Defend African American Studies
Black history is under attack — predictably by the right, and by the acquiescence of the College Board, a billion-dollar “non-profit” business. This is yet another example of the erasure […]
Policy Articles
The Chilling Effects of So-Called Critical Race Theory Bans
Teacher educators describe how teachers interpret Tennessee’s “Prohibited Concepts in Instruction” law; vague language suppresses — educators resist.
The First CRT Election
Rethinking Schools was glad to see the midterm elections bring significant setbacks to MAGA Republicans and the most egregious “election deniers.” But overall the results were a decidedly mixed bag […]
Building the Foundation for Police-Free Schools
On Oct. 25, 2015, student Niya Kenny filmed a white school police officer body slamming her classmate, a Black 16-year-old girl named Shakara, to the floor during math class at […]
Oakland Youth to Teachers’ Retirement System: “Divest Now!”
It was a letter to the CalSTRS board, demanding that they dump the pension fund’s investments in oil and gas companies. It was signed “From the many young climate justice activists who will continue to be at every one of your meetings until you divest.”
Compassion, Solidarity, Care: Detroit-Area Youth Respond to the Pandemic
Just as workers are going to need unions, young people need to be organizing as students to make collective demands on the system as well as to meet their needs in an emergency.
How the Attack on Teachers Threatens the Future of Public Schools
As part of the so-called “Great Resignation,” many teachers are leaving the field or thinking of leaving earlier than expected; the impact on public education could be catastrophic.
As States Build Barriers to Racial Justice Teaching, Educators Fight Back
Teachers nationwide have been standing up to register their resistance and solidarity, organizing rallies, supporting school board candidates who reject these bills, and doubling down on their own efforts to learn and teach about race.
Shape-Shifting Segregation Policies
A teacher educator helps preservice teachers understand the history of how Mexican Americans have been racialized as Black and white at different times to keep them out of white schools.
Education and Social Justice: A Global View
Rethinking Schools editor Bob Peterson interviews Angelo Gavrielatos, president of Australia’s New South Wales Teachers Union.
Save Arab American Studies!
At first it seemed that ethnic studies advocates had won a major victory in California, but then a backlash targeted Arab American studies.
Reparations Can Be Won — and Must Be Taught
The story of how activists, teachers, and, organizers won mandatory curriculum in the Chicago Public Schools for 8th and 10th grades about one the darkest chapters in the city’s history — the widespread torture of Black men under Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge.
“It’s Not Magic. It’s Organizing!”
The inspiring story of how the social justice caucus of North Carolina’s teacher union grew to power.
Moving Past the Trump Presidency — The Promise of Social Justice Teacher Unions
The editors of the new book Teacher Unions and Social Justice: Organizing for the Schools and Communities Our Students Deserve argue that teacher unions must move beyond strategies of the past to put social justice and anti-racism at the center of their work.
Who’s to Blame?
A middle school teacher organizes a tribunal for her students on responsibility for the COVID-19 crisis in the United States. Among those on trial are Mother Nature, Gen Z/Millennials, the Healthcare Industry, Racism and White Supremacy, the Chinese Government, the U.S. Government, and the Capitalist System.
Cops Don’t Keep Kids Safe at School: The Case Against School Police
Before I was taught a single teaching technique, I was taught to fight school shooters. At the start of the Stanford Teacher Education Program, we took a seat in the […]
Schools Reopen — and Teachers Fight for Their Lives, Their Students, and the Future of Public Education
As schools begin to reopen, within teacher unions around the country, teachers have been coming together to discuss the risks they’re willing to take — both to protect public health […]
Coronavirus, Sick-Outs, and the Fight to Close New York City Schools
New York City has become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, and its public schools, which serve 1.1 million students and employ nearly 135,000 people, officially closed on March 17. […]
How Google Classroom Erases Trans Students
There are so many voices right now grieving what we have lost with the school closure — our relationships with students and co-workers, the laughter and energy that echo down […]
“I Don’t Like China or Chinese People Because They Started This Quarantine”
On April 20, 2020, blogger LittleGrayThread made a Facebook post of a note her daughter had written. She reported that in a Zoom class meeting, one of her daughter’s 2nd-grade […]
Crisis, Change, and Canceling the Teacher Performance Assessment
As former K–12 teachers who are now teacher educators in California, we share grave concern regarding the expectation for preservice teachers to complete their Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) in order […]
Teachers and the Struggle for Paid Family Leave
Last fall, California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, signed a sweeping array of progressive legislation into law. Among the many bills he enacted included legislation granting collective bargaining rights to the […]
Paid Leave in the Time of a Pandemic
Educators know firsthand what lack of paid family and medical leave means for their students and families — and for themselves. Now, the pandemic has dramatically elevated the need for […]
From the Race to the Top to the Plunge to the Bottom
Horror movie sequels are notoriously bad. This one may be the worst. In 2009, federal intervention during the last financial crisis gave rise to the Obama administration’s signature education initiative: […]
Short Stuff 26.2
International Movement for Public Education Privatization, standardized tests, funding cuts, attacks on teachers’ unions and contracts—the issues that are central to teacher activism in the United States are international. In […]