By Maya Pottiger, Word In Black As students around the country begin heading back to school, they’re being told that this year will be “normal” again, referring to classes being in-person and likely mask-less. But it won’t be normal for LGBTQ students. In fact, it will likely be one of the furthest from normal school […]
Author Archives: Maya Pottiger Word in Black
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#WordinBlack: It’s back-to-school time. Here’s what teachers need
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black This time of year, social media feeds are flooded with teachers posting lists of supplies they need for their classrooms and asking for the public’s help to ensure students have everything from art supplies and calculators to books and reading bean bags. #ClearTheList, as the hashtag goes, along with […]
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#WordinBlack: Here’s why Black kids need Black books
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black While browsing the gift shop at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, librarian Kathy Lester watched a young Black girl grab a book and run up to her parents. Holding it up to them, the girl told them she’d read it at school, and it was […]
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#WordinBlack: Boosting adult literacy rates in the Black community
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black While at the library making copies one day in 2018, Gregory Hill looked up and saw a sign that read “Adult Literacy Center: Read, Learn Help.” At 65 years old, he thought his chances of fulfilling his lifelong dream of learning to read and write were “pretty slim.” That […]
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#WordinBlack: Black parents are more involved in their children’s education than ever
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black School buses stopped running, classrooms turned virtual, and the traditional education system turned upside down. In the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the days of parents and guardians sending kids off to school and not reuniting until dinnertime were over. Instead, many families were holed up inside, 24 […]
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#WordinBlack: What happens to Black kids when record numbers of teachers quit?
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every aspect of our lives, but there’s one that has taken an incredibly dramatic hit: schooling. First, there was the shift to virtual learning, which had its own ups and downs. Then came the debates over how soon students should return to in-person learning, […]
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#WordinBlack: Should Black parents trust schools to teach their kids how to read?
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black Between summer camp, family vacations, and partaking in some well-deserved rest and relaxation, reading is often not at the top of students’ list of summer priorities. But it should be. Though reading achievements have improved in nearly every grade level since Spring 2021, they still aren’t quite reaching pre-pandemic […]
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Here’s what Charter enrollment numbers tell about Black students
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black During the pandemic, we’ve seen an exodus of teachers from public schools, but it turns out educators aren’t the only ones ditching traditional K-12 education institutions. In the first year of the pandemic, there was a 3 percent drop in public school enrollment, bringing the number of students in […]
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#WordinBlack: Here’s what you need to know about critical race theory
By Maya Pottiger, Word In Black The term “critical race theory” has been in the news a lot lately. If you’re confused about what it means – or too afraid to ask at this point – here’s what you need to know. What is critical race theory? Very simply, critical race theory is the idea […]
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#WordinBlack: Why many Black teachers likely won’t return to the classroom
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black Even though school has been out for a few weeks, Monise Seward is still tired. Though she’s working night hours at a part-time job to keep an income through the summer, she attributes her continued exhaustion to her full-time gig: teaching. In fact, she views the night shift as […]
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#WordinBlack: Survey found Black adults ‘satisfied’ with direction of the country, up 10 points from previous results.
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black The November Temperature Check found that 52 percent of Black adults are “satisfied” with the direction the country is heading in. This is a 10-point increase from the September results. Since then, three white men were convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, the unemployment rate for Black adults in the […]
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#WordinBlack: Meet the Black literary society helping high schoolers fall in love with books
By Maya Pottiger, Word in Black For two hours on Friday afternoons, a group of high school students split between Stockton and Sacramento, California, hop on Zoom to discuss the book they’re reading. Though they’ve never gathered in person, these students have created a space where they feel comfortable being vulnerable and engaging in enthusiastic […]