Stories

Hey Shawnta! My Principal Started the Year by Showing Us Student Data From Last Year. We Were Told to 'Do Better,' but Weren't Given Real Strategies. What Do I Do Now?

Hey Shawnta! My principal started the year by showing us student data from last year. It was bad. All we were told was 'do better.' No real strategies, just a lot of teacher bashing. What do I do...

Literacy

If We Don't Teach Culturally Affirming Books, We Might as Well Ban Them

I closed my eyes, waiting anxiously for Mr. T to announce today’s American History lesson, hoping that we would be moving on to a new topic. I cringed as I heard the familiar phrase, “We’re going to...

CRT

I Will Not Remain Silent When Books Are Being Banned

Back in January, when I read this headline in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Movement would ban LGBTQ books, online materials from school libraries,” I felt like I was in an episode of the “The...

Real Talk from Teachers About Why Good Curriculum Doesn’t Get Taught

When we ask someone to do a job, we usually give them the tools to get it done. Not so in teaching, where more than half of U.S. teachers create learning materials on their own. Even as publishers...

The Fear That Drove Scores of White Families Out of Public Schools

As we begin another school year–buying the sequined backpacks, scraping the neglected God-knows-what from the inside of lunchboxes, scrambling for a spot in the least-sucky afterschool option–let’s...

California

Across Colors Ep. 2: Oh, It’s Both of Y’all!

Episode Summary Tanzina heads to Oakland where a battle over how to teach students essential skills like reading has emerged. Some educators say methods for teaching students to read have long been...