The end of a school year appropriately provokes a lot of reflection. Did we reach our goals? Did we remain consistent? What regrets do we have? How did we start out and were we nimble enough to respond well to real time...
Yesterday, I ended my 24th year working with the youth of our city and my 23rd year working directly in schools. I currently have the honor and privilege of serving as a principal in my own neighborhood-the same community that I...
“I am accountable for how much Black kids learn?!” I was recently asked what it would take to accelerate the achievement levels of Black students. This is a question that people have claimed to have been grappling...
“Unless we have the wealth to pay for private education, we are compelled by law to go to public school—and to the public school in our district. Thus the state, by requiring attendance but refusing to require equity...
A few weeks ago, I had the honor of participating in and contributing at the 2016 Summit on Teacher Diversity at the US Department of Education. Today, I am in our state’s capitol to provide feedback about Pennsylvania’s...
There has been a much needed focus on why only 2 percent of our nation’s classroom teachers are Black males. The U.S. Department of Education recently held a very important National Summit on Teacher Diversity and released a...
Everyone wants equity. It sounds great. It rolls off the tongue and it goes well in speeches and pontifications. Everyone wants equity until you explain that they would need to decrease their privileges, share their accumulated...
In 2016, the conversation around teacher diversity has become commonplace, insomuch that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) hosted its first national summit on this topic, May 6, 2016. While hosting such a summit is...
Two weeks ago, Gov. Wolf vetoed a bill that would have helped school principals ensure that our most effective teachers are in classrooms for the 128,000 students who attend the Philadelphia School District. This is a missed...
Eight years ago, I became principal of Mastery Charter Schools’ Shoemaker Campus in West Philadelphia, to continue a turnaround at one the most oppressed schools in the city that had been plagued by low achievement and...
