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Archive - April 2018

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It Doesn’t Just Happen at Starbucks. Teachers Need Racial Bias Training Too.

April 30, 2018
by Zachary Wright
5 min read
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Recently, two Black men were arrested for sitting in a Starbucks here in Philadelphia. They were waiting for a friend who arrived shortly after his friends had been handcuffed. The men were supposedly “causing a...

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When Black Boys’ Trauma Is Exacerbated In School

April 25, 2018
by Sharif El-Mekki
4 min read
1 Comment

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” -Frederick Douglass When I think about this quote it often leads me to reflect on the trauma that our Black boys face growing up. To help nurture strong...

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  • School Choice

Educators: Are The Schools We “Love” Good Enough For Our Own Children?

April 22, 2018
by Sharif El-Mekki
2 min read
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Some of the most contentious decisions in a city often involve schools that are struggling – many for generations. While everyone can give solutions that they believe (but haven’t often seen) work, there is a lot of...

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  • Accountability
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  • Equity and Justice

If You’re an Educator Who Thinks We Need to Hold Parents Accountable, You Need to Do Some Soul Searching

April 17, 2018
by Sharif El-Mekki
4 min read
3 Comments

Time and time again, I’ve heard educators say that the lack of parental engagement in their schools is what is holding them back. But, when I listen to families, in Philly or Chicago or any other urban city, I hear about the...

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  • Accountability
  • Equity and Justice

What Does A School Turnaround Look Like?

April 13, 2018
by Hilderbrand Pelzer
9 min read
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Hildebrand Pelzer III, the principal of a public school, lays out the hard, slow work of improvement—and what it takes to turn schools around. On tough days, I want to close my school and start a new one from scratch. But I’m...

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  • Accountability
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  • Diversity
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What Teachers Can Do To Help Black Boys Overcome Our Racist Society

April 9, 2018
by Sharif El-Mekki
6 min read
1 Comment

A recent study, reported on in the New York Times under the headline “Extensive Data Shows Punishing Reach of Racism for Black Boys,” and facilitated by researchers at Stanford, Harvard, and the Census Bureau, found that...

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Going Beyond MLK’s ‘Dream’ and Getting Uncomfortable in the Classroom

April 5, 2018
by Zachary Wright
4 min read
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In third grade, I remember learning about Martin Luther King. We listened to his “I Have A Dream Speech.” We read about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. We looked at photos of the marches in Selma. We were...

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  • Equity and Justice
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  • School Choice

He Found the Right School for His Son With Autism and It’s Only Because He’s White and Has Money

April 3, 2018
by Zachary Wright
4 min read
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It’s March, and all over the country, students and their families are waiting anxiously to receive emails and letters about the status of school applications; parents furtively asking one another if they’ve received word from...

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