10 Books to Help Your Students Find the Diverse Voices They Need to Hear

The day my teaching changed forever didn’t happen in a classroom. It happened at the local mall, in a bookstore that was going out of…

These Are the Students Who Inspired Us This Decade

With the end of the year fast approaching—and with it the closing of a decade—it is the perfect opportunity to look back and reflect on…

Here’s How to Help Your Students Find the Voices Missing From the Traditional Thanksgiving Story

In the elementary classroom, teachers often shy away from teaching a more critical viewpoint of “traditional history” for fear of how this shift will be…

Here’s How Cutting-Edge Charter School Leaders of Color Engage Families for Student Success

For decades, parents and charter school administrators have cultivated best practices to build inclusive, welcoming and student-centered school communities across the country. From single-site schools…

To See the Real Picture on NAEP, You Have to Know Where to Look

It would be all too easy to see the grim headlines about the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores as the whole…

Someone Should Run for School Board, Why Not You?

Let’s get this out of the way. Mark Twain’s famous joke: “In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made…

We Can’t Just Teach About Heroes and Holidays and Call It Culturally Responsive

In a recent training on culturally responsive teaching, I was introduced to a theory called the “Stages of Multicultural Transformation.” It goes something like this.…

Yes, You Can Give Teachers Challenging and Culturally Relevant Materials. Just Look at Chicago.

Two-thirds of Chicago’s teachers spend hours on the weekend scouring websites like Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers because they say they don’t have up-to-date, culturally…

One HBCU and One Black-Led Charter School Team Up to Ensure Success for Rural Students of Color

Crossroad Academy Charter School in Quincy, Florida, defies expectations. More than 90% of the school’s 530 students are Black or Hispanic, more than two-thirds qualify…

If Black Male Teachers Benefit Students, Why Are They Underrepresented?

Two percent and shrinking. It’s a statistic that may seem small enough to be insignificant … until you understand what the number represents. Black males…