Roots Connected Inc.

Roots ConnectED is a national professional development organization committed to ensuring that each child recognize the humanity in one another. We create intentionally integrated and inclusive school communities. 

Roots ConnectED is the only training for educators that teaches the practical skills of community building and critical thinking needed for creating intentionally integrated and inclusive school communities. It is for anyone who seeks ways to build community and connection across lines of differences in an era of racial and economic divisiveness.

Roots ConnectED gives educators the tools to encourage deep connection among children not despite of their differences, but through honoring them. We know this work is hard and on-going and we value the process. We also believe that, to do this work well, we must approach it with love, patience, and a commitment to ongoing work.

In Fort Greene, Brooklyn, we’ve been learning real life, hands-on lessons about what it takes to build an integrated and inclusive school.  Since opening Community Roots Charter School in 2006, we’ve learned that school integration is not a one-time fix and that merely desegregating is not enough.  Research has shown, that as children learn alongside people who are different from them, the deeply etched racial gap in this country can close rapidly and definitively.  Most Americans live extremely segregated lives. Our schools, unfortunately, reflect that segregation. As the national discourse in education sways towards policy makers, researchers, and districts across the country recognizing the inhumane ways in which the system of education systematically disenfranchises one group over another, a rise in diverse by design schools and diversity initiatives have followed.  However, what matters is what happens once the kids are all in school together. Without very clear and intentional programming, curriculum, and professional development, we will wind up perpetuating the stereotypes that exist outside the school walls, within our very classrooms.

This is where Roots ConnectED comes in. Since our establishment in 2016, we have codified our learnings at Community Roots and now support school communities in practices of inclusion and diversity.  We believe that to develop strong equitable communities, they must include: 

• an anti-bias approach to curriculum; 

• classroom spaces that honor differences, consider the variability of learners in a classroom, and connect students across lines of difference; 

• family and community programming that build authentic connection between families and an understanding of the approach taken with children; and 

• purposeful staff development that prepares teachers to lead inclusive and anti-bias communities. 

• While efforts have been made to desegregate schools, we feel this is just the first step towards authentic integration and ultimately, unity in diversity.

Engage with Roots ConnectED in a few different ways:

• Coaching: Deeper individualized work with a particular school or district to focus on one area of practice. Consulting includes creating and implementing work plans with members of leadership teams, professional development, and support with structures and procedures.

• Institutes: 1-3 day intensive trainings designed to share school integration and inclusion practices with working teams from a particular school site. Institutes include classroom observations, educator panel discussions, and consultancies for group planning.

• Workshops: Stand alone educational experiences including a range of topics and offering concrete tools and examples that can be directly applied to participants’ own school communities. Workshops include specific curricular examples, hands-on activities, and connection to practice.