In Chicago, Charter Schools Are Helping the ‘Underdog’ Kids Get to College
If you’re an underdog kind of kid in Chicago, and you want to go to college and graduate, your chances of success are better now than they were 20 years ago. Much of the credit for that change goes to...
View ArticleAfter One Night on the Street, I’m Thinking About All the Young People Who...
Two weeks before Thanksgiving, I watched a segment on Chicago’s WGN Morning News where two youth told their stories about homelessness. Something changed inside me, and within a week I found myself...
View ArticleI Was a Misfit in School, Then I Was Homeless, Now I’m Helping Kids Avoid...
I went to Chicago Agricultural High School. It’s known as one of the best high schools in the Chicagoland area. Everyone told me it was an honor and privilege to be there. But for me, every day was a...
View ArticleEnglish-Language Learners Deserve to Know How Their Schools Are Doing and...
Each year, states publish “report cards” on student performance in K-12 education, as measured by math and reading tests, graduation rates and other key indicators. For the public, this information...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Showing Up and Doing Well in School Should Lead to Better Opportunity But...
Low-income and minority students are not being challenged nearly as much as their White peers in high school, according to a new study produced by TNTP, a national education nonprofit. They’ve dubbed...
View ArticleForget the School-to-Prison Pipeline, For White Boys It’s the...
Tonight, President Donald Trump will deliver his State of the Union address. Like many other U.S. citizens, I see our current president as deeply flawed, lacking in empathy, racist and unable to take...
View ArticleNobody Likes a Teachers Strike. Here’s How We Can Work to Avoid Them.
Nobody likes a teachers strike. I know. I have lived through a number of them. And I’m doing it again this week. My life and my background speak to the importance of education and choice, two topics...
View Article‘The Make-or-Break Year’ Offers Ed Reformers Sobering Lessons on How Real...
“If we have to remove dead weight, we will remove dead weight.” That’s what the assistant principal of Chicago’s Orr High School told me in 1998, when I asked him how he dealt with no-show students....
View ArticleWhen I Failed My Student, Restorative Justice Picked Us Up
During one of my daily writing warm-up exercises Alex, a sophomore in my remedial English class, decided to exercise his defiance by yelling, “Get off me lady, I’m not doing anythin’ you tell me to...
View ArticleGoing to a Women’s HBCU Inspired Me to Fight for College Access for Everyone
At my small high school in East St. Louis, Illinois, going away to college was not accessible to all. The few most promising students were pushed toward an academic career beyond graduation, but the...
View ArticleWith the Right Team of Adults Behind Her, My Autistic Child Is Killing It at...
Nationwide, health coverage for autism-related services is seriously lacking. In my home state of Illinois, advocates are pushing newly elected Governor Pritzker to expand Medicaid coverage for early...
View ArticleEven in Death, Black and Brown Students Are Dehumanized
In my second year of teaching, I had a notorious student we’ll call Israel. After the first day of class, we sat down and discussed appropriate expectations, whom he could work well with and we created...
View ArticleI’m Teaching My Students How to Read and Think Beyond the Headline
We’ve all been there. A tempting headline, a picture too startling to keep our fingers at rest. We skim through the article. We write a quick caption and click share. We later realize there’s more to...
View ArticleIllinois Has Fixed Its School Funding Formula, But That Didn’t Help My Student
Kylie, now an eighth-grader, came to our school in second grade. In her six years with us, she came to think of our school as a safe place where she had beloved friends and inspiring teachers. She...
View ArticleFirst Day Jitters? Teachers Get Them Too!
As I embark on my 15th year in public education, I’m baffled that it still happens to me. After all, this is my 15th “first day”! I have my first-day handouts copied and I’ve spent the last two weeks...
View ArticleCoffee Break: Why Ramon Griffin Left Law to Change School Discipline
As a youth in Ford Heights, Illinois, Ramon Griffin grew up asking hard questions. Why did his ZIP code have so many schools on the academic watch list? Why did his community have so few resources,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Instead of Attacking Charter Schools, How About Y’all Work to Improve...
It’s silent but deadly—and I’m not talking about heart disease. I’m talking about this assault on charter schools that has flown under the radar, is spreading from state to state, and is killing...
View ArticleNew York Talks a Big Game on Gifted and Talented Educational Opportunities,...
Attacks against private school options are frequent and fervent, but what happens when public school opportunities become the point of confliction? You may have seen some of the recent conversations...
View ArticleFellow Black Parents, It’s Time to Break the Silence About Our Kids With...
My mom and society have taught me that it is rude to offer advice when no one asks for it. But Black folks aren’t talking about disabilities with each other, and that silence is negatively affecting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Calendar, a Plan and Friends Can Make Unexpected Time off Rewarding and...
Gil Gibori recently launched The House Tutoring Lounge, a space in Chicago’s northern suburbs where teens can study, prep for college entrance exams and socialize, free of helicopter parents. His...
View Article