.html
We hope you will spread the word about OER to your education communities, PTA’s, and other education advocacy efforts that you are involved with. Here is a link to the NAACP’s OER policy page: https://www.naacp.org/campaigns/open-education-resources-equity-opportunities/
For more information about ISKME’s OER public library and community, including video tutorials at the bottom of the page, visit https://www.oercommons.org/
Making the Grade: A Toolkit on the Every Student Succeeds Act (.pdf)