Half of NYC Public School Students Will Fail Their AP Exams, So Why Are We Spending Millions to Expand Access?

AP (advanced placement) classes are designed for students to fail.  In 2018, just over 50% of New York City public school students who took one…

New York Talks a Big Game on Gifted and Talented Educational Opportunities, But Illinois Is Doing Equity Better

Attacks against private school options are frequent and fervent, but what happens when public school opportunities become the point of confliction? You may have seen…

The Biggest Threat to Public Education Is Still Its Insidious ‘Belief Gap’

For a long time school reform seemed to be winning the public argument about the failure of schools to prepare students academically. During that run,…

No, But Seriously, How Are the Children?

Last week I made what I thought was a simple request: for all of us to prioritize the question “how are the children?” as if…

My Kid Had Tons of Background Knowledge, But He Couldn’t Read Without Learning Phonics

When our son was born, my husband and I knew a lot about how to prepare him to be a reader. We knew how to…

Dear White People: When it Comes to Educational Equity, You’ll Have to Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable

Is the public school system rooted in White supremacy culture? Damn right it is. And This brings me to question why teachers in New York…

The Discomfort of White Adults Should Never Take Priority Over the Success of Our Black and Brown Students

“I didn’t come here to teach those kinds of kids.” It’s alarming to think that adults charged with helping students of color succeed in school…

It Cost Nearly $250K to Teach My Son to Read. Here’s How to Do Better for Less.

My formerly illiterate fourth-grade son is now an eighth-grader at The Windward School for Children with Dyslexia, where he learned to read. Next year, he…

The Right Is Distracting Us From Needed Gun Safety Laws by Creating a Myth About School Discipline

This is how myths are made. It typically starts with a view grounded in ideology. Then “research” is generated to support the view. Lastly, pundits…

VIDEO: Meet the Bronx Educator Who Uses Hip-Hop to Teach Science

As a science teacher in the same school system where I attended elementary and high school, I have noticed a significant lack of engagement and what many call an aversion for learning science among Black male students.…