Introducing the Center for Educational Equity Records
Donated to the Gottesman Libraries last November by Michael Rebell, the Center for Educational Equity Records Collection has been fully processed and described and is now open and available for research. Supplementing the New York State School Finance Reform Archive, the Center for Educational Equity Records:
... document the activities of Michael Rebell and the Center for Educational Equity during the litigation of several lawsuits which advocated for educational equity in the United States, including Jose P v. Mills and Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc. v. State. It also documents the activities of educational reform initiatives such as the National Advocacy Center for Children’s Educational Success with Standards (ACCESS) Campaign. (Collection Overview, Center for Educational Equity Records Finding Aid)
Charting litigations and campaigns from the late 1970s to the mid-2010s, this collection spans around 40 years of legal advocacy and evidences the ways “litigators and not-for-profit advocacy organizations fought for both local and national educational reform through targeted lawsuits and advocacy campaigns, especially in the areas of school finance, educational standards, special education, bilingual education, and school diversity.” (Collection Scope and Contents).
Processed over the course of six months by Processing Archivist Victoria Santamorena, the collection consists of 29 linear feet of:
- Court and legal documents:
- Complaints
- Stipulations
- Legal briefs
- Case filings
- Judgements and rulings
- Expert reports
- Trial documents, such as affidavits, orders of the court, and court dockets
- Notes and background research:
- Handwritten outlines
- Case studies
- Cost studies
- Annotated copies of academic articles, newspaper articles, and other research materials
- Handwritten and typed correspondence
- Promotional materials such as VHS tapes and DVDs, pamphlets, and posters
- Memoranda
- Executive reports
- Project planning documents
- Print-outs of articles discussing the outcome of lawsuits and campaigns
[Image: cover image for Securing the Future of New York's Children: Taking the Next Steps Toward Truly Universal Prekindergarten. From box 28].
The Center for Educational Equity Records highlight Michael Rebell’s advocacy efforts, as well as the efforts of the Center for Educational Equity and its associates in fighting for educational funding and standards. These records “underscore the changing landscape of educational standards and laws” from 1979 to 2017, and they provide documentation as to the “the fraught nature of the American educational landscape for children and their families” (Collection Scope and Contents).This collection also demonstrates how Teachers College’s policy and research centers became involved in educational reform on a national basis.
For more information on this collection, please consult the finding aid available in the Library’s Research Guides under Centers, Institutes, Programs, and Projects. To request to view documents from this collection, please submit a ticket.
