We Proclaim
The National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) condemns all instances and systems of racism, police brutality, and the extrajudicial murders of Black people in the United States.
We Are
The National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) is dedicated to promoting the continuous development of collaborative school, college/university, and community relationships and creating and sustaining collaborative partnerships between P-12 schools and colleges/universities. We are guided by our “Nine Essentials,” beginning with Essential 1, which calls on us to “advance equity and social justice within and among schools, colleges/universities, and their respective community and professional partners.”
We Affirm
Black lives matter. We value the lives of all people of color—our students, our teachers, our faculty, and our friends. We name and face racism. We will not be silent. We stand with the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, and all who have died as the result of racist actions born of a white supremacist history that continues to this day. We affirm the experiences of the Black members of our communities and all communities of color who have encountered inequitable access to education, opportunity, and health care and all who have known the profound pain that are the result of racist structures.
We Echo
The NAPDS and its members echo the voices of individuals and organizations—every day to eminent, local to global—in denouncing these gross, senseless acts of violence and these structures of injustice.
We repeat the claim and the call of the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE):
“[We] stand with communities of color to eliminate racial injustice and the need to critically examine the role of systemic racism in our education system and in our schools, and we value the lives of black students, teachers, and faculty.”
We come together with the State College (Pennsylvania) Friends School to consider harsh realities and seek alternative paths:
“The resource https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/ keeps an updated list of names and data so that you can see the continued impact of implicit and explicit bias in America’s police force. These killings are the new lynchings – the new Jim Crow in America. We, as a school, continue to face the reality of racism in America and to work for social justice.”
We join with Academics for Black Survival and Wellness at the University of Florida:
“[T]o intervene against anti-Black racism and other forms of white supremacy as it manifests in academia [and too many of our institutions] and, in turn, enhance the safety and wellness of Black students, staff, faculty, and community members.”
We Ask
As teachers and teacher educators:
- Do we have the vision and the will to deeply engage around issues of equity and justice in our teaching/curricula, research, service engagements, and community partnerships?
- Do we cultivate an NAPDS membership and give access to an NAPDS leadership that represents and promotes diversity in all its uniqueness?
- Are our principles and practices built upon on the deep-seated values of an anti-racist, anti-oppressive organization and community?
- Are we actively increasing awareness and understanding of the historical contexts of systemic racism and the resistance required to counter these trends?
We Act
To move us, our members, and our partners toward the just ends that must be our goal, PDSs and our association will:
- articulate shared visions for promoting equity and social justice in all of our organizational systems
- enact strategies that diversify our leadership and our membership
- develop structures that support scholarship and teaching that focus on racial justice
- elevate issues of racial justice in all media, events, and conferences.
We will follow the lead and heed the wisdom of our engaged educator and activist colleagues, friends, sisters, and brothers to make our organization and all of its endeavors representative of all of us and of the best of us. This statement is but a small part of the need for greater accountability and commitment to issues of justice in our society: we fully commit to use our power and privilege to be change agents in our classrooms, on our campuses, and in our communities.