Finding ‘Common Ground’ Will Be Tough in Virtual Classrooms

Some teachers may face addressing cultural differences virtually this fall, as school districts nationwide consider taking instruction online during the 2020-2021 academic year in response…

George Floyd Is Proof America Needs More Black Teachers

America, 2020: A Black man is recorded being killed in broad daylight by a White police officer trained to “protect and serve.” As videos and…

5 Ways School Leaders Can Begin to Better Equip Themselves to Deal With the Challenge We’re Facing

One of my mentors begins each interrogative problem-solving conversation with the same question, “Who knew what, when, and what did you do about it?” The…

How ‘Social Distancing’ Is Changing the Way We View Schools

Paradoxically enough, as Washington, D.C., has slid from mass school closures into social distancing and working from home toward increasingly likely shelter-in-place, my neighborhood is…

Here’s How I Know Our Schools Need More Teachers of Color, Like Me

You don’t wash your hair every day? How often do you wash it? Every other week?!” The fifth grader with blonde hair that reached just past her…

Black History Is American History and Should Be Celebrated All Year Long

As a Minnesotan, February is a signal that the warmth of spring is so close yet so far away (seriously, last Thursday the high was two…

Children With Disabilities Have Civil Rights, Too

When we think of legally segregated and unequal schools, we usually think of the Jim Crow system of “Black and White” schools. Most of us…

Minnesota’s Bill Wilson Walked His Talk About Improving Schools for Families. Now It’s Our Turn.

Nothing stopped Bill Wilson. From the time he was bused past three schools because he was African American, to the day he was told it was…

If You’re Serious About Equity, Prove It by Including Leaders of Color at Your School

When I graduated from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education with a master’s degree in school leadership, I was confident I would quickly be hired as…

I Don’t Want to Hear Another Argument About How Charter Schools Are Killing Public Schools

Dear America,  Please don’t bother my community with anti-charter school arguments in 2020. That’s unless you’re willing to get involved with majority-Black attended public schools…