NABSE PROCLAIMS FEBRUARY 10, 2011 AS EDUCATION IS A CIVIL RIGHT PARTICIPATION DAY

School districts throughout the country are invited for the third consecutive year to conduct an activity on "Education is a Civil Right Participation Day". Examples of such activities include:

• School board proclamations
• Essay competition on "Why I think education is a Civil Right"
• Invite speakers to address this issue at student assemblies
• Student discussion on why education should be considered a civil right
• Conduct a student debate on whether education is a civil right
• Conduct research on prominent personalities who have stated education is a civil right
• Develop an oratorical contest around the issue

NABSE urges school board members, superintendents, administrators, principals, teachers, parents and students to conduct at least one activity on Thursday, February 10, 2011.

Please forward abstracts of your activities to the NABSE offices, during the next two months, for publication. Send abstracts via email to ddavis@nabse.org.

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The National Alliance of Black School Educators has declared "Education is a Civil Right" and insists that this country establish a zero tolerance policy on illiteracy, dropout and failure. Our basis for this initiative is based on legal rationale and the fact that African Americans in communities across the country consistently identify public education as one of their primary concerns and yet, there are few community-based organizations attempting to mobilize members of the Black community to work toward improving student achievement at the local level.

The primary focus of NABSE's Education is a Civil Right initiative is to raise awareness and mobilize the public, and especially members of the African American community, to more actively advocate for strategies that will result in improved academic achievement for African American students.

The Education Is a Civil Right initiative aims to:

• Foster and develop through dialogue, workshops, political and civil action, and other appropriate means, an awareness of the consequences of educational under achievement in every corner of society;
  
  
• Initiate activities that will directly address the educational disparities and inequities faced by African American students and families, and bring about intended and measurable improvements in our public school systems; and;
  
  
• Develop the talents, skills and leadership within our communities that can use its collective expertise and knowledge to continuously monitor, review and affect needed changes relative to the educational civil rights of the students and families in all parts of our society. To provide strategies and activities for use in school districts serving a significant population of African American students.

Download the Chronology of ECR Events - 2007-2009 (pdf)


To participate, download the ECR Toolkit and the endorsement letter.

For reference, download:

ECR Legal Rationale 9/18/08
WHY Education is a Civil Right
Best Practice Program Application: An ECR Initiative (pdf)
2011 Civil Right Participation Day Proclamation (pdf)

Click here for our ECR PowerPoint Presentation.

Please tell us about your activities for "Education is a Civil Right Participation Day"! Send a brief statement of activities, photos or testimonies to: epotillo@nabse.org.