Dr. Nosakhere Griffin-El is a former student of mine at John P. Turner Middle School. He is dedicated to increasing the literacy rates of our youth and I am honored that he has joined our community of writers on...
Archive - August 2018
MANY MEN. ONE CHARGE. SUIT UP. Wear something that shows you value our kids. SHOW UP. On the first day of school, join a community of Black men to welcome our students to a new year and a future of great possibilities through...
When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Brown v. Board decision in 1954, there were 82,000 Black teachers. But in the following decade, the number of Black teachers in the United States dropped drastically. More...
The week of July 22, more than 700 thought leaders and funders from across the country gathered in Philadelphia for Grade Level Reading Week, to set a course for improving literacy among our country’s children. The...
There is a well-known shortage of minority teachers in the United States educational system. Compounded by the fact there is a teacher shortage in general, many urban schools are constantly scrambling to find more teachers of...
Tom Rademacher penned an open letter to white teachers on Education Post’s blog page. Yes, I’m addressing you directly as White teachers. That may feel uncomfortable. You’re going to have to get over that, or this is...
Principals, if you don’t have your staff hired and ready for back to school, you have my sympathy. As all school leaders know, the best hiring season for teachers is early in the calendar year (around January to March). At...
Robert Parker, a veteran educator, calls out college exam proctors for attempting to marginalize some of his students. In this open letter, Robert confronts the proctors and challenges them to improve their mindsets about Black...
I’ve written about teacher accountability before, but I recently read a few things that got me thinking. The first was a report out of Los Angeles that showed that nearly half the teachers in Los Angeles’...
Shanita Hubbard recently wrote a piece in the NY Times that should serve as a further wakeup call for the white folks who don’t see color, avoid raising their kids in a way that teaches them about race and racism, and the Black...