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...
Category - Accountability
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...
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...
By last December, the fall of my ninth year of teaching high school, I had been observed by teacher coaches, visitors from educational non-profit organizations, principals and assistant principals, no fewer than 15 times. Each...
In the article Is the Road to Special Education (for Black Boys) Paved with the White Educator’s Paperwork?, we meet Randy for the first time. Some Context Let’s imagine something for a moment. There is a Black father...
My experience with a firearm in a school was in 2003. It was my first year as principal at Shaw Middle School in Southwest Philadelphia. I wasn’t on campus at the time. I was on my way back to school from a principals’...
Why do so many of you hate children? Maybe hate is a strong word. Shall I say really dislike? I ask myself this question daily when perusing education sites on socials and chatting it up with coworkers in common areas. As a...
We have waited a long time for local control of Philly schools, and the decision to abolish the School Reform Commission was a great first step in that process. But when it comes to creating Philly’s new school board, we...
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recently issued a sweeping 158-page report demonstrating how K-12 funding structures negatively impact opportunities for low-income students and students of color. Among many recommendations...
For too long, we’ve pointed fingers at each other…again and again, we’ve told the people of Philadelphia that the state of their schools are someone else’s responsibility. -Mayor Kenney Last week, Mayor Kenney, in a...