Episode 10: “Learning in the Most Delicious Sense”: The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning

In Episode 10, Alcine and Shane talk with thought leaders, and mother-daughter dynamic duo, Drs. Linda and Kia Darling-Hammond about their new book The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning: Five Essentials for Equity (Teachers College Press, 2022). Drawing on their intersections across 25 years in the field of public education, these four educators begin with a retrospective on the seminal Williams v. California lawsuit in which Shane and Linda both served as witnesses, pivoting to explore the next historic fight for equitable access. They dig into the legacy of the test-and-punish era and how testing has served as a barrier to deeper learning, and Linda drops some mind-blowing knowledge about the double discrimination baked into test questions. Finally, they dream together about equitable and just schools that elevate student voice and center performance-based assessments rather than tests.

For Further Learning

• Read Linda and Kia’s book The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning: Five Essentials for Equity
• Review Chapter 6 of Street Data, which profiles performance assessment