Memphis

School Closures Will Never Achieve Equity and Liberation for Black Kids
Oh, this board meeting will be interesting. The auditorium is filled with folks who are geared up for a showdown. All have matching blue shirts…

Time to Recognize That the Black Education Movement Is Growing and Isn’t Going Anywhere
Here’s the scene. There’s a movement of Black education advocates afoot. It’s built on the shoulders of the Black-led movements that preceded it, and it’s…

How This Organization Is Developing Communities With Education at Its Core
A great school is vital to every community, but it’s only one part. A new organization, Maslow Development Inc., knows this and they’re working to…

If You’re Not Going to Teach Our Kids to Read, Then We’re Taking Your Ass to Court
Outrage: Kids Can’t Read, America It took the kid about 5 minutes to read one sentence. He struggled to pronounce the easiest words. I was…

My Chicago Neighborhood Is Still Scarred 50 Years After MLK’s Assassination, But My Students Give Me Hope
Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, leading to an uprising in Chicago. The North Lawndale and East Garfield Park…

Episode 09: Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of MLK’s Assassination
In this episode, Ikhlas and Lane are joined by the founder of Campaign for School Equity, Mendell Grinter, to commemorate the date of Dr. Martin…

Coffee Break: Memphis Education Leader Natalie McKinney Is Doing the Right Thing for Families for the Right Reasons
Last fall, former Shelby County Schools policy director Natalie McKinney assumed leadership of Whole Child Strategies, a nonprofit created to help Memphis neighborhood leaders use…

This Memphis School Cheated and Lied and It’s the Students of Color Who Lose
In a world of extreme inequity in education, low-income students and parents may not expect very much of their schools, but they at least deserve…

Coffee Break: Mendell Grinter on Advocating for Kids Like Him to Beat the Odds
Few 20-somethings have a LinkedIn profile that reads like a professional whose experiences expand over a couple of decades. Perhaps that’s why Mendell Grinter, was…

VIDEO: Are Charter Schools Dividing the Black Community?
Making the Grade, a new partnership between Education Week and PBS News Hour, is so cool…and needed. Charter school news coverage has essentially become all…