Meet Gloria Cookson, a teacher in Maine who prays every week with her colleagues and can't imagine going to Heaven without them. ... Read More
A few weeks ago I wrote a blog expressing my exasperation with my children’s public school education and my attraction to school vouchers. To my surprise, United States Education Secretary Betsy DeVos spoke about that blog in a speech, and... Read More
U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos mentioned me by name in her keynote speech (starting at 29 min.) at the Brookings Institute last week. It happened while I was administering the standardized PARCC test to a group of third-graders at... Read More
I felt that the free education my daughter was getting was just too expensive. I needed to find a school that would start filling her academic gaps while also providing culturally responsive pedagogy.... Read More
For many parents, students and even teachers, the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) test is rather mysterious. The 2015 results were released last week, and every state (and, separately, 22 urban districts) was ranked on how well its students... Read More
“For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for what they become.”—James Baldwin Any time there’s an education debate, people tend to say that students in a particular place are “all our children.” For some,... Read More
Greed. Lies. Bribery and kickbacks. Everyone in Chicago is talking about three naughty little B-words: Barbara Byrd-Bennett. The former CEO of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) pled guilty to one count of wire fraud yesterday and faces 7 1/2 years in prison... Read More
The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system is robbing Peter in first grade to pay Paul, who retired from teaching in 1992. And nowhere is this clearer than the $5.7 billion budget they are set to approve today during a Board... Read More
Many teachers call their students “my kids” all the time. In fact, I easily have more pictures of my students in my cell phone than pictures of my own biological children. But as much as I mother my students, I... Read More