Vivett Dukes

Vivett Dukes (nèe Hemans) is in her eighth year as a middle and high school English Language Arts teacher. For her first four years in the DOE, she taught in an all-male, all minority, urban public school in Southside Jamaica, Queens, erected for the express purpose of counteracting the pervasive school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately impacts Black and Brown boys. Currently, she is teaching in a College Board middle and high school also in Jamaica, Queens, where the population of students she serves is diversified on cultural, religious and socio-economic planes. During her time as a teacher within the New York City Department of Education she has served as a member of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Teacher Advisory Council 2014-2016 cohort, a classroom lab facilitator with Chancellor Carmen Fariña's Learning Partners Program, grade team leader, inquiry team leader, English Department Chairperson and Bethune Teaching Fellow for the New York Urban League.

Currently, in additional to teaching seventh-grade English Language Arts, she serves as a Lead Middle School Quality Initiative (MSQI) Reading Across All Disciplines (RAAD) Literacy Teacher, Advisor for the New York Times' Upfront magazine and Scholastic Inc., educational blogger for New York School Talk, and Co-CEO/Co-Founder of SpeakYaTruth.org and One Voice Online Blog Magazine. She also hosts a bi-weekly #SafeSpaceConvos Twitter chat about issues as the forefront of education.

At her core, Vivett is a passionate wife, mom, teacher-leader, keynote speaker, public intellectual, social activist, social advocate, and humanitarian who is dedicated to taking her voice outside of the classroom and into the public arena in an effort to elevate authentic conversations and grassroots changes in educational equity and human rights advocacy.

Recent Blog Posts

We Tried The Integration Route — It’s Not Working. Afrocentric Schools May Be a Viable Answer.
Finding the Right School

We Tried The Integration Route — It’s Not Working. Afrocentric Schools May Be a Viable Answer.

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Here we go again. Yet another teacher in yet another school has assigned yet another assignment pertaining to slavery that is asinine and insensitive. According to The Tennessean, The hand-written assignment, which touched on issues of slavery, immigration and child labor, was given out Wednesday in an eighth grade social studies class at Sunset Middle. One box… Continue reading We Tried The Integration Route — It’s Not Working. Afrocentric Schools May Be a Viable Answer.

Complaining Doesn’t Win Educational Revolutions – Civic Engagement Does! Here Are Some First Steps from Your Local Activist.
Accountability

Complaining Doesn’t Win Educational Revolutions – Civic Engagement Does! Here Are Some First Steps from Your Local Activist.

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I had a whole blog post planned out about yet another example of educational disparities on Long Island  when I read this in ERASE Racism:   The vast majority of Long Island students attend low‐ and average‐need districts. Only 14% of all Long Island students attend high‐need districts. There are, however, extremely large racial and… Continue reading Complaining Doesn’t Win Educational Revolutions – Civic Engagement Does! Here Are Some First Steps from Your Local Activist.

I Think We Have Integrated Ourselves into Oblivion
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I Think We Have Integrated Ourselves into Oblivion

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On Valentine’s Day when we celebrate love, it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around where the love could have possibly been in the hearts and minds of the teachers who allowed nooses to be displayed in their Long Island middle school classrooms. According to The Grio and several other news source outlets, “Three… Continue reading I Think We Have Integrated Ourselves into Oblivion

Hey, Racist White People, Burn your Black Face Makeup Kits The Way You Burn Your Crosses And Just Stop!
Accountability

Hey, Racist White People, Burn your Black Face Makeup Kits The Way You Burn Your Crosses And Just Stop!

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How is it that a White teacher — at a professed Christian school, no less — can go before her students dressed up in Black face and a dashiki during an assembly about Africa? In New York. as well as other states, the act of “conduct unbecoming” is a judgement that can get a teacher… Continue reading Hey, Racist White People, Burn your Black Face Makeup Kits The Way You Burn Your Crosses And Just Stop!

Educational Equity Will Only Come With The Intentional Disruption of White Privilege
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Educational Equity Will Only Come With The Intentional Disruption of White Privilege

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Hi Vivett. I read your blog post on New York School Talk. It is getting a lot of attention in the Sewanhaka district — too much attention. The post is fake news. First, South Floral Park students attend Floral Park Memorial. Second, Floral Park Memorial’s student body is 45% minority with an even number of… Continue reading Educational Equity Will Only Come With The Intentional Disruption of White Privilege

The Sad State of Affairs in Long Island’s Schools
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The Sad State of Affairs in Long Island’s Schools

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I’m proud to have been raised and educated on Long Island where I  raised my own family and still reside. I love living so close to the beach and the City. On so many levels, Long Island is a little piece of paradise on earth — except, of course, when you look at its system… Continue reading The Sad State of Affairs in Long Island’s Schools

This Traditionally-Trained Teacher Is Cautiously Optimistic About NYC DOE’s Alternative Routes To Teacher Certification
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This Traditionally-Trained Teacher Is Cautiously Optimistic About NYC DOE’s Alternative Routes To Teacher Certification

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They say if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. I’ve taken that adage to heart as I begin a new role of preparing pre-service teachers to educate our City’s students. If you read my blog posts, you know that I have not been shy in expressing my concerns about the… Continue reading This Traditionally-Trained Teacher Is Cautiously Optimistic About NYC DOE’s Alternative Routes To Teacher Certification

The Trauma-Informed Classroom: Six Years After The Sandy Hook Massacre
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The Trauma-Informed Classroom: Six Years After The Sandy Hook Massacre

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Yesterday in one of my classes, an announcement came over the loudspeaker informing students that the bathrooms were closed and that they needed to remain in their classrooms. Upon hearing that, I locked the front classroom door. It was an instinctual response to the directive given. As I locked the door, my students asked me… Continue reading The Trauma-Informed Classroom: Six Years After The Sandy Hook Massacre

What Does Airing The Louisiana Landry School’s Dirty Laundry Mean For The Rest Of Us?
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What Does Airing The Louisiana Landry School’s Dirty Laundry Mean For The Rest Of Us?

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The narrative earned Mr. Sassau acceptance to St. John’s University in New York. There was one problem: None of it was true. “I was just a small piece in a whole fathom of lies,” Mr. Sassau said. I read this statement in in the New York Times when a colleague sent it to me and I… Continue reading What Does Airing The Louisiana Landry School’s Dirty Laundry Mean For The Rest Of Us?

The Life-Changing Benefits of Black Teachers for Black Students
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The Life-Changing Benefits of Black Teachers for Black Students

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Last week I wrote a very personal post about the connections between our nation’s education and criminal justice systems. I was accused by a reader of not grounding my assertions in research, thus voiding my post’s truth or relevance. I reminded the reader that I’d written a blog post, not a research paper. However, this… Continue reading The Life-Changing Benefits of Black Teachers for Black Students