Choosing integration: Integrated Schools Nonprofit moved towards true educational equity

By Kelsey Sweet

Nonprofit Sector News

November 9, 2026

For families navigating school choice, the search for high quality education often centers on test scores, reputations and resources. A nonprofit focused on educational integration challenges families to look beyond those measures and consider how their decisions can reinforce racial and ethnic segregation. 

Integrated Schools encourages families, particularly those with racial and economic privilege, to examine their roles in school segregation and consider how their educational choices affect other students and families. 

Research from The Century Foundation shows 907 public school districts and charter networks across 39 states actively utilizing socioeconomic and racial integration rules. At the same time, the U.S Government Accountability Office data reveals that 3.5 million students still attend segregated schools. 

The true reach of the organization relies on thousands of parent volunteers, operating across 14 local chapters and more than 30 regional network contact points, who are dedicated to mobilizing for families to consciously support public school desegregation.

The Integrated Schools movement operates through a fiscal sponsorship under the Social Good Fund and does not report its own distinct revenues and expenses to the Internal Revenue Service. 

Robin Appleberry, Chapter Leader and Director of Integrated Schools Nonprofit said that the organization works to turn the broad goal of educational equity into practical decisions families can make in their everyday lives. “We try to bridge the gap between like this, this giant problem and your values as they exist in the sky as abstract things and the reality of like, what do I do today,” she said. 

Appleberry’s involvement with Integrated Schools reflects a growing recognition that school segregation is not simply a problem for policymakers to solve, but one families can help address through their educational decisions. As a chapter leader and director, she helps families understand how racial and economic privilege influence school choice and how integrated schools can benefit children by exposing them to different perspectives and experiences.

For Appleberry, the work put in is not solely about addressing the problems within the educational system. Integration can also create a meaningful positive experience for children and families. “I think the biggest thing that we haven't talked about is just how much is in this that is wonderful and joyful and generative and like beneficial for our kids and our families.”

She mentioned her own family experiences and how they have strengthened her belief that integrated schools can offer children opportunities that extend beyond traditional measures of academic success. “I feel like my kids are actually so much better off than they would be if I had, you know, worked the lottery and gotten them into the schools across the park or sent them to private school or whatever else.”

She also believes those experiences help children learn how to work with people whose background and perspectives differ from their own, preparing them to navigate complex issues as adults. “I just think they're so much better equipped for solving hard problems with other people in democracy as adults,” Appleberry said. 

For her, those benefits are central to the argument for integration not an afterthought to the work of confronting inequality. “There's so much joy and abundance in this that I want. I don't want to leave without sharing that piece of it too,” Appleberry said. 

She emphasizes that simply enrolling students from different backgrounds in the same school does not automatically create an equitable educational experience. “Our lived experience and the clear answer is that that's not enough, that there's a lot of social and economic difference that doesn't get addressed in that way. And that there's a lot of segregation within a school,” Appleberry said. 

Appleberry praised Integrated Schools for its efforts to help families with the privilege understand how they can contribute to addressing challenges. “There's so much incredible work that this organization has done and I find it to be a transformative vision for what white people and people with economic privilege can do,” she said. 

Andrew Lefkowitz, host of the Integrated Schools podcast, frames educational integration as essential to the future of a drive democracy. “If we're gonna have a multiracial democracy, we need multiracial education,” Lefkowitz said. “One family's choice is not going to undermine 400 years of schooling that has led to the state we're in. But the first thing we can do is not be part of contributing to segregation.” 

The organization defines integration as more than enrolling students from different backgrounds in the same school. Appleberry and Lefkowitz emphasize belonging and meaningful participation within school communities. 

One obstacle, Lefkowitz said, is how families and communities define a successful school. He argued that commonly used indicators of school quality can reflect the racial and economic makeup of a student population rather than the full educational experience a school provides.

“So much of the information that's shared about school quality is really like a measure of the demographics of a school. How white and wealthy is a school?” Lefkwitz said.  We measure that and then we pretend that that's a measure of school quality.” 

He cautioned that bringing students from different backgrounds into the same building is only one step toward educational equity. “We know that desegregation alone and just moving bodies around doesn't actually create equity, that the experience of students in the building is really important,” Lefkowitz said. 

He added, “It's one thing to be offered access to a space, but to truly belong means that the space has changed because of your presence there.”

Integrated Schools aims to educate the public that finding equity does not mean finding a perfect school. Instead, it means rethinking how families define educational success and working toward communities where students can learn and belong together.

“Showing up, deciding what you think a school needs is often more harmful than it is good,” Lefkowitz said.