public schools

Yakez Semark was a bright, warm, charismatic 20-year-old whose life ended several weeks ago due to gun violence. He was also one of my first students. When

De’Shawn Wright has spent more than 15 years serving in senior leadership posts in government and the nonprofit sector and is a part of the Future Chiefs p

To those of us who observe, study and serve America’s public education system, it would seem that, similar to public housing, we have only been marginally

Take a moment and think back to when you were 12 years old. See life through the eyes of your 12-year-old self. What were you most excited about? What did

There is a growing body of evidence that Black students perform better when they have a Black teacher. It is a problem, then, that only 6 percent of teache

As a teenager on the streets of Chicago’s South Side, Darrell Cannon learned not to trust the police—a lesson that continues to resonate for young Black me

Seventeen years ago, I was a first-year teacher working alone in my classroom when a police officer came to my door. He told me to “get low” and to come wi

What if every teacher approached his or her work with legacy in mind? What if all educators viewed the future of other people’s children—i.e., their studen

“You can’t handle the truth.” I’m beginning to think there was great wisdom in these five words uttered by Colonel Jessup, the character played by Jack Nic