The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools is an educational research, consulting, and training center hosted at the NYU Steinhardt campus. The organization works to promote left-of-center social policy and critical race theory in schools, and to use education as a means to achieve its conception of “equity” and to defeat rampant “white supremacy.” ^{1 2 3}

Founding and History

The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools was founded in 1978 with a focus on attempting to alleviate problems facing children in public schools. The center has had a large amount of growth over the years and among other educational issues is focused on promoting social justice and “linguistic justice.” ⁴

Finances

The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools is a part of NYU Steinhardt and does not have publicly available financial filings. However, the center does publish some broad financial information in its annual reports. In fiscal year 2019-2020, the center had $15,332,423 in revenue, of which $11,488,167 was derived from government agencies, $3,652,662 was derived from fees for service, $2,779,535 was derived from foundations, and $1188,815 was derived from gifts. The center does not disclose expenses or assets but does report that between 2010 and 2020 it received $168,109,179 from grants, contracts, and other forms of external funding. ⁵

Public records indicate that the center entered into a $63,000 contract with Irvington Union Free School District in New York for $63,600 for a variety of training and evaluation programs over a 10-month period. ⁶ The center also entered into a $100,200 contract with Jamesville-Dewitt Central School District in New York to provide a variety of “equity” focused trainings and seminars from July of 2021 to the end of June 2022. ⁷

Services and Educational Philosophy

The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools offers a variety of educational services to clients. These include consulting services focused on activist organizing and equipping groups to affect change in their schools, review and recommendation services that create recommendations and roadmaps to make organizations more “equitable,” and research and development services. The center also conducts teacher education, professional development, and evaluation services. ⁸

The center is influenced by ideas of left-progressive social justice and critical race theory. It runs an anti-racist initiative that is focused on confronting anti-black racism and white supremacy, which the center asserts are widespread and implicit among many white people, “regardless of their intentions or awareness”. The “anti-racist” and “critical whiteness” initiative works to “disrupt systemic racism” and encourage white people to reflect on their white supremacist beliefs. ⁹

This attitude can be seen in writings published on the center’s website. For example, “Bringing School Racial Socialization to Light: The Importance of Intentionality and Resistance” argues that schools must be used to inculcate students, especially minority students, with messages that “resist white supremacy.” This can include assigning work that tasks students with examining their own relationship with “systemic racism” and promoting “resistance” in curriculum. ¹⁰

Other writings include pieces such as “Structural Racism Begins in Kindergarten” that claims that resistance to critical race theory is akin to “red-baiting” from the 1950s, and “Monopolizing Whiteness” that laments that Supreme Court decisions have prevented high quality school districts from being broken up in the name of desegregation. ¹¹¹²

Leadership and Staff

David E. Kirkland is the executive director of The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools and has held that position since 2015. He is an associate professor at NYU Steinhart where he teaches English and urban education. Kirkland’s bio states that he seeks to explore equity and social justice in various aspects of education. He is a former middle and high school teacher and was also a post-doctoral fellow with the Ford Foundation. He has authored a variety of academic books and papers, and was an editor of the book Change Matters: Moving Social Justice from Theory to Policy in Language and Literacy Education. ^{13 14 15}

1. Steinhart.NYU.edu. “About Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools.” Accessed December 6, 2021. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/about.
2. Steinhart.NYU.edu. “Services – Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools | NYU Steinhardt.” Accessed December 6, 2021. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/services.
3. Das, Sohini. “Bringing School Racial Socialization to Light: The Importance of Intentionality and Resistance | NYU Steinhardt.” Steinhart.NYU.edu, 2021. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/bringing-school-racial-socialization-light-importance-intentionality-and-resistance.
4. Steinhart.NYU.edu. “About Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools.” Accessed December 6, 2021. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/about.
5. Steinhart.NYU.edu. “NYU Metro Center 2019 2020 Annual Report.” Accessed December 6, 2021. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-07/NYU%20Metro%20Center%20annual%20report%20v5b%20prepressed%20FOR%20DIGITAL.pdf.
6. Parents Defending Education. “The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools and Irvington Union Free School District Contract,” September 1, 2020. https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/NYU-contract-racial-equity-2020.pdf.
7. Parents Defending Education. “The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools and Jamesville-Dewitt Central School District Contract,” July 15, 2021. https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/NYU-Metropolitan-Center_Jamesville-Dewitt-CSD_2021-07-15_Contract.pdf.
8. Steinhart.NYU.edu. “Services – Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools | NYU Steinhardt.” Accessed December 6, 2021. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/services.
9. Steinhart.NYU.edu. “Services – Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools | NYU Steinhardt.” Accessed December 6, 2021. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/services.
10. Das, Sohini. “Bringing School Racial Socialization to Light: The Importance of Intentionality and Resistance | NYU Steinhardt.” Steinhart.NYU.edu, 2021. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/bringing-school-racial-socialization-light-importance-intentionality-and-resistance.
11. Fruchter, Norm, and Christina Mokhtar-Ross. “Structural Racism Begins in Kindergarten | NYU Steinhardt.” Steinhart.NYU.edu, 2021. Accessed December 6, 2021.https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/structural-racism-begins-kindergarten.
12. Fruchter, Norm. “Monopolizing Whiteness | NYU Steinhardt.” Steinhart.NYU.edu, 2021. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/monopolizing-whiteness.
13. Steinhart.NYU.edu. “Who We Are – Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools | NYU Steinhardt.” Accessed December 6, 2021. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/about/who-we-are.
14. Steinhart.NYU.edu. “David Kirkland | NYU Steinhardt.” Accessed December 6, 2021. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/people/david-kirkland.
15. Kirkland, David. “David Kirkland CV.” Steinhart.NYU.edu. Accessed December 6, 2021. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/2019-08/DavidKirkland_CVpdf.pdf.