This piece illustrates some of the practices/discourses enacted by four displaced Puerto Rican mothers as they strived to support the academic success of their children in the receiving Pennsylvania public school system. The study, couched in Critical Pedagogy and Community Cultural Wealth (CCW), documents (a) the ways mothers supported and…

In this article, the author presents his thoughts, as a teacher activist, on the school closing process in Philadelphia, particularly the effect of the closing process on Beeber Middle School and its response to the closing. The District's Facilities Master Plan originally called for closing 37 schools, Some schools were removed from the closing…

Urban districts throughout the nation are contending with declining enrollment, aging facilities in disrepair, persistently low student achievement, increased competition with charters, and severe fiscal constraints. Philadelphia is a case in point. Over the past year, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) was forced to borrow $304 million…

Philadelphia has a rich history of high school student activism, stretching back to 1967, when 3,500 Philadelphia students walked out of their schools, marched to the Board of Education, and demanded the addition of black history courses taught by black teachers, the removal of police from high schools, and an increase in the hiring of black…

The author, a teacher-activist with Teacher Action Group-Philadelphia (TAG), presents her views on the need for teachers to get involved in the battle for public education. She expresses her concerns about the political games being played to advance a neoliberal agenda that seeks to dispossess students of their right to a quality education and…