School Discipline
Black Lives Matter in Schools This Month and Every Damn Month
On Wednesday, February 6, 2019, I had the honor of speaking at the Black Lives Matter in Schools Week of Action rally. The audience was mostly educators, with a few powerful students (several whom...
School Choice
Nobody Likes a Teachers Strike. Here's How We Can Work to Avoid Them.
Nobody likes a teachers strike. I know. I have lived through a number of them. And I'm doing it again this week. My life and my background speak to the importance of education and choice, two topics...
Achievement Gap
While We're Stuck On Blackface, Black Faces Continue to Suffer in a Racist School System
Yeah, I said it. All week, on social media and news outlets, there’s been coverage of Virginia’s Governor, Ralph Northam, denying claims of wearing blackface in the ’80s and refusing to resign over...
Diversity
Forget the School-to-Prison Pipeline, For White Boys It's the School-to-Politics Pipeline
Tonight, President Donald Trump will deliver his State of the Union address. Like many other U.S. citizens, I see our current president as deeply flawed, lacking in empathy, racist and unable to take...
Diversity
We Cannot Go Another Month Without Teachers Knowing Black History
In just the past several weeks, school systems across the United States have, at last, taken the steps to elevate critical lessons from African-American history for our nation’s students. On January...
Teaching
I’m a Black Gay Man, and Supporting LGBTQ+ Kids Is Important to Me
Brian Coleman, who heads the counseling department at Jones College Prep, has been named the 2019 National School Counselor of the Year. This is the second year in a row that a Chicago Public Schools...