Charter Schools
I’m Concerned But Not Convinced by the NPR-Illinois Story on the Noble Charter Schools
I’m a fan of the Noble Charter School Network in Chicago because parents like the schools, they get good results for low-income kids and they are proving that poverty is not destiny. With a student...
Poverty
It Would Be So Easy for Me to Stop Caring About Race. But Then That Would Be Stupid.
It would be so easy to stop caring about race. Yes, I can only say this because I’m White. Yes, I can only say this because I’ve been so tempted so many times. It would be so easy, and I wouldn’t...
student achievement
Hope and Outrage: A Tale of Two White Dudes
Outrage: Racist White Dude in Texas So, apparently Black Kids only get into Ivy League schools to fill quotas? https://twitter.com/_littledrizzy/status/986796203584077824 It basically went something...
student achievement
This D.C. Program Put Me on the Path to the Career of My Dreams
I grew up in Southeast D.C. and graduated from Cesar Chavez High School. My family is big, so we usually hold our holiday dinners at a nearby hotel. Visiting these hotels first introduced me to the...
Diversity
Why Are White People So Afraid of Immigrant Kids?
Not long ago I was in Wilmington, Delaware— reporting another story—and I visited Academia Antonia Alonso, a two-way dual immersion charter school where over half the students are English-language...
Poverty
How I Learned to Help My Students Talk About Hard Things
Up until a few years ago, I had struggled to find my voice as a teacher. I had internalized a set of classroom management principles best summed up by the common phrase: “Don’t smile until...