Black Kids Don’t Need a Handout or a Shortcut, They Just Need Schools That Work

Outrage: Black Kids Are Dumb, Poor and Incapable of Success Do y’all remember the line from “The Color Purple,” “I’m poor, I’m Black…I may even…

Why We Need to Stop Thinking About Students in Terms of Strengths and Weaknesses

My son is a freshman in high school and this felt like my first report card pick up all over again. While I have access…

What Oklahoma Teachers Can Learn From the Montgomery Bus Boycott

On this day in Montgomery, Alabama, 63 years ago, Black people strategically rebelled against one of White supremacy’s ‘systems.’ That day, Black folks got into…

Time to Recognize That the Black Education Movement Is Growing and Isn’t Going Anywhere

Here’s the scene. There’s a movement of Black education advocates afoot. It’s built on the shoulders of the Black-led movements that preceded it, and it’s…

How My School Blocked Me From Teaching ‘The Hate U Give’

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…

Episode 19: Football and Literacy (feat. Vesia Wilson-Hawkins)

In this episode, we sit down with our colleague Vesia Wilson-Hawkins to discuss what it would be like if parents got as fired up about…

Eighth-Graders Are Doing Fifth-Grade Work. No Wonder Our Kids Aren’t Ready for College.

I just read a report that, as a father, makes me question my own kid’s school. I mean, if these problems are happening in so…

It Doesn’t Take a Miracle to Educate Kids of Color

Outrage: We’re Wasting Time Last week I went to my first Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference. I came home empowered, inspired and motivated.…

That’s Right, I’m on the Roland Martin Bandwagon

Outrage: Access Still Denied Last week, my mentor and sister in the struggle, Kenya Bradshaw, dropped a gem at the LEAP InnovatEd Summit that really…

When Love Is Grounded in the Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations, It’s the Wrong Kind of Love

Teachers love their students. We see the joy they show every year as students return back to school, despite constant beat downs on their profession…