As schools shut down during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vanessa met with five new teachers as part of a research project to learn about their preparation to teach in rural schools in the Pacific Northwest. Vanessa posed the question, what surprised you most about teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic? One teacher, Ms. Tolson
On January 13, 2020, I started my new role at the University of Chicago’s To&Through Project as a coach. Full of excitement, and a little nervousness, my colleague Ashley Leonard and I were launching a new initiative called the Middle Grades Network (MGN) with the vision of cohorts of schools in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) collaborating to
The American Journal of Education Forum Editorial Board is excited to launch the Lingering Effects of COVID-19 in Education mini-series, featuring those dedicated to transforming the PK-20 and adult education system: teachers, principals, instructional coaches, activists, researchers, and community members. The pandemic has both perpetuated and shed a stark spotlight on long-standing educational inequities for Black
Last fall, sixty high schools in states across the US piloted an AP course in African-American studies (International Business Times 2022). The pilot responds to years of activism and educational research supporting culturally responsive teaching, a pedagogy that links learning with “deep understanding of (and appreciation for) culture” (Ladson Billings 2014, 76). Culturally responsive teaching focuses
