Resources
Our collection of resources is designed to equip parents, educators, administrators, and practitioners with tools and guidance to promote diversity, foster school integration, and nurture inclusivity.
Use any combination of the filters below to limit results by age, audience, resource type, and/or topic. You can also enter keywords in the search box to locate known resources quickly.
Addressing Race and Inequity in the Classroom
Description: (2013)
Source: Fabienne Doucet and Jennifer Adair in YC Young Children
AFT's Immigration Resources for Educators and School Support Staff
Description: Americans know that our strength has always been built on the simple notion that America is a place where many become one. The AFT, as the representative of those who teach and care for our next generation, is working to open the path to opportunity and the American dream for the next generation of immigrants and citizens. The time for commonsense, comprehensive and compassionate immigration reform is long overdue
Source: American Federation of Teachers
All Children Belong Here: This is Our Promise to You
Description: Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards have created a pro-diversity, anti-bias pledge in the March/April 2017 issue of Child Care Exchange. Please post and pass on. (Available in English, Spanish, and Chinese).
Source: Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards for Anti-Bias Exhange
ALSC’s Book and Media Award
Description: ALSC’s book and media awards recognize exemplary media for children and support the collection development and readers' advisory efforts of library workers serving youth.
Source: ALA's Association for Library Service to Children
Anti-Bias FAQ for Penn State Childcare Centers
Description: Anti-Bias Education (ABE) teaches children to recognize, affirm, and celebrate the various social identities that make up our classroom and surrounding community. It is based on research demonstrating that children as young as 6 months old can begin to show signs of cultural bias if they are not taught to understand differences.
Source: Penn State University, Penn State Child Care Centers
AP-OD Parent Toolbox
Description: Family Resources You Can Trust | Parents, we're here for you! We know you’re balancing a lot - career, relationships, mental health, finances, and more - while striving to support your children's growth and well-being. To ease this journey, AP-OD provides you with resources, tools, and quality information.
Source: Abriendo Puertas | Opening Doors
Can School Integration Make a Comeback?
Description: n this video, Atlantic education editor Alia Wong speaks to the U.S. Secretary of Education John King, Jr. about his new plan to integrate schools. King’s policy changes will expand a system known as “school choice” that permits students to go to schools outside their neighborhoods and theoretically allows parents to voluntarily integrate schools. But, D.C. parent Natalie Hopkinson argues that schools will continue to re-segregate if the federal government does not intervene more forcefully. “As long as we rely on [parental] choice, we will continue to have the same result,” she says. “White parents will not send their kids to schools unless they are already white.”
Source: The Atlantic
Center on Race and Social Problems
Description: Larry E. Davis established the Center on Race and Social Problems at the University of Pittsburgh mentoring emerging scholars and disseminating race-related research findings and scholarship. Today, under the leadership of Dr. Kyaien Conner, the Center continues his legacy, conducting applied social science research on race, color, ethnicity and their influence on the quality of life for all Americans.
Source: University of Pittsburgh
Child Care Exchange Pledge (English)
Description: A statement for childcare centers and schools to reiterate a commitment for all families and children to feel welcomed and protected
Source: Center for Education and Civil Rights
Child Care Exchange Pledge (Spanish)
Description: A statement for childcare centers and schools to reiterate a commitment for all families and children to feel welcomed and protected
Source: Center for Education and Civil Rights
Children's Literature as a Tool for Facilitating Complex Conversations with Young Children
Description: Google Slideshow by Fabienne Doucet, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Early Childhood and Urban Education, New York University. Fabienne's #KidLit Resources.
Source: Fabienne Douce
Children's Literature Comprehensive Database
Description: Is the unique resource for finding the right book for a young child, a drill-down resource for professional librarians, teaching tool for academics while complimenting school and public librarian’s collection development programs and supporting book challenges in just one single resource with a single search. | Note: For Penn State users, additional content can be accessed through the PSU Libraries A-Z database list.
Source: CLCD
Choices Worth Making: Creating, Sustaining and Expanding Diverse Magnet Schools
Description: The purpose of this manual is to support school districts and schools in developing diverse and equitable magnet programs. It is intended to help stakeholders during the planning phases of developing new magnet schools or during the revision or expansion of existing magnet schools. The manual also provides helpful insights into sustaining the success of a magnet school. (2017)
Source: Civil Rights Project
Commitment to Diversity Statement
Description: Document highlighting Penn State child care centers' commitment to diversity and includes resources for additional reading. (Page 7 of Handbook.)
Source: Penn State University, Child Care at Penn State Handbook
Considerations for Early Childhood and Early Elementary Educators on Slavery and Resistance
Description: To support and deepen this important conversation, we share with you key articles for reflection followed by suggested books for children and adults. The books are primarily for early elementary and above, not for early childhood.
Source: Teaching for Change
Defending Dreamers: Educator's Toolkit
Description: After the rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on September 5, 2017, the Center for Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Penn State crafted this toolkit to help guide K-12 and post-secondary educators working to support their immigrant students and their families.
Source: Center for Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Penn State
Despite the Best Intentions
Description: John Diamond was interviewed about the book he co-authored, Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools. The interview, recorded on the campus of the University of Wisconsin, is part of Book TV's College Series.
Source: C-SPAN
Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools
Description: On the surface, Riverview High School looks like an exemplar of an integrated community. Serving an affluent and diverse district, the school is well-funded, its teachers are well-trained, and many of its students are high-achieving. Yet Riverview has not escaped the same question that plagues schools throughout America: why is it that even when all of the circumstances seem right, racial disparities in key outcomes persist? In this updated second edition, Amanda E. Lewis and John B. Diamond build on their powerful and illuminating study of Riverview to show how the "racial achievement gap" continues to afflict American schools sixty years after the formal dismantling of segregation. The second edition includes new chapters that highlight what has changed and what remains the same at Riverview and explore how the lessons from the book can inform school change efforts. Lewis and Diamond present a complex story of concerted efforts to transform educational opportunities in Riverview, alongside persistent resistance to those efforts. Most crucially, they challenge many common explanations of the racial disparities in educational outcomes exploring what race actually means in the school context, and how it matters. (2nd Ed. Pub. 2025)
Source: Amanda E. Lewis and John B. Diamond
Education Civil Rights Alliance
Description: Schools should serve, educate, empower and, above all, be safe for all students. They should be places where students feel assured their rights and humanity are respected. But today, students’ civil rights are increasingly under attack. We stand against these attacks by helping state and local partners advocate for their school districts to support students and by taking legal action, when necessary, to protect students' civil rights.
Source: National Center for Youth Law
Educator Resources
Description: From film kits and lesson plans to the building blocks of a customized Learning Plan—texts, student tasks and teaching strategies—our resources will help you bring relevance, rigor and social emotional learning into your classroom—all for FREE.
Source: Southern Poverty Law Center | Learning for Justice
EmbraceRace
Description: Since 2016, EmbraceRace has supported parents, guardians, educators, and other caregivers working to raise children who are thoughtful, informed and brave about race so that U.S. multiracial democracy can thrive.
Source: EmbraceRace
EmbraceRace Facebook Group
Description: EmbraceRace is an online community of discussion and practice about raising and caring for kids, all kids, in the context of race. We are an interactive community of support for those of us – parents, teachers, counselors, grandparents, day care providers, aunts and uncles – trying to raise kids with healthy racial sensibilities. Kids are very welcome too!
Source: EmbraceRace, Facebook
Empowering Adopted Children of Color in the Face of Racism and Discrimination
Description: This article explores how parents—especially those in transracial adoptive families—can help their children navigate racism and build a strong, positive racial identity. It offers practical strategies for fostering open conversations, affirming cultural heritage, and preparing children to respond confidently to bias and discrimination.
Source: Online Psychology at Pepperdine University
Equal Rights to Public Education Regardless of Immigration/Citizenship Status
Description: The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that citizenship or immigration status of students, parents, or guardians cannot be used to bar students from public schools (Plyler v. Doe, 1982). OCR works to ensure that schools' enrollment policies and practices are consistent with Title VI's prohibition against discrimination based on race, color, or national origin.
Source: U.S. Department of Education