Running head: BROWN LECTURE REFLECTION 1

Brown Lecture Reflection

The 10th Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research, entitled A New Civil
Rights Agenda for American Education: Creating Opportunity in a Stratified
Multiracial Nation, was presented by Dr. Gary Orfield in 2013. Dr. Orfield is an
expert in civil rights, education policy, urban policy, and minority opportunity, whose
research has focused on the impact of policy decisions on equal opportunity for
success in American society.
Dr. Orfields lecture takes heated aim at the state of civil rights in the U.S., with
an emphasis on outdated approaches to the changing dynamics of segregation and the
lack of awareness of racial inequality. Served as an expert witness in several dozen
court cases related to this research, Dr. Orfield discusses the interplay of education
research, diversity, and equal opportunity at this critical juncture. In the lecture, Dr.
Orfield examines why the country is moving backward on the goals of the civil rights
movement; how reforms often have been misunderstood and rejected, even within the
academic community; and how civil rights arguments can be restated in contemporary
multiracial terms. Furthermore, the lecture discusses what rights are truly central in a
society that has been transformed over the last half century into a multiracial nation,
which includes profound inequality by race and class; and the inequality is directly
connected to the educational opportunities available to students.
Within the lecture, Dr. Orfield stresses that race does matter deeply in the U.S.,
and provides his vision for forging a new civil rights movement in American
education. Dr. Orfield claims that civil rights policy should incorporate a vision of
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educational opportunity starting in preschool. High-quality preschool can be a
powerful factor in school readiness, but current high-quality preschool is largely
limited to middle- and upper-class families. To illustrate, Head Start, which needs
better teachers and a more coherent and comprehensive design, is popular but clearly
not adequate. Moreover, there has been little research on the most effective way to
pursue rights and opportunities for minority groups in the schools and how to
prepare teachers and administrators to work effectively in these setting. The related
policies in such increasingly common setting are also simply inadequate. Therefore,
in order to work towards equal opportunities for all students, the new civil rights
approach should be an array of programs and supports to make it possible for all
students and their schools to overcome the effects of a history of racial inequality.
In addition, schools are the only public institutions that reach the vast majority of
people, and have an explicit commitment to equalizing opportunity. Diversity in
school staff, leadership, training teachers, and others in policies and techniques to
assure real equality are essential elements of ending discrimination and assuring equal
treatment in school. Especially for educators and researchers, who have the privilege
and the responsibility to use their knowledge and skills to contribute to a just society,
this means taking on the challenges of educational inequalities. Dr. Orfield speaks
about some of the ways in which educators can work towards equal opportunities, and
invites researchers to contribute to this new civil rights movement. He highlights the
importance of training teachers and school administrators, expressing that all teachers
and staff need training on race and culture so they can better understand and relate to
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students of different cultures. In addition to developing a diverse curriculum, schools
also need to actively recruit and retain diverse faculty.
All in all, as the nation approaches the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of
Education decision, issues of equal educational opportunity remain unresolved. Civil
rights for all still struggles to find its footing. Furthermore, there has been very little
discussion of what rights are truly central now, in a society that has been transformed
in a half century since the civil rights era and which faces profound inequality by race
and class. Dr. Orfields lecture, which focuses on identifying and rooting out systemic
inequities in the educational field, is at the nexus of civil rights and education policy
in this country. His lecture has contributed to advancing public understanding of
equality and equity in education. More importantly, Dr. Orfields lecture and
scholarship show that imparting change is indeed possible and provides concrete
action steps that people can build from in their work. Therefore, civil rights for all still
struggles to find its footing, that makes it important for organizations such as the
American Educational Research Association (AERA) to encourage research in this
area. Studies that aim to advance knowledge about education, and to improve access
to education for all members of the public will surely remain a priority of AERA in
the future.