America Has Always Used Schools as a Weapon Against Native Americans

When Michelle Obama and her husband visited students of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation in North Dakota in the summer of 2014, she met students…

Our Students Need Every Educator to Speak Up to Ensure DeVos Hears Our Support for Restorative Justice

In my decade in Chicago Public Schools as a social worker and currently as a behavioral health specialist, I’ve learned a great education goes beyond…

School Shootings Aren’t the Only Things School Police Officers Need to Train For

In light of recent school shootings, one of the proposed solutions has been to put more school police officers in schools. In the last 30…

Thank You to All the Teachers Who Know That We Can’t Have Equity Without Love

I come from nothing. I was reminded of this at a tense board meeting in which a member from the community, upset with my opinion…

I Almost Let My Own Issues Get in the Way of My Student Killing It at a Talent Show

From the jump of my educational career I’ve always identified with the troubled students, the outcasts and troublemakers. I gravitate toward them and desperately try…

It Takes a Good School Leader to Know When a Teacher Is Struggling

Last year I went from managing students in the classroom to managing adults. That shift was just as hard as the one from managing myself…

If You’re Justifying Higher Suspension Rates for Black Kids Then You’re Not Facing Up to Racism in America

Many people of privilege, myself included, have a hard time looking in the mirror and confronting their own racism. They will do anything to justify…

The Office for Civil Rights Needs to Listen to Teachers Like Me on School Discipline

As a school-based social worker for over eight years, I know firsthand how punitive discipline practices impact students both in the short and long term.…

It’s Not Enough to Know the Content, Teachers Also Need to Know the Context of Their Students’ Lives

The debate about how to best prepare K-12 teachers in the U.S. over the last 50 years has largely centered on whether theory- or practice-based…

Rev. Al Sharpton, Let’s Talk About Your ‘Sister’ Randi

“Any situation in which some men prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence…to alienate humans from their own decision…