I’m Tired and Pissed Off About Our Sorry Education System But I’m Still Fighting

I always thought I was super smart. Until I got to college. Even though I lived in Englewood, one of Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods, I attended…

Schools May Be a Battleground in Philadelphia, But These Parents and Activists Aren’t Scared of the Fight

When the transformation of 13th Street was proposed by a New York developer named Tony Goldman, many balked at his vision of a new Philadelphia.…

4 Ways We Can Fund Personalized Learning to Create More Equitable Schools

Budget shortfalls in states are framing a new angle on educational equity conversations. It is no longer simply about what is right, but what is…

Don’t Get Angry, Get Eva

Somehow, while managing a sprawling network of public charter schools serving 15,000 children, engaging in the day-to-day political combat of New York, and raising three…

Education, Politics, Media and Chicago

Paraphrasing Yogi Berra, education in Chicago is 50 percent teaching and learning and 90 percent money and politics. No matter how much we emphasize the…

I Looked at Illinois’ School Funding Plan and the Numbers Just Aren’t Adding Up

With the recent passage of Illinois’ school funding plan, SB 1947, Illinois, so often an example of what not to do in school finance, is…

Want to Know How to Get Minorities Into Teaching? Just Ask the Students.

I remembered Oscar from the previous year when he was a sixth-grade student assigned to the other sixth-grade social studies teacher. He was quiet when…

These Two Sisters Aren’t Afraid to Get Messy If It Means Better Schools for Philadelphia’s Kids

“Don’t mess it up.” Those words rode the bus with Quibila Divine in the late 1960s and early ’70s from North Philadelphia to the predominantly…

One Progressive Education Reformer’s Manifesto in the Age of Trump

Chalkbeat recently reported about a March meeting of progressive education reformers where former Education Secretary Arne Duncan encouraged charter leaders to resist the Trump administration’s…

New ‘Wash and Learn’ Program Offers Free Books For Kids at the Laundromat

Educators are slowly realizing that teaching during traditional hours simply isn’t enough. It’s why this organization wants to change how and where we’re educating. A…