‘The Make-or-Break Year’ Offers Ed Reformers Sobering Lessons on How Real School Change Happens

“If we have to remove dead weight, we will remove dead weight.” That’s what the assistant principal of Chicago’s Orr High School told me in…

Nobody Likes a Teachers Strike. Here’s How We Can Work to Avoid Them.

Nobody likes a teachers strike. I know. I have lived through a number of them. And I’m doing it again this week. My life and…

Forget the School-to-Prison Pipeline, For White Boys It’s the School-to-Politics Pipeline

Tonight, President Donald Trump will deliver his State of the Union address. Like many other U.S. citizens, I see our current president as deeply flawed,…

Showing Up and Doing Well in School Should Lead to Better Opportunity But It’s Not Always True

Low-income and minority students are not being challenged nearly as much as their White peers in high school, according to a new study produced by…

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…

Embarc’s Imran Khan on Why College Isn’t the Holy Grail

Recently I sat down with Imran Khan, co-founder of Embarc, a nonprofit that partners with 18 Chicago Public Schools (CPS) high schools to provide three…

The Best Way to Fight Fake News Is With Real Teaching

A couple months ago, I heard a student at my school shout “fake news!” at friends down the hallway. It’s actually a pretty common occurrence…

When Enrollment Is Declining, Let Communities Decide Next Steps for Schools

Urban school systems all over the Northeast and Midwest are facing declining enrollment and struggle with the challenge of downsizing without shortchanging students’ education. Unfortunately,…

This Chicago School Just Got $1 Million to Build a New School Serving Latino and Low-Income Students

As a toddler, Camilla Ruelas had a life-saving liver transplant. She’s now a sixth-grader at Christopher House Charter School in Chicago, with her sights set…

These 4 Tips Can Help Students Learn From Their Mistakes

When we learn to ride a bicycle, we make mistakes along the way, as we figure out the proper balance and speed needed to keep…