Metro Center Hosts Fourth Annual Equity Now Conference

Educators, youth, and community members discussed elevating culturally responsive practices even in challenging times.

On May 29, NYU Steinhardt’s Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools (Metro Center) hosted the 2026 Equity Now Conference, convening educators, youth, and community members to discuss ways to be more responsive to children, families, and communities on the margins.

This year’s theme was an expansive “Call to Action” that prompted attendees to reframe educational equity through the refinement of culturally responsive systems and practices.

“Education has been under attack in recent years, and the children furthest on the margins are being impacted even more,” says María G. Hearnández, deputy executive director of school change and community engagement and co-director of the Metro Center’s Innovations in Equity and Systemic Change (IESC). “The question we asked with Equity Now is how we bring together educators, caregivers, and technical assistance providers to become organizers—working alongside and for young people to elevate equity in this moment.”

Throughout the day, attendees participated in breakout sessions across a range of topics, including building capacity for equitable education, supporting culturally responsive youth leadership councils, strategies on engaging with families to build trust, and developing equity-centered evaluation systems.

Educational luminary Bettina L. Love, William F. Russell Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, delivered the dynamic keynote address. Love is the celebrated author of Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal, a New York Times bestseller that earned her the Stowe Prize for Literary Activism.

“Bettina is brilliant and a visionary,” says Fabienne Doucet, executive director of the Metro Center and professor of education at NYU Steinhardt. “Her way of thinking, framing, and seeing things really pushed the field forward. What stands out is how she approaches her work from a place of love, care, and deep protectiveness toward our children. I feel lucky that she spoke at our conference because she consistently leaves people inspired and motivated to get out there and do the work.”

For the organizers of Equity Now, their intent was to have all attendees leave feeling driven to build communities of support to continue the work tomorrow, next week, and next year. 

“Equity Now created an opportunity for people to recalibrate, refocus, and re-engage,” says Reed Swier ’26 (PhD, Sociology of Education), co-director of IESC. “We pushed stakeholders—families, school leaders, district leaders, and students—to take time to talk about what culturally responsive practices look and feel like, and how we support each other in spaces where we’re often told what to do but not given the ability to do it.”

Learn more about the Metro Center’s work supporting equity-focused, evidence-based innovations in educational research and programming.