Journal of a Black Teacher

Creating equity between different groups of parents is not just logistical; it is ethical.  By Don Allen - Journal of A Black Teacher (2025) Editorial Opinion   In public schools, we believe that parent involvement is crucial for student success. In reality, however, schools sideline their best players, the parents, especially in low-income neighborhoods where help is needed the most. What we've referred to as "site councils" is now mostly pro forma. These old models were intended to insert parent voices into school decision-making. Today, they are mostly used as tools of compliance, meeting state mandates and district expectations, but not really partnering with families. In the majority of school districts, especially in inner cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul, parental engagement deteriorates the nearer you reach the poorest schools. This isn't by chance. Sometimes this exclusion is a strength, not a weakness; limiting parent participation in decision-making pre...

  How can understanding the “continuum” be helpful to planning Culturally Responsive work with individuals within your organization? When I opened up chapter five to start reading, the pull-quote by Ellis Cose from his book, The Rage of a Privileged Class has me rethinking everything, and I cannot move past it; he wrote, “If we tell ourselves that the only problem is hate, we avoid facing the reality that it is mostly nice, non-hating people who perpetuate racial inequality”  (Cose 1998, p. 20). In my organization, as well as in the state of Minnesota, we know the ‘nice’ people are at the center of some of the most horrific, disabling, and learning-killing proposals and policies from the Minnesota Department of Education granting over $245 million to a non-existent agency for feeding children and families during the 202o COVID-19 quarantine, to its lack of diversity, inclusion, and color in the agencies upper leadership . These ‘nice’ people make sure the status quo is never d...

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