This lesson will examine the Green Factors, established by the Green case addressing inequalities in schools. By examining the intent of Green and the established precedent, students will then examine facilities in their school and will determine if they think they meet the Green Factor standards.
This lesson is meant to build off student understanding around Brown by highlighting the Green case and the five ways that the court determined schools need to be equitable. Once they understand the “Green Factors,” students will create a report that looks at their own school and examines how schools try to create equitable schooling.
Essential questions
How do we respond to history?
Outcomes and objectives
After the lesson students will…
Be able to articulate the reason for the Green Factors, understand why they exist, and be able to use critical thinking skills to study case studies.
Preparing to teach
Students need to have some familiarity with the Brown case and the Civil Rights Movement. This lesson will provide a counternarrative to that of civil rights healing in America and show that just because the court makes a ruling, does not mean that change will be quick.
Scaffolds and accommodations to support learners
Reading support
Providing the transcript and audio recordings of the court case will give multiple ways for students to access the Green case. The graphic organizer could be more scaffolded by adding the names of the Green Factors or other key vocabulary.
Differentiation
The formality and requirements of the presentation could be a place to introduce more differentiation. If you want an even more comprehensive assessment of the Green Factors, students could collect and compare data from other schools or districts, or even come up with proposals for solutions or concept maps of what the school could look like to address the factors.
Adjusting for middle school AND LOWER grades
Excerpting readings and reducing the focus of the final project could make this assignment more accessible to younger students.
Instructional activities sequence
The homework before the class you are planning to begin this lesson should be the Oyez link below. It has the transcript and audio for the Green v. County School Board of New Kent County case. The combination of audio and transcript will help students with reading/listening, but some of the language may be difficult. As a support, use the graphic organizer below to help students organize thoughts and listen for specific points.
For the first part of the lesson in class, review the graphic organizer, either as a whole class or in small groups, at teacher's discretion. Once the case is reviewed, look at the included article from the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. It is a summary of what the court found problematic in Virginia schools and their desegregation process, and outlines the five factors that school systems need to address when desegregating: racial ratios of students, racial ratios of faculty, equality in transportation, equality in facilities, and equality in extracurriculars. These are the five Green Factors students need to know when thinking about their school.
The research project for this lesson will ask students to look at two schools in the same school district and examine how those schools compare when thinking about the Green Factors. It is recommended that students examine either their own school or schools in their district, but any two schools will do. Students will create a presentation that compares two schools using the Green Factors as evidence. The goal of this assignment is not to point out and find problems; it is to look at the Green Factors and apply them to real world case studies. Provide students with the assessment sheet below and use the included rubric to evaluate their project.
Assessment
Students will choose at least three key Green Factors to focus on for the analysis of a school. These factors should be ones that they can research and observe within the school environment. Next, they will gather information and data related to the selected Green Factors within the school. This could look like surveys, interviews, observation of facilities, asking for demographic data, etc. They will then analyze this data and how it relates to the Green Factors, trying to think about, but not limited to, the following questions:
What do the facilities in school look like? How can they be improved?
What does the student body look like? What languages do they speak? Where do they live?
What do the teachers and administrators look like? What languages do they speak?
What activities and sports are offered here? Who are they offered to?
What does our transportation look like? Where does it go?
After assessing their info, students will present their findings to the class in a “gallery” walk presentation setting, where all students can look at the conclusions other groups have come to. This should include a description of the Green Factors they were interested in and what conclusions they have come to around how their school engages with these factors. Visuals and data representations should be encouraged.
The assessment criteria should be around the depth of research and understanding of the Green Factors, clarity and thoughtfulness of data collection and analysis, critical evaluation of the school’s responses to Green Factors, and presentation quality and effectiveness in conveying key findings.
Materials needed and additional resources for enrichment