Math Recovery

To the Math Recovery Community,

The past weeks and months have placed a spotlight on the undeniably pervasive injustice and inequity in our society. We are heartbroken for the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. The public reactions to these events across the country have many associated emotions extending from fear and anger to hope for a different tomorrow.

We stand with our fellow mathematics educator organizations in acknowledging decades-long systemic racism, inequities, and injustices in our communities - and that we as an organization still have a long way to go in this work. Acknowledging is only the first step, and taking action is necessary to realize actual change within educational systems and societies.

We are taking action. In March, Math Recovery began formulating a structure for diving deep into the field of equity, diversity, and inclusion. As an organization, we need to study ourselves and have conversations about both our internal biases and our institutional biases. We are committed to researching and implementing solutions to fundamentally change the structures in which we create, reach, and provide services to our current and future community. We will continue this dialogue with our membership and provide updates as our work progresses.

We ask our community to actively work in partnership through difficult conversations with each other when we see direct and indirect racism or exclusionary systems in place. Our membership, and mathematics education as a whole, lacks diversity. We must accept the shared responsibility that we carry to do the work of changing our systems for the better and making changes to open doors that have been closed to underrepresented populations for so long. All of our voices together are necessary to change racist and inequitable systems and practices within the education community.

We are including links to organizations that have been working towards societal change for years and resources for educators:

Organizations:

• Race Forward - In partnership with communities, organizations, and sectors, Race Forward builds strategies to advance racial justice in policies, institutions, and culture
• Color of Change - The nation?s largest online civil rights organization building grassroots political power for African-Americans and working for social change for all people
• Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCR) - A coalition of more than 200 diverse national organizations working to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States

Resources for teachers:

• Teaching Tolerance ? Featured Race & Ethnicity Resources
• School Colors ? A narrative podcast from Brooklyn Deep about how race, class, and power shape American cities and schools
• 31 Children's Books to Support Conversations on Race, Racism and Resistance

Thank you for being a part of our community. Please join us in the hard work of creating a community that equitably serves and supports all.

Sincerely,

Christina Miller, Executive Director,
and the entire Math Recovery Leadership team