Teacher & Principal Pathways

Teaching is Nation-Building: A Love Letter to Former Students Turned Current Educators

Glad tidings arrived a couple weeks ago. Fatima Ponzo — a former student we watched grow up in our school community at Shoemaker Campus...

Teaching Is Leading

A love letter to the young people we're inviting into the classroom To the young person reading this — whether an auntie sent it to...

Black Women Made Me the Educator I Am, Now the System Pushes Them Out

I became an effective teacher faster than I had any right to. I did not do that alone. I was carried, coached, and corrected...

What Malcolm X Would Demand of Black Principals

Malcolm X’s birthday should make Black school leaders sit with a difficult question. Not simply whether or not we have enough Black principals, but...

We Need Courageous Black Leadership in Education

Black educators are often expected to lead without ever being allowed the full protection of leadership. We are called on to steady schools, mentor...

“Race-Blind” Teacher Recruitment Perpetuates Inequality

Recently, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) released a white paper arguing that teacher diversity should be pursued without race-conscious approaches. The paper further argues...

Attacks on Teacher Diversity Hurt Our Students

President Trump’s Executive Order banning DEI is an ineffective way to combat prejudice. Prejudice is normally rooted in ignorance and fear—and sometimes malice. It...

5 Steps to Actually Build the Black Teacher Pipeline

What was once a pipeline for funneling Black teachers and prospective Black teachers—particularly Black men—has become an attachment of leaky pipes, with many candidates...

Three Ways To Tell if Your Kids Have a Good Principal

Before writing this post, I asked my sons what a principal does. Their responses sounded straight out of television’s Abbott Elementary with tasks like checking...

Latest articles