As we as a nation watch the confirmation process that Judge Brown Jackson will traverse over the next few weeks, we should use this as an opportunity to reflect on our nation’s education system. If our public and private k-12 education system was up for confirmation would we have the courage to acknowledge its faults and take deliberate and purposeful action to solve the inherent built-in inequities that deny Black and Latino students their ability to fulfill their full potential?
Tag: Black students
This Year I Celebrate Uncomfortable History Month
If we are truly motivated to create a future that defeats the past, a future where we have risen above the durable walls of separation racism erected, we must accept discomfort, valorize truth, and labor for reconciliation. We must teach our children how the world became the way it is and trust them with the information.
Why Are Black Families Leaving Chicago? Maybe They Can’t Afford to Wait for Better Schools.
As a Black woman who grew up here, I’ve never needed data to prove these injustices exist—I live, see and fight against them every single day. But numbers don’t lie and this report shows the reality.
We Hurt, We Struggle, Some Die, And We Just Keep Going.
When our City Council votes to pass a crummy budget, they force crap down our throats in the same way they tell us to eat the crap they serve in our city’s school lunchrooms. But we get used to the crappy food, the same way we get used to the crappy budget proposals.
We Don’t Give a Damn About Equity Initiatives Without Intentional Investment in Our Kids
It’s been a year since this piece was written and since CPS chief education officer (then chief equity officer) Maurice Swinney committed to developing the CPS Black student achievement task force. In that year, there’s been significant leadership transition, with Pedro Martinez stepping in as CEO, and it’s recently been announced that Patti Salzmann will replace Swinney as chief education officer.
The Role of the Media in Education Reporting – from the Eight Black Hands podcast
Our friends at Eight Black Hands podcast takes a serious look at education in the U.S. and how it serves (or doesn’t) the 8 million Black students in the system. Their latest episode takes a deep dive into the role that the media plays in keeping the public informed (or not) about education. Who is centered in the stories the…
Here’s what we’re reading this week: CPS graduation rates, Michele Clark HS, and policing children
These were a few standout pieces on our radar this week. Chicago narrows racial gaps in 5-year graduation rate, but disparities persist, by Mila Koumpilova in Chalkbeat Chicago. An analysis of graduation rates recently released by CPS seems to show increased graduation rates across the board, with stubborn racial disparities. We’re keeping an eye on how this data shakes out.…
I’ll Believe Y’all Are Serious About Black Lives Mattering When You Send More of Our Kids to College Instead of Prison
This post originally appeared on Hope+Outrage on June 17, 2020. I’m hearing a lot of people now all “rah-rah” for Black lives mattering. Meanwhile, I’m over here rolling my eyes at it all because to me, talk is cheap and history has receipts. Black lives didn’t matter in America when Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Jordan Foster, Rekiya Boyd, Eric Garner…