It is February 28, 2023, and the Indy K12 team is signing off. Indy K12 was birthed in 2016 with the mission of focusing on education stories and issues that get overlooked, especially stories about Black students, Black families, and the Black education experience. What makes this publication unique is that all of the writers are current educators. Many publications have journalists who cover the education beat who have never taught. Although teaching is not a prerequisite to being an education writer, it sure is helpful. For years, we have been part of a national network, Citizen Education ..read more

A teacher recently asked me, “How do I tell my principal that I don’t want to sponsor an after-school activity?” My immediate thoughts were, “That’s easy. Just say no.” Okay, I know it’s not that simple. If a teacher is asking this question, the real question might be: How do I say no again after I already said no? Will saying no have future negative implications for my career? Let’s talk about these questions instead. I have the habit of saying yes more than I should. Over the last five years, I have been way better at saying no. However, I found out that a way that I ended up saying yes is t ..read more

Two people I consider friends entered the education profession via Teach for America. They are still educators nearly a decade later. This is not always the case for TFA alum, and we shouldn’t be surprised. Recently, EdSurge published “As a Naive College Student, I Fell for the Mission of Teach for America.” The article focuses on a TFA alum who felt grossly unprepared to be a teacher. The article states, “The Teach for America mindset is that a two-year commitment is enough to take a bite out of systemic inequities in education.” It goes on to explain why this mindset is problematic. “Young ..read more

It is Black History Month. Instead of celebrating Black excellence and Black achievement, people are in knots over Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis banning the Advanced Placement African American Studies course. Now, Arkansas, North Dakota, Mississippi, and Virginia are reviewing the course for concerns. Nothing that is happening in Florida or any other state should interfere with anyone’s ability to teach Black history, which is American history. The first teacher is the parent. As my fellow Indy K12 writer Andrew Pillow recently mentioned, there is not enough time in the year for teachers to ..read more

Walk into any school and try and log onto one of the computers. You will notice something: blocked websites. Blocked sites are ubiquitous on school computers around the world and for good reason. Literally anything you can imagine can be found on the internet and not all of those things are appropriate for schools. But there is one site that it is time to loosen the reigns on: YouTube. Most schools block YouTube on their technological devices. I have a classroom full of Chromebooks but none of them can access YouTube. My school has decided this is not a site they should have access to. This is ..read more

Welcome to the EduVerse with ProfessorJBA. This series is designed for parents and caregivers in an effort to inform them about the various roles and aspects of the educational landscape to ensure that caregivers can make informed decisions regarding their child(ren)’s education. Eric Stirgus wrote an article focusing on the impact of extra curricular programs on student performance. As a product of public schools and former classroom teacher, I know first hand the importance of extra curricular activities and programs and how they help students find success. I spent my first tw ..read more

Welcome to the EduVerse with ProfessorJBA. This series is designed for parents and caregivers in an effort to inform them about the various roles and aspects of the educational landscape to ensure that caregivers can make informed decisions regarding their child(ren)’s education. It is so important that we put the needs of our children first. The support of nurses, counselors, graduation coaches, student life directors, para professionals, RTI (response to intevention), MTSS (multi-tiered systems of support), gifted & alented coordinators, special education coordinators, and fami ..read more

I often attend the basketball games for some of my students. I usually sit in the crowd among the parents, and I occasionally overhear their conversations. Usually, I don’t pay attention but earlier this season I heard a parent complain about their child’s history teacher: Parent 1: “Yeah, I asked my son if he knew who Marcus Garvey was and he said no. I was like don’t they got history here or something? Why ain’t they teaching y’all about Marcus Garvey?” Parent 2: “I bet the teacher don’t know either.” Parent 1: “I think it’s some white dude. So he probably doesn’t know. But why isn’t that so ..read more

Casey Smitherman made national headlines in 2019 when it was revealed that she took a sick student to a clinic without parental consent and used her son’s name and insurance to purchase prescription medication for the student.  An investigation also revealed that Smitherman purchased the student some clothing and helped clean the student’s home leading residents in Elwood and beyond to wonder about the true nature of her relationship with the student. Smitherman spoke to CBS about her actions and said, “I would really like to go back and revisit that moment and change it, but I can’t.” Ac ..read more

School districts across the nation are asking, where are the parents? I’ve been doing the work of family and community engagement for six years, and I can tell you that parents are present. They are working. They are contributing, raising, and supporting their families. One thing that I remind people of is perspective. There are a large number of variables as to why parental presence is lacking in many failing and low-performing schools. We have parents who were teenage parents, other parents who are products of failing school districts—with low literacy rates and high dropout rates—and p ..read more