On Thursday, December 16th the Baltimore City Council held a virtual, public hearing about City Schools students’ experience commuting to and from school on MDOT MTA transit featuring testimony from Baltimore students.
The Baltimore Campaign for Grade Level Reading (GLR), an initiative of the Fund’s focused on engaging families in their child’s literacy development, is evolving. The Fund is transitioning GLR to expand and reimagine the work to focus on family engagement for all grade bands and academic areas.
The Fund’s Program Director Angelique Jessup; Shana McIver, Director of Family Engagement at City Schools; and Nerissa Holder Hall, founder of Mirror Mirror Books, discuss “Back-to-School Readiness” and “How to Set Children Up for School Success” on Straight Talk with Mike Gimbel.
The initial response to our latest report, NOT IN SERVICE, has been impassioned and encouraging, with local media helping to spread the word about a pressing set of issues that will require cooperation between local government, the MTA, and City Schools to identify and implement solutions.
A year ago, the Fund asked Baltimore City Public Schools students, teachers, and principals to share their experience shifting to distance learning. In this blog series, the Fund followed up with the same individuals for their perspective on the 2020-2021 school year.
Dr. Katrina Foster, principal of Hampden Elementary/Middle School, describes the challenges and uncertainty she faced while leading her school community through uncharted waters.
Wyatt Oroke, a middle school teacher at City Springs Elementary/Middle School, explains that it’s important to learn from this past year and rethink how we can provide a more equitable education system for all students.
LaQuisha Hall, City Schools’ 2018 Teacher of the Year, shares some of her insights since transitioning from her role as a classroom educator to a teacher leader coach.
Sidney Thomas, a Holabird Academy teacher, shares her view that the existing inequities exposed in the US educational system during this pandemic are a direct result of structural racism—where policies, practices and norms uphold white supremacy.
Kyair Butts, a Waverly Elementary/Middle School teacher, shares a message with his fellow educators acknowledging how they rose to the challenges of this school year.
