Green Factors Yearbook Analysis

Essential questions

1. How do we know if a school is adequately desegregated?

2. How do litigators and civil rights advocates apply the Green Factors?

3. How do demographic changes in communities “show up” in school materials (e.g. yearbooks or school newspapers)?

Outcomes and objectives

After the lesson students will…

1. Explain the relationship between community demography and who is represented in school materials.

2. Apply the Green Factors to analysis of school materials (yearbooks) to assess integration and demographic trends in the school over time.

Preparing to teach

Review the materials included and brush up on historical context. The Green case and the Green Factors are far less well known than what students typically learn. Check on access to links to make sure they work and are not blocked.

This lesson works best with student access to two to three yearbooks across three or more decades. For example, two to three yearbooks from the 1960s, another two to three yearbooks from the 1980s, and another two to three yearbooks from the 2000s. Many schools have an archive of past yearbooks either in their library or yearbook room. Some communities might also keep an archived collection of these yearbooks in their local or county public library. Prior to teaching this lesson, do confirm and secure access to these materials for your students. If yearbooks are not available, school newspapers, photo albums, bulletins, or even local newspapers that cover school events like athletics and social events could be useful.

Scaffolds and accommodations to support learners

Reading Support

Setting the Purpose for Reading: Students are positioned as litigators or advocates who are reading the yearbooks to find evidence of adequate efforts toward integration or evidence of a need for active integration efforts to desegregate the school/program/district. Litigators typically conduct interviews and look at demographic trends related to the Green Factors to build a case either confirming adequate integration or advocating for a plan for integration in one or more of the Green Factor areas. Using the guiding questions below, students could make notes, create a table, or take pictures using their mobile devices to “build a case” for adequate integration or a need for desegregation efforts.

You might consider developing a chart or graphic organizer for students to record descriptions and bibliographic data for the sources they analyze. 

Guiding questions for analysis of yearbooks might include (these could be copied into a table to keep data organized; they are built around the Green Factors):

In each of the areas below, consider evidence in the images, writing, and who or what is included that reflects an increasingly adequate integrated learning environment:

1. Student Assignment: Does the ethnic and racial makeup of the student body reflect the demography of the local community the school serves?
2. Faculty Assignment: Does the ethnic and racial makeup of the faculty reflect the demography of the local community the school serves?
3. Staff Assignment: Does the ethnic and racial makeup of the staff reflect the demography of the local community the school serves?
4. Transportation: Is school transportation equitably distributed and accessed by students of varied ethnic and racial backgrounds? (This might not be as evident in the materials reviewed for this lesson.)
5. Extracurricular Activities: Do the extracurricular activities include equitable representation of ethnic and racial diversity in the school? Do the kinds of activities reflect the cultural diversity of the school?
6. Facilities: How are facilities represented in the yearbook/materials? Is there an investment in the building and grounds evident in the photos/materials? Is access equitable by ethnically, racially, culturally diverse groups of students? 

Adjusting for middle school grades

Note: You know your students best, and we encourage you to use these activities and resources in ways that support rigorous and challenging learning. Below are some ideas for adapting these activities to middle grades:

• • Explain what yearbooks are and how they are used.
  • Review sourcing practices with students. In this case, looking at a yearbook together and discussing what might be good evidence is important.
  • Adjust pacing. Some activities could be made longer, and the lesson could span two class sessions.
  • Eliminate or revise activities and learning objectives to align better with your grade level goals and standards.
  • Extra reading supports:
    • Read with a purpose: Set a clear and explicit goal for what students should learn from reading.
    • Read with a partner: Take turns reading aloud, or read quietly with timed breaks to explain what they read to each other.
    • Share findings with a partner and discuss before turning in or sharing with the whole class.

Instructional activities sequence

1. Review Brown v. Board of Education 1954 and Green v. Kent 1968 (set historical context–see short summary in materials section) – 10 minutes
   • This could be read or distributed to students or be the foundation for a short lecture. You might consider asking students what they already know. If you did this prior to this lesson, a quicker review or possibly no review might be appropriate.

2. Summary/Review of Green case and the Green Factors. – 20 Minutes. 
   The focus is on the importance of the case for determining whether further desegregation efforts are needed (see short summary in materials section with options for review activities below). 

   • This could be read or distributed to students or be the foundation for a short lecture. You might consider asking students what they already know (KWL Chart).

   • Students can review the LDF “Winding Road to Brown and Beyond” pamphlet, which offers a comprehensive overview of the events leading up to and beyond the Brown decision in the fight for desegregation (see materials below).

Excerpts from the court case syllabus are in the materials section. Divide students into groups and respond to the questions:

What is a “free choice plan” in this case?

What did the Court see “wrong” with free choice plans? (multiple answers in the text)

What was an important outcome of the case?

1. • Green Factors Review (see notes in materials section for details):

     • Students

     • Faculty

     • Staff 

     • Transportation

     • Extracurricular Activities

     • Facilities

2. Read Demographic Data – 20 minutes
   • Read data about their community to understand the ethnic and racial demography of their area. 
   • U.S. Census Data might be the best resource for this. The maps scaffold for student analysis better than the data tables. https://data.census.gov/  
3. Yearbook analysis – 30 minutes

   • In small groups of two to four, students can analyze a series of yearbooks from three or more decades to build a case for adequate integration or the need for further desegregation efforts in their school. School libraries, administrative offices, or local archives often keep yearbooks and other materials produced by the school over time. 

   • Classmates.com also offers a free registration with access to digital versions of thousands of yearbooks: https://www.classmates.com/siteui/yearbooks 

Assessment

• Assessment – 10 minutes

  1. Students will produce a case or argument for either adequate integration or a need for further desegregation efforts. This could be verbal or written, as a group or individual.

  2. Students will share (with each other) the reasoning about the quality of evidence and the argument made, assessable through discussion observation or an exit ticket or journaling at the end.

  3. You could develop a basic quiz where you provide an example of evidence and students select the Green Factor category that fits best for that evidence.

Materials needed and additional resources for enrichment

Short Summary of Brown v. Board of Education 1954
Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark case in the United States that challenged the constitutionality of racial segregation in public schools. The case originated in Topeka, Kansas, where Black children were required to attend separate schools for Black students, which were often inferior in quality to those attended by white students. The plaintiffs argued that this segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal rights to all citizens.

The case reached the Supreme Court in 1954, and in a unanimous decision, the Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, declared that state laws establishing separate public schools for Black and white students were inherently unequal and unconstitutional. This decision overturned the precedent set by the 1896 case Plessy v. Ferguson, which had upheld the “separate but equal” doctrine.

The Brown v. Board of Education decision marked a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement, as it laid the groundwork for desegregation efforts across the country and challenged the legal basis of segregation in other public facilities. It played a crucial role in the ongoing struggle for racial equality in the United States.

Short Summary of Green v. New Kent County School Board
Green v. County School Board of New Kent County (1968) was a significant United States Supreme Court case that dealt with the issue of school desegregation. The case involved the New Kent County School Board in Virginia, which had implemented a “freedom-of-choice” plan to supposedly comply with the Supreme Court’s earlier decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

In Brown, the Court had ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, and it required school boards to take affirmative steps to eliminate segregation “root and branch.” However, the New Kent County School Board's “freedom-of-choice” plan, which allowed students to choose between an all-white school and an all-Black school, was deemed insufficient by the Court.

In the Green case, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, held that the “freedom-of-choice” plan did not constitute adequate desegregation. The Court emphasized that the school board had the affirmative duty to dismantle dual school systems based on race and ensure that the new system was genuinely integrated.

The decision in Green established the principle that school boards had to take proactive measures to eliminate segregation, rather than relying on superficial or token efforts. It contributed to the ongoing legal and social efforts to enforce desegregation in public schools and was part of the broader legal landscape that sought to address the racial inequalities stemming from the era of segregation in the United States.

Please click here or click the download PDF button for the remaining part of the materials needed.