RALEIGH – Over 70 years have passed since the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education desegregated public schools, but there are still racial disparities in public education.

Over 700 community members, including educators, administrators and nonprofit leaders, convened online and in Raleigh for the 2025 Color of Education Summit to address these disparities. The event focused on the power of storytelling in changemaking.

In her research on the misidentification of students of color for special education, Katrina Huffman compiled the narratives and experiences of 16 Black administrators from four generations across the United States to draw conclusions about the racial and cultural dynamics at play in public education, and strategies for systemic change.

“…It’s through those narratives, not only do we get to hear about the horrible results of these, but we also get to hear a lot about the hope that lies within us, and also to recount how we’ve gotten over from this point forward,” Huffman said. “…and how we can continue to use those narratives of our people, Black educational leaders to identify patterns and strategies for change, and how to build equity into structures.”

Despite the Brown v. Board decision, resources were not shared equally between schools in Black and white neighborhoods, as implementing integration was left for states to carry out. Black schools were closed, and Black principals and educators were fired and replaced with less experienced white principals, teachers and administrators.

“We ended up with this double cost,” Huffman said. “The underrepresentation of Black educational leadership in schools…and the overrepresentation of Black students in special education.” These were products of resistance to school integration.

Named after a quote by Dr. Dudley Flood, a Black educator and instrumental leader in public school integration in North Carolina, Huffman’s research is titled “An Immeasurable Toll: The Cost of Racialized Leadership Gaps and Misidentification in Special Education.”

In North Carolina, American Indian and Black students are significantly more likely to be recommended as “exceptional children,” or recipients of special education and related courses, per a 2019 study of over 20,000 K-12 North Carolina public school students receiving special education by the Center for Racial Equity in Education.

Her own experience as a student in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, during the 1980s foreshadowed the findings in her work. Huffman was disciplined by being recommended for special education after getting into fights with other students who were picking on her. This illustrates how, as Huffman told The Tribune, “the only disciplinary tools at administrators’ disposal” are suspension and/or recommendation for special education.

One reason for the racial disparity is a cultural disconnect between white female educators and their students. However, “Dr. Williams,” a school superintendent who Huffman interviewed for her dissertation, said the blame can be shared.

Having served in schools with predominantly Black instructors, principals and assistant principals, Dr. Williams found they were still disproportionately suspending Black students. Educators were primarily of Caribbean descent, highlighting the cultural differences in discipline in their home countries.

After implementing a committed change in disciplinary action, the superintendent saw an increase in  students’ test scores. “By changing the climate for the children, they’ve also changed their trajectory for academic success,” Huffman said.

The summit is a joint effort among the Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity and Opportunity, the Public School Forum of North Carolina, the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University and the Center for Child and Family Policy.

Comments