Pharrell Williams’ New School Offers a ‘Room Without a Roof’ to Low-Income Students

When you visit the Team Yellow website, a powerful statement appears:  We will even the odds through education.  The site, the movement, and the concept…

I Don’t Know if Biden Can Heal This Nation, But a House Divided Cannot Stand

November 2016, I walked into my school building to students blocking their peers from coming through my classroom door. They said, “We’re building a wall,…

For 2021, We Need Real Strategies to Dismantle Racism in Schools

As educators, we’re taught to begin with the end in mind. To be successful, we need to know our intended outcome so we can backward…

Here’s Why Dumping the Discipline Question on the Common App Really Matters

This is a year unlike any other. I am sure you have heard this over and over again as, over the past seven months, our…

3 Questions Every Educator Should Ask to Prepare for School This Year

There are some things we understand much better today than we did four months ago. Leading school districts and schools of all grade levels during…

We Deserve Better Than Betsy DeVos and Her White Privilege Plan to Reopen Schools

My family was supposed to move back South this summer. That was the plan as soon as we left back in 2017.  I will never…

Gianna Was Right, Her Daddy Changed the World

Four weeks ago, a Black man was lynched. In 2020. I remind myself of that fact each day so that I do not forget what…

Let’s Make This Juneteenth Our Collective Independence Day

As I look at the world right now, I see a lot of belief statements and acknowledgment of past hurts—a reckoning to finally accept that…

Teachers Must Hold Themselves Accountable for Dismantling Racial Oppression

This week began with a hike in the woods for my family and me in the Shenandoah Valley State Park. Pre COVID-19, our outings consisted…

Literacy Needs to Be at the Forefront of Instruction When Schools Reopen

According to the most recent report by the National Association for Educational Progress, 64% of all fourth grade students in America are unable to read…