The Blog

Four Barriers to Antiracist Work anti-racist schools antiracist antiracistedu education equity racism Jan 12, 2024

While there are many more barriers than 4, these are four common objections people raise when they're trying to explain why they are hesitant about anti racist work in schools. 

We have found that these are easy grabs for people, but actually reveal underlying issues, typically rooted in...

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2024 Elections Are Coming education inclusive professionaldevelopment reflection social emotional learning Dec 19, 2023

The man who was 45th president of the United States and wants to be the 47th, just did his racist thing again in New Hampshire. He decided to claim that immigrants from South America, Africa, and Asia are “poisoning” the blood of the United States. All by itself, this comment is...

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Bilingual Students & the Need for Teachers #elt bilingual ed education educational equity ell equity teachers Oct 05, 2023
 

The population of students in the United States working to learn English, is now 10% of public school students. This is an important number, because one of the major barriers to their proficiency is a lack of qualified educators to teach them.

First, a recent EdWeek article explains...

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Numb in School classroom education reflection social emotional learning texturedteaching Sep 11, 2023

"He sits there and keeps his down and just does his work. He's such a good student." 

"Mary was diagnosed with cancer and we didn't even know! She's such a trooper." 

"Juan barely talks and responds only when called upon." 

"They're such a difficult student. They fidget all day and...

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Harmful Books vs. Harm-Exposing Books abar books education ela joy literacy reading May 17, 2023

I guess that the nuance in knowing the difference between a book that exposes harm and one that is harmful isn't as clear for everyone as it may be for me. Let me change that. 

There are books that cause harm. Harm, in this case, refers to offense or insult. These are books that lead the...

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Florida is Burning #disrupttexts books curriculum education ela inclusive literacy reading Feb 03, 2023

I know you've been watching the news and you've probably been watching our videos on social media. We can't stop talking about what DeSantis is doing, and here's why: 

1. These book banning are racist and oppressive in every way. He hides behind certain vague phrases to appease his political...

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Students of Color Are Now the Majority bipoc curriculum diversity education Aug 24, 2022

The National Center for Education Statistics has shared the news from their 2020 and 2021 research. One of the striking statistics that I think we need to meditate on is that out of 49 million public school students, 27.2 million of them are students of color. White students comprise 22.4...

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Studying Lula in To Kill a Mockingbird #antiracistedu #carbte #disrupttexts abar books classroom curriculum education ela literacy Jul 15, 2022

I know people really love this book and they struggle to let it go. One of the biggest hesitations expressed is that it's a great fodder for conversations about race(ism). However, my response to that is: it's written by a White woman and it is therefore limited in its scope. There will be...

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Playing My Way Through 6th Grade classroom education joy middle school Jun 30, 2022

When I started teaching, I worked at a high school. The youngest child I taught was 14. When I transitioned to a smaller independent school and started teaching 6th grade, I realized 11 year olds were still very, very, young! I remember the day one of them lost a tooth in class and I thought to...

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