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Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools

Our Objective

The NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools (NYU Metro Center) is a comprehensive, university-based center providing research, professional learning services and supporting equity-focused, evidence-based innovations in educational research and programming. NYU Metro Center’s commitment to educational equity and school transformation, brings together scholars, educators, and innovators from diverse backgrounds to collaborate on projects to improve educational access and opportunity. NYU Metro Center focuses on driving equity in school settings--especially when confronting issues of race, gender, gender identity, national origin, socioeconomic status, and other identities historically marginalized in educational spaces.

Our Impact

Years

Of Community-Facing Research to Practice Partnerships in 2022 and 2023

Education Leaders

Supported by NYU Metro Center in 2022 and 2023

Teachers

Supported by NYU Metro Center in 2022 and 2023

Parents

Supported by NYU Metro Center in 2022 and 2023

Students

Students Directly Served by NYU Metro Center’s Student-Facing Programs and Partnerships in 2022 and 2023

Presentations and Trainings

to Local, Statewide, National, and International Conferences, Summits, and Convenings

Our Commitment

NYU Metro Center is committed to providing assistance and mobilizing resources to address educational inequity, segregation, disproportionality, discrimination, and social injustice. NYU Metro Center’s work falls into five categories: 1) scholarly research conducted by in-house researchers and faculty affiliates; 2) technical assistance to districts and schools; 3) professional learning programs for teachers and leaders; 4) applied research and evaluation of district and school, and community-based programs; and 5) youth development programs.

What's Happening at NYU Metro Center

NYU Metro Center is Deeply Honored to Have Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings as Keynote Speaker

The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools is proud to announce Professor Emerita and former Kellner Family Distinguished Professor in Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Dr. Gloria Ladson-BIllings, as the keynote speaker for its 2025 Equity Now Conference: Welcoming, Affirming, and Healing Schools.

The Evolution of Practice: NYU Metro Center’s Nest Support Project Publishes New Book Highlighting the Impact of the Nest Model from 2012-2024

From the conception of the Nest Model in 2001 to its classroom implementation in 2012 and its current-day progression some twenty years later, a new tome from the Nest Support Project at NYU Metro Center showcases the foundational strategies and ongoing developments of the Nest Model.

A Special Issue of NYU Metro Center's VUE Illustrates the Importance of Cultivating Cultural Sustainment for Students of Color in STEM and Computing Education

The latest edition of NYU Metro Center’s open-access journal, Voices in Urban Education (VUE), highlights the importance of bringing love, community, and joy to the center of learning experiences to support a diversity of youth to flourish.

Events

2025 Spring Facilitative Leadership Seminar Series

Metro Learning Communities’ Facilitative Leadership Seminar instructs participants to master protocols for strategic planning, data analysis, curriculum development, and reflections on student learning.

Hybrid Event
NYU Main campus
Online

Empowering Wellness: Prioritizing Emotional Health for Today’s High School Students

In this webinar, hear from both educators and youth alike, as they share key insights on not only how to best drive student engagement, but their cognitive and emotional involvement in learning as well.

Online event

2025 Equity Now Conference

The 2025 Equity Now Conference: Welcoming, Affirming, and Healing Schools, will showcase practical tools, and research-backed strategies and practices, and policies for creating sustainable, equity-focused spaces.

NYU Kimmel Center
60 Washington Square South, NY, NY 10012

Metro Center Perspectives

Fostering Culturally Responsive Districts and Schools: Leveraging Student Voice in Addressing Disproportionality

Today’s students are well aware of disparities within schooling and deserve the platform to discuss and address them collectively. In this blog post, authors the of Dismantling Disproportionality in Practice offer specific frameworks, processes, and tools on how districts and schools can build student voice to address disproportionality.

Healing Our Communities from Harm: The Importance of Centering Joy and Liberation in Schools

How do we build communities that nourish and uplift Black children? In this blog post Dr. Wenimo Okoya of the Institute for Healing and Belonging in Schools (IHBS) at NYU Metro Center, illustrates the disproportionate harm caused by ongoing crises upon communities of color, and the significance of creating Welcoming, Healing and Affirming Schools for all of our children.

Shaping Futures with Words: Toward More Explicitly Antiracist Discourse in NAEYC’s Developmentally Appropriate Practice and Family-School Partnerships Guidelines

What are the policy and practice implications for changes to National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)’s key Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) texts? In this blog post study authors make the case for explicitly anti-racist reciprocal partnerships with families and communities within the DAP texts, to facilitate greater equity and social justice in educational practices.

Voices in Urban Education

VUE is an open-access journal published twice annually and endeavors to serve as a “roundtable-in-print” by bringing together diverse education stakeholders with a wide range of viewpoints, including leading education writers and thinkers, as well as essential but frequently underrepresented voices in educational scholarship, such as students, parents, teachers, activists, and community members.

Read the Latest Issue (link is external)

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