Part IV of the Series: Testing as a Civil Rights Strategy is Not about Achievement In my doctoral program, I took a course titled Professionalism. After trying unsuccessfully to be removed from the course, I was stuck learning about what it means to be a professional. What was fascinating (yes, I grew to appreciate the … More It Is a Fight for Worth
Part III of the Series: Testing as a Civil Rights Strategy is Not about Achievement The best way to talk about equity is to use runners racing on a track as a metaphor. Equality would suggest that for fairness, all runners need to start at the same place in the race. But, equity would mandate … More And It Is Not About Equity Either
Part II of the Series: Testing as a Civil Rights Strategy is Not About Achievement If you put students across the socioeconomic spectrum together in the same room with each other and then gave them the same instruction, particularly the same improved instruction, the achievement gap would prevail. While this improved instruction should influence improvement … More It’s Also Not about Equality
As a first year school director, one of my teachers gave me some interesting feedback. He said, “Dye, you don’t do it like white people.” I waited for him to explain because I wanted to know if the knot that had formed in my stomach was warranted or not. I was ok with being critiqued on … More Testing as a Civil Rights Strategy is Not about Achievement
One reason why we support charter schools and the school reform movement here in the Empowerment Network is that reform is theorized to radically serve all students without excuses. Minority and low-income students need a schooling model that is based on their achievement—not based on the achievement of others. I make this distinction frequently because … More The Standardization Trap
Recently, the world lost an amazing educator. Marva Collins, dying at 78 in North Carolina, was known for the Marva Collins’ Way, which in short was a commitment to high academic results for society’s most marginalized learners. Today, I want to write in honor of her far-reaching influence and to publically give her credit to … More The Marva Collins’ Way
The Empowerment Network 