1968: Community Control – 2018: Community Accountability

This past month, we commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the 1968 Ocean-Hill Brownsville crisis when teachers went on strike, shutting down New York City’s education system for 36 days. However little is known, understood or appreciated about the community control of neighborhood schools movement—born from the larger school integration efforts–that prompted the strike.

In 1968, Black, Puerto Rican and White parents’ struggle for community control was a response to the failure of school operators to make substantial changes that guaranteed a suitable education to black and brown children. Today, these parents still struggle. First, they need a way to know what their school does for their children, and then, how they do it.

Zone 126’s recent award of a 5-year $2.5M federal grant to implement a Full-Service Neighborhood Community School at PS 171 and IS 126 is our opportunity to learn from and examine the lessons from the community control movement and improve the outcomes for neighborhood students. We can redefine the relationship that marginalized parents have with the school system.