I’m Going to #MarchForOurLives Because, Honestly, How Can I Not?

Protest has been a topic for a long time around my house. Like a lot of people, I participated in the Women’s March in January 2017. Around that time, I ha

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This New Mexico School Is Making History

New Mexico is in the middle of an educational revolution. I’m an eyewitness as a teacher at Mission Achievement and Success (MAS), the most successful Titl

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School Districts Just Like Mine Are Balancing Budgets on the Backs of Kids

At 10:00 a.m. last Wednesday, students and educators across the country—including those at the school in which I teach—walked out of their buildings and ob

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It’s Damn Near Impossible to Be a Teacher-Leader and Still Teach

A few weeks ago, I was out of the classroom. When I came back, the substitute teacher’s notes were not good. “I wish I could tell you it was an easy three

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Here’s How You Know When You Need to Check Your Microaggressions at the Front Door

If I had money to wager, I’d bet that if you’re a female teacher, this has happened to you. You’re in a meeting and you say something smart. A few minutes

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Do We Just Want Our Kids to Get a Job, or Do We Want Them to Change the World?

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

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What Happens When Even the ‘Best’ Neighborhood School Treats Its Students With Disabilities Horribly?

The New York Post recently profiled Wesley Clark, a 9-year-old fourth-grader at PS 8 in Brooklyn Heights. The article describes a “supposedly progressive B

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When Advocating for Students With Disabilities, It’s OK to Be Wrong Sometimes But It’s Not OK to Be Quiet

I remember the first time I spoke up at a national conference in front of my colleagues. We were at a national meeting of a few hundred urban special educa

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Here’s How ESSA Can Create Strong, Diverse School Leadership

When I became principal of Ranson IB Middle School in 2011, one of the first challenges I faced as principal was one that never came up in my training: The

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