I’m a DACA Recipient and a First-Generation College Graduate and I’m Nervous About What’s Next

It’s a day I’ll never forget: September 5, 2017, the first day of my senior year at NYU. It was the day the Trump administration…

How I’m Using My Story as a Homeless Student to Help Students Turn Trauma Into Strengths

By the time I was 15 years old, I was living on my own, and mostly homeless. My parents were undocumented immigrants. I didn’t know…

I’m an Education Advocate and That’s Why I Can’t (and Won’t) Sit Out the Immigration Fight

It can be tempting for education advocates to see immigration as a related, but not overlapping, issue. For folks accustomed to thinking about school funding…

I’m an Immigrant and a Student and My Voice Matters

When I was about 7 years old, I immigrated to the United States from Mexico. It was 2008 and I arrived in New York City…

Because of Trump, My Students Are Returning to Their Native Country. We Can Do Better.

On the last day of school, sisters Sandy and Veronica, former students of mine, came to say goodbye. Sandy handed me flowers, a thank you…

The Trump Administration Is Violating Everything We Know as Educators About How to Work With Families

“In the treatment of the child the world foreshadows its own future and faith. All words and all thinking lead to the child—to that vast…

Y’all Can Have Betsy DeVos, I’m Checking for Stacey Abrams

Outrage: As Long As Betsy’s In Charge, Kids Should Just Stop Going to School Once again, Betsy DeVos demonstrated this week her dangerous ignorance of…

Reflections on Edu-Journalism on the Eve of EWA

This week, education writers meet in Los Angeles for an annual conference. Their work is read by millions of people every day and shared widely…

Why Are White People So Afraid of Immigrant Kids?

Not long ago I was in Wilmington, Delaware—reporting another story—and I visited Academia Antonia Alonso, a two-way dual immersion charter school where over half the…

ICE Took My Students’ Parents Away

In my classroom there is a poster that says, “Follow your dreams, believe in yourself and never give up.” This poster is more than some…