High School Graduate Tatiana Amaya on Raising Student Voice and Claiming a Seat at the Table

Often, you hear about leaders, far earlier than you meet them. Sitting in a café near the school where I lead as principal, Mastery-Shoemaker, I…

Student Noor Bowman on Evening Out the Playing Field and Telling the Whole Story

A couple of years ago, Noor, a young high school student who was interning at a local radio station, reached out to me for an…

You Can’t Have Quality Educational Opportunities and Cap School Choice

I’ll just come out and say it: You can’t be for expanding access to quality educational opportunities and be in favor of capping charter schools.…

Even as a Student, Maye-gan Brown Has Something to Teach Us About Justice

There is no honor in the world like being a teacher. And in a school, every single person can play a teaching role. In fact,…

Yes, We Can Meet the Needs of Every Student in the Classroom Even When Their Needs Are So Different

Imagine teaching a classroom of 25 students. It’s an English class. You have to assign an essay based upon a grade-level text and are planning…

Here’s a Breakdown on Why I Told My Students I Was Racist

“Mr. Wright, are you racist?” “Absolutely,” I said. “I’m a White man in America. What else could I be?” So began a piece I wrote…

I Thought Watching Another Teacher Get Right What I Got Wrong Would Hurt. Instead, It Inspired.

A couple weeks ago, I had one of those days. After writing a whole post about how nice my room is, a post that included…

First-Year Teaching Doesn’t Have to Be Terrible, Here Are Three Things That Can Help

My first year of teaching was exactly what I was told it would be: the single most difficult year of my life. Dread-filled mornings. Sleepless,…

Yet Another White Family Leaves the City for the Suburbs

Well, we did it. Like millions of White, relatively affluent Americans before us, my wife and I moved with our two boys out of the…

When Students Aren’t Proficient in Reading or Math, It Isn’t a Shame, It’s Violence

I’ve written about teacher accountability before, but I recently read a few things that got me thinking. The first was a report out of Los…