I’m the principal of a K-8 school serving students and families in a high-poverty community. When I first joined my school community, we were on the brink of closing. But in the last few years, my team and I have empowered our students to grow from the 18th percentile in math to reach and surpass […]

At the start of the pandemic, one major adjustment we had to make was accepting that the new challenges weren’t going to end quickly. For me, the hardest part has been trying to maintain a sense of consistency and community. As my team faces each new challenge, I try to bring our work back to […]

Seeing the school from a student’s perspective sharpens all of my decisions.

Promoting achievement means making sure every student has champions at school. Here’s my approach.

Over the past several years, Baltimore City Public Schools has been working to transform schools and communities by fully implementing restorative practices (RP).  As leader Karen Webber puts it, RP has been a primary tool in working to end the school-to-prison pipeline, advocating for students in crisis and reducing arrests and suspensions across the city […]

As your school year gets under way, we wanted to share some favorite #PrincipalHacks from your fellow leaders, covering everything from family connections to must-have supplies. Thank you for everything you’re doing to support teachers and students right now – from big undertakings to small, meaningful “hacks.”

As my district’s director of equity and inclusion, I know how much school leaders care about promoting success for every student, beginning on the very first day of school. This year is off to a complicated start, and I also know that it can be easy to feel like we’re already behind on planning anti-racist […]

My journey with restorative practices is similar to that of a lot of folks who believe in the power of student relationships.  After years as a teacher, assistant principal and then as a principal in Baltimore, I’d seen the impact that investing in relationships can have on school culture and on students’ futures, and I […]

“When our students are planning their futures, they count on the adults in their school communities for guidance. But for many of us, our own college application experiences happened a long time ago – and career and college planning processes have changed immensely. We might be able to tell our students, ‘Back when I was […]

Take a community approach to boosting FAFSA completion and increasing opportunity.