My Black Students Have Learned to Be Wary of People Who Look Like Me, And That’s Not Racist

Recently in class, my students and I were listening to Lil Nas X sing “Old Town Road,” for what felt like the 100th time. Unintentionally…

Why We Need LGBTQ+ Curricula

In 2018, GLSEN’s national school climate study indicated that 59.5% of LGBTQ students “felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation and 44.6% felt…

Here’s How Trump Is Making It Harder to Integrate Schools

This summer, integrated schools heated up as a campaign issue when Kamala Harris called out Joe Biden for his 1970s stance on mandated busing as…

DeVos Has Dramatically Scaled Back the Protection of LGBTQ Students

This week a report from the Center for American Progress showed that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has dramatically scaled back…

We’ve Never Seen a Public School System Work for All Kids, But We Have to Believe We Can Build One

The other day I watched the documentary True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality.  Now if you don’t know who Bryan Stevenson is, you should…

Having a Mock Slave Auction Isn’t Teaching Students About Slavery, It’s Just Racist

As an educator, I am sometimes left with more questions than answers. One question that I have is how come conducting a mock slave auction…

Haifa Was Forced to Choose Between Her Faith and School, She Chose Faith

There are students who admire the change and influence of great women in history. And then there are students who use their own influence to…

Stop Talking About Charter Schools and Focus on What’s Really Causing Segregation

A recent report from The Associated Press has been turning heads about the link between charter schools and segregation. According to the report, “charter schools…

It’s Non-Negotiable. We Have to Teach Social Justice in Our Schools.

In a recent article, J. Martin Rochester, a professor of political science at the University of St. Louis-Missouri, raised concerns about teaching social justice in…

Without the Office for Civil Rights, My High School Would Have Continued to Discriminate Against Students Like Me

You may have seen the news. On July 11, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos responded to a letter written by Senator Patty Murray, which questioned the…