Celebrating its 20th anniversary, UW-Madison’s MSAN is a coalition of 28 sub-urban and urban school districts hailing from states across the country, including five districts serving Dane County. This group, housed within School of Education’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER), works to understand and eliminate racial disparities in student opportunity and achievement.

During the MSAN Institute, educators participate in professional training sessions where they learn from other educators, take part in group discussions, hear from Madison-area students affected by racial disparities in education, and engage in focused district-planning sessions.

“Eliminating institutionalized racism is at the core of our activities,” says Madeline Hafner, MSAN’s executive director. “While information can be shared virtually, nothing equals individuals from different racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds coming together in a space where it is safe to talk about racism to jointly construct anti-racist educational strategies.”

Among prominent speakers was Maisha T. Winn, an assistant professor and co-director of Transformative Justice in Education at the University of California-Davis. She delivered a presentation titled “Illusions of Inclusion: Why We Need a Paradigm Shift in Schools Now.”

In addition to Winn, the MSAN Institute featured a keynote address from TED Talk featured duo Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi. Guo and Vulchi are co-founders of Princeton Choose, an online platform for sharing and discussing personal stories of race.

The MSAN Institute also offered a student panel, “Student Perspectives on Equity Leadership and Cultural Competence.”

To view videos of presentations delivered during the MSAN Institute, visit this web page.

Students will have a chance to participate in similar events from October 23 to 26, when the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District hosts the MSAN Student Conference.