Beyond Ferguson: Voices in a youth-led movement for justice

The Seattle PBS affiliate, KCTS Channel 9, produced this new "IN Close" episode which takes a look at aspects of the Black Lives Matter movement in Seattle.  This special is a two part series, the first of which includes an interview I gave contesting the Mayor's assertion that "Seattle isn't Ferguson"--the implication being that we …

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New Seattle Test Boycott Erupts: Nathan Hale High School votes to refuse to administer a Common Core test

Today, I found out from my good friend Doug Edelstein that his school community decided to collectively refuse to administer the new Common Core test, the SBAC, to 11th graders. Doug teaches at, and graduated from, Nathan Hale (in fact, my step-dad was a classmate of his).  The Nathan Hale Senate--a body made up of the …

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10 Reasons to Refuse the PARCC Test for Your Child: Maryland parent on opting out of high-stakes testing

TakePart.com ran an article by Joseph Williams titled, “Boycotters Might Be Winning the Battle Over Standardized Testing.” In that article he writes: “In districts across the nation, from Florida to Alaska, the grassroots push for a rollback in high-stakes testing has gained momentum, and a broad coalition of parents, teachers, and advocates are poised to …

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Video: I was pepper sprayed in the face on MLK Day

To the readers of I Am An Educator, Thanks are due to so many of you who have contacted me with encouraging words in the wake of me being pepper sprayed by police on Martin Luther King Day.  Blow is the essay I wrote about what happened, which was originally published in The Nation.  The …

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Black Haitian Lives Matter: Haiti on the Fifth Anniversary of the Earthquake

Five years ago today, my wife, my one-year-old son and I survived the earthquake in Haiti. I will forever be grateful that my wife came back to the hotel early from her work that day and when the earthquake struck, we were all together.  While we were lucky—part of lobby of the hotel collapsed but …

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