I didn’t need the new John Hopkins University study to tell me black teachers matter. Diverse teachers, diverse leadership and diverse school cultures create higher expectations, stronger communities and better outcomes...
Category - Equity and Justice
Yet another example of an activist leading classrooms and helping to build the school-to-activism pipeline. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Val DiGiorgio, chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, accused me, a...
One teacher reflects on what he and other white educators need to understand as they work to build anti-racist practices and identities. Last year, I realized that I didn’t have my first black teacher until I went to college...
In the 1860s, Black Codes, including vagrancy and loitering laws, were established to prevent black people, particularly black men, from coming together. These Black Codes were used to vilify and cement a distinct and racial...
The following piece was written by Derrell Bradford, Dr. Howard Fuller & Chris Stewart. Education reform is at a crossroads in this country. And it seems the issue of parent choice — who should have it, how much of it...
I am punching above my weight. I am no education policy wonk, nor am I a mover or shaker in America’s larger educational conversation. But a recent blog post by the well-known edu-legends Carol Burris and Diane Ravitch on The...
While The Hate U Give is a best-selling book and top-rated film, I’m getting some real pushback from my administration about having my students read the book and see the film in my English Language Arts class, despite its...
I was recently in Hartford, Connecticut, at the invitation of Mama Gwen Samuel, an activist who works on behalf and with the community. I wasn’t prepared for what I was to encounter; callousness of Black bourgeois, disregard...
The #SchoolToActivismPipeline is real. When Nasiha Thompson-King was given a temporary reprieve and allowed to continue playing basketball for Mastery Charter last February, mere days after a referee would not allow her to enter...
Theodore Roosevelt famously said: “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.” According to a message I just received, some of our most prominent black leaders are about to put that saying into action on behalf...