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Matt Gonzales

Director, Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative (EJROC)

Matt Gonzales is an educator, organizer, facilitator, and a policy expert. He is director of the Education Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative (EJROC) at the NYU Metro Center. He has been influential in the policy and advocacy for school integration, culturally responsive education, and racial equity in New York City and across the country. Through his work on the NYC School Diversity Advisory group, Matt helped craft New York City's policy on school integration and has also helped shape the policy and implementation of the Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Education (CRSE) framework adopted by the NYCDOE. He is coordinator for New Yorkers for Racially Just Public Schools (RJPS), an education justice coalition, and serves on the Steering Committee for the National Coalition on School Diversity (NCSD). He is a former special education teacher at Bancroft Middle School in Los Angeles, and earned his Masters in Education Policy from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2016. He earned his Bachelor's in Urban Education and a Special Education Teaching Credential from California State University, Los Angeles, and began his higher education journey at Santa Monica Community College.

Selected Publications

Racially Just School Integration: A 21st Century, Student Led Strategy. (Fall, 2023). Integration and Equity 2.0: New and Reinvigorated Approaches to School Integration. The American Institute for Research (AIR). https://www.air.org/integration-and-equity-2-0- essays/community-approaches-and-perspectives#racially 

Is Your Curriculum Culturally Responsive? (November 2023) Principal Magazine. Volume 102, Issue 4. https://www.naesp.org/resource/is-your-curriculum-culturally-responsive/   

Taking Up the Mantel of a Forgotten History: New York City Integration.  https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/vue/taking-mantle-forgotten-history-new-york-city-integration-0

A Framework For Integration Rooted in Racial Justice. 2018 https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/framework-integration-rooted-racial-justice-2018