UnPublic with Citizen Stewart

Sharif El-Mekki returns to discuss the Black independent school movement of the 1970s.

And we are live with Nekima Levy-Armstrong discussing her community activism in Minneapolis.

What are we supposed to do with these kids now that they're home? That's the question confronting millions of families who are suddenly homeschooling due to coronavirus school closures. Enter Isis Spann, an educator who focuses on positive pedagogy for students who are poorly served by public schools.

Being the superintendent of a public school district would be hard enough if the job focused solely on educational leadership, but it is so much more than that. Superintendents must be good politicians, business people, human capital experts, and organizational development strategists - and they must do it all under the constant scrutiny of local media. Who would want such a stressful public role? We'll ask Dr. Josh Starr.

Dr. Joshua P. Starr has been the Chief Executive Officer of PDK International since July 2015.

Inga Cotton has been voicing her support of school choice starting in the first semester of college at Trinity University when she wrote her term paper on the subject. Little did she know how important this topic would be to her later in life. She went from student to mom blogger, to nonprofit leader supporting parents with information and insights She joins us to talk about parents *in power.*

There will be disruptions to public schooling over the next year (possibly longer). How should we think about "equity" while struggling with the move to online learning, student assessment, attendance, and special education?

We are joined by Robin Lake, Director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington Bothell. You can find her on Twitter @RbnLake.

The dominant narrative in public education centers on the belief that racial integration "is the only thing that has ever worked." This simple story about "what works" for Black students whitewashes the long history of independent Black education and its liberationist focus.  Shariff El-Mekki, an independently schooled educator joins us to talk about an alternative view of education for Black children.

Dr. Howard Fuller has been an iconic leader in the school reform movement, but he has not been uncritical when the movement falls short of liberating Black communities. We will talk to him about the status of efforts to improve Black education.

This world lost a great advocate for public school integration when Courtney Mykytyn tragically passed away in January 2020. Many memorials were had, articles and blog posts were written and volunteers in the nonprofit she started - Integrated Schools - have tired to process her absence. I didn't want to edit and produce this podcast but promised myself that I would do. So, here it is, my conversation with an advocate.

After a long hiatus from solo podcasting, I'm back - finally. It took a while since I stopped doing the Rock The Schools show, but, I'm back!