I Know What the Challenges Are for Black Teachers and How to Start Fixing Them

I will never forget the moment last year when a seventh-grade African American student came to my door and said, “Mr. Taylor, I just wanted…

Parent Partnerships Are Key to Student Success

The Center for Universal Education at Brookings recently released survey results about parents’ beliefs and goals for their children’s education. Almost 25,000 parents across ten…

Teachers Legally Hitting Students as a Disciplinary Measure Has to Stop

Here’s a familiar scene: You are attending a professional workshop about America’s school-to-prison pipeline. The gray-suited speaker concludes his presentation to thunderous applause, and yet,…

How Public Schools Fail to Recognize Black Prodigies

Amid numerous articles about how Black students lag behind others in educational achievement, occasionally you may hear about a young Black “prodigy” who got accepted into college at an early…

Don’t Buy Into the Hype Around Learning Loss

I get it: “learning loss” is scary. Considering the unprecedented overuse of the word “unprecedented” to describe what our nation’s K-12 education system has faced…

We Can Unleash the Genius of Our Students by Putting the Arts at the Center

This essay is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Patrick Pritchard from Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, who recently passed away on March 6, 2021.…

Teacher Diversity Explained: Why It Matters, and How We Got Here

While America’s student body has grown more diverse over time, the teachers working with them have remained overwhelmingly white. While more than half of public…

Secretary Cardona Has Ambitious Goals. School Choice Could Help Us Meet Them.

On Monday, Dr. Miguel Cardona became the twelfth U.S. Secretary of Education. Despite the amiable support afforded him by both sides of the aisle, we…

Want a National Effort to Combat COVID Learning Loss? Study Your Black History.

We know all too well Black and brown students in marginalized communities are now bearing the brunt of the pandemic’s effect on schools—with inadequate technology,…

Here’s Why Putting the Brakes on Charter Schools Is So 2020

Prior to COVID-19 upending American education, some state legislatures around the country considered moratoriums or “pauses” on public charter schools; while others, like in California,…