It was exactly at this time last year when Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Richard Carranza announced their plan to introduce a bill in the New York State Assembly that would alter admission to New York City’s 8 Specialized High Schools from a single Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) to extending offers to… Continue reading A SHSAT Compromise I Can Live With – Can You?
This is a guest post by Jade Arielle Bolden, a 15-year-old student at the College Preparatory Academy in Houston, Texas. She was born on Long Island and aspires to move back to New York and attend Columbia University. She runs track, is part of Voices of Black Youth (an organization run by her her school), and… Continue reading Have I Been A Victim of Racism In My School? How Do I Develop the Ability To Spark Change? A Black Girl Speaks Out.
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.
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.
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
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!
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
This is a guest post by my friend and colleague Zachary Wright, a national finalist for the United States Department of Education’s School Ambassador Fellowship and 2013 Philadelphia Teacher of the Year. Now he is an assistant professor of practice at Relay Graduate School of Education serving Philadelphia and Camden. Prior to that, he was the… Continue reading My Student Asked Me If I Was Racist So I Told the Truth and Said Yes.
While The Hate U Give is a best-selling book and top-rated film, I’m getting some real pushback from my administration about having my students read the book and see the film in my English Language Arts class, despite its obvious cultural and societal relevance. This confirms my premise that White administrators are often disconnected from… Continue reading The Hate I Get About “The Hate U Give.”
The other day I was watching a video on Instagram where a little girl in daycare/pre-kindergarten was telling her teacher how she needs a day off from her (the teacher) and these “kids” that get on her nerves. I was in stitches watching it and I thought to myself, “this little girl is really smart!”… Continue reading Looking Past The Attitude: What Black Teachers See In Black Students That Other Teachers Don’t.
