How We Build a Pipeline of Teachers That Know How to Talk About Race and Social Justice

Nearly 60 years ago, our nation’s students watched as leaders of the civil rights movement pushed back against entrenched Jim Crow laws and re-defined American…

Poor Curriculum Is a Recipe for Disaster, Here’s How Schools Can Help Teachers Find and Use High-Quality Materials

Lately, I’ve seen a meme that keeps popping up on social media: “Telling a teacher to use a boxed curriculum is like forcing a chef…

How Kentucky’s Superintendent of the Year Got Autonomous Schools to Adopt the Same Curriculum

Understanding that the content we put in front of children matters, 50CAN, a nonprofit network of citizen advocates, recently held a session on the importance…

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…

No Teacher Should Be an Island

I didn’t quite understand what it meant to be an “island” until I started teaching eight years ago. For years, I was the only United…

Instead of School Supplies Give Parents a List of What Their Kids Need to Succeed

Last August I was visiting family in Oregon when I walked into a supermarket and by the front door saw a large sign that read…

Here’s Why It’s Hard for Schools to Pick Good Curricula

In a recent blog post, Michael Petrilli asked an excellent question wondering why more districts aren’t picking highly rated curricula. I’m glad Petrilli got hold of…

This Black History Month Teach Your Students About African-Americans in the Military

To be a leader means you’re always prepared for the inevitable battle that is to come. Every Black History Month, we learn about the leaders…

Going Beyond MLK’s ‘Dream’ and Getting Uncomfortable in the Classroom

In third grade, I remember learning about Martin Luther King. We listened to his “I Have A Dream Speech.” We read about Rosa Parks and…

Political Philosophy Isn’t Just for College Students, It’s Making My Students Stronger Readers

Alongside the whiteboard in the front of my 12th-grade English classroom in Philadelphia, there are sentence strips listing the names of the authors we have…