Case Study: Needham High School (MA) Courageous Conversations on Race

Needham High School’s (NHS) Courageous Conversations on Race (CCOR), is a diverse student team, composed of both Boston and Needham residents, shared the following goals at one of our summits: to raise awareness of racial identity at NHS and develop more effective responses to racist events in the school. The Summit provided opportunities for students to brainstorm, receive feedback from other youth teams, and begin to craft a strategy. The students took what they learned at the Summit to advocate successfully with their principal and superintendent for new protocols for responding to racial incidents at school, as well as clarity on new disciplinary procedures. Inspired by the feedback they received in consulting sessions with SparkShare staff, they shared their ideas on proposed curriculum changes with the Chairs of the History and English Departments and gained faculty agreement on action. CCOR has since led Conversations on Race across the school, implemented trainings for 450 staff, and annually facilitated workshops for every 9th grader ( approximately 1400 - 1500 students per year), and this year hosted a “Community Conversation on Race” for their town of Needham.  Overall, CCOR is succeeding in educating, opening people’s minds to self-reflection about race and racism, and helping to change the NHS culture moving it to one of greater equity and anti-racism