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The Secrets to Great Parent Meetings

The cornerstone of an effective parent engagement strategy is building relationships between parents, teachers, and administrators—but schools are becoming increasingly aware that traditional conferences and meetings with parents are not exactly engaging. “How to Have Better Parent Meetings,” Teaching for Change’s third Cross-City Parent Coordinator Training of the school year, detailed the essentials for a …

Independent Publishers Take Lead on Latino Literature

Publishers Weekly responded to the Dec. 4, 2012 New York Times article on the lack of classroom books written by and featuring Latinos. While the scarcity is a big problem, the New York Times left out the independent publishers who have taken the lead in trying to fill that gap for many years including our friends at  Arte Público Press, Cinco Puntos Press, Lee …

How to Build a Better Parent-Teacher Night

For many schools, parent-teacher conferences, back-to-school night, and report card day are the only attempts to bring parents and teachers together. Typically, these meetings do little to foster sustainable parental engagement and sometimes the format even hinders meaningful collaboration. Teaching for Change’s Tellin’ Stories initiative offers a powerful alternative with its signature activity, parent-teacher grade …

Lawrence Guyot, ¡Presente!

We were saddened to learn of the death of lifelong activist and freedom fighter Lawrence Guyot, who died on November 23, 2012. Born in Pass Christian, Mississippi, Guyot dedicated his life to the fight for voting rights, first with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) and then for decades in Washington, DC. We …

Pearson Erases Paul Robeson from History: Students Write 100 Letters to Challenge Omission

By Ken Giles For the past several years, I have been the music teacher at Shepherd Elementary School in Washington, D.C. This has given me the chance to combine two passions: music and social justice activism. I teach students the civil rights songs, peace songs, and union songs that I learned throughout my life. And …

Baseball News Based on Biased Math

The Washington Nationals playoff game in Washington D.C. against the St. Louis Cardinals was held on October 10, 2012. According to the majority of the mainstream media and baseball press, it was the “the first postseason baseball game in Washington since 1933.” They were wrong. This oft repeated line omits the championships of the legendary Homestead Grays, the winners of …