As we leave 2020 in the rear-view mirror and speed into 2021, we should not forget some lessons of the year. 2020 has allowed many of us to refocus, and as we move into 2021, those areas we focused on remain. Please make no mistake about it; improving education must be a top priority. We…
Pillow: My Education Wish List
2020 has been a rough year by virtually any metric. Education deserves a few wins after the past couple of months. If I had it my way, there would be a lot of things that schools, teachers, and students received just for enduring through such a difficult time. I obviously don’t have it my way…
Indy K12’s Top Ten of 2020 – Part I
Let’s take a look back at Indy K12’s most popular pieces of 2020. 10. If You Want to Keep Educators Like Me, You Need to Think Beyond Your Diversity Quota by Educator Barnes Educator Barnes shared her experience of being called an affirmative action hire by a colleague where she ended up with a consequence….
The Struggle for Black Gifted Education and Advanced Course Placement
Earlier this month, Indy Star published an op-ed by Jordan Smith who attended Sycamore School, a private school for gifted students located on the northwest side of Indianapolis. She attended school there K-8 and was only one of four Black students in her graduating 8th-grade class. She expressed that the underrepresentation of Black students in…
When Teachers Get into Good Trouble
In March of 2020, the honorable John Lewis made a statement to commemorate the tragic events of Bloody Sunday. Bloody Sunday happened on March 7, 1965, as the police officers beat the peaceful protesters for crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The statement was a calling for all. It was a simple but…
Barnes: My Education Wish List
What can I say? 2020 has been quite a ride. I know we all want to leave this ride and as it been said, “throw the year away.” Before that happens, it is important to think about the year through the lens of education. As we roll into 2021, here are my wishes for education….
Radical Education Ideas: Let the Students Keep the Technology and Internet
COVID-19 has been a disaster for virtually every institution and education is no exception. With that being said, there has been one positive development and that is the proliferation of education technologies in rural and urban areas. Students in the aforementioned areas have long lagged behind their suburban peers in both access to technology and…
Our Students Don’t Deserve a Teacher Sick Out During a Pandemic
Teachers For Good Trouble is a group that has formed to push back against standardized testing. According to their website, they are a group of educators “focused on reforming schools to build safe, nurturing, and justice driven school communities by eliminating standardized testing as a tool to measure performance during a pandemic.” How can there…
Voices of Hoosiers: Do You Think We Should Cancel Standardized Test This School Year?
When the school opened back up this school year, many people’s minds were on whether or not we would have standardized testing this school year. Standardized testing was canceled for the 2019-2020 school year as school buildings around the country closed in March and never reopened. While the debate is divided across the country, recently,…
For the Sake of Children, Let’s Focus on Collaboration and Not Competition
I believe most of us got into this work to do right by children. For most in work, we have the heart and passion for ensuring the children who sit in the classrooms where we teach, walk the hallways we lead, or learn in the schools we support have the opportunity to receive a fair…