Stories

student achievement

The System Failed Me

I was always a good student — I did very well academically. Every nine weeks, we had these standardized tests for the state. I would always place in “advanced” — I would only miss two or three...

COVID-19

America’s Rural Schools May Not Be Tragic, but They Have Known Tragedy

Maybe this is the turning point. Education advocacy is exhausting — particularly in rural communities like mine, where our opportunities are limited and our challenges are unique. A myriad of...

IEP

Families Can't Afford for Schools to Continue to Treat Students With Disabilities Like an Afterthought

Every single thing we do is challenging. My kids are being forgotten. That’s Keri Akkawi, a Philadelphia mom of two boys with Fragile X Syndrome, a genetic mutation that can cause multiple...

There's No Excuse for Not Teaching Critical Thinking

It was an engineer at Lockheed Skunkworks who coined the design principal of “Keep it simple, stupid.” His belief that complexity should be avoided, and that simplicity should always be the goal, has...

CRT

Here's Why Black People Being Whipped at the Border Is Like the Public Education System

Look at this picture of a white man on a horse appearing to whip a Black man. And no, this isn’t from the year 1712. It’s from earlier this week — the United States of America, circa 2021....

Charter Schools

Q&A: New Orleans Is Taking a New Approach to Find Its Next Superintendent

Ethan Ashley is the president of the Orleans Parish School Board, which regained full control of New Orleans public schools on July 1, 2018. New Orleans is the only school district in the U.S. with a...