education

  • Miss. Sued Over Unequal Education for Black Students 

    Mississippi is being hit with a lawsuit—accused of violating the federal law that allowed the state to rejoin the Union after the Civil War—because of what the lawsuit charges is the unequal education that black students receive. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of four African-American mothers with children in public…

  • Bethune-Cookman President Threatens to Withhold Students’ Degrees Amid Loud Boos for Betsy DeVos

    The NAACP Florida State Conference was right. As Bethune-Cookman University graduates loudly booed U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos during her remarks at the school’s commencement ceremony Wednesday morning, university President Edison Jackson threatened to withhold their degrees. “If this behavior continues,” Jackson said angrily as DeVos uncomfortably stood beside him with a smile frozen on…

  • Eritrean-American Woman Became 1st Blind, Deaf Graduate of Harvard Law School 

    America makes it hard enough for a black woman to succeed at the same rate and pace as other people, and when you add to the mix being born blind and deaf to African immigrants, it would seem that the odds for success become nearly impossible. But Haben Girma beat those odds and then some…

  • Bethune-Cookman University Officials Ought To Be Ashamed Of Themselves

    Bethune-Cookman University, a historically Black university in Daytona Beach, Florida, has invited – and she has accepted – ironically titled Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to be the commencement speaker next week. I’ve read several articles about this because I’ve honestly been trying to understand and what I’ve come up with is that there is…

  • The National Interest: What’s Really Wrong With White Teachers? They’re Racist

    Editor’s note: Once a month, the National Interest column will tackle broader questions about what the country should do to increase educational opportunities for black youths. In recent years, an outburst of national studies (pdf) and exposés have shown that black teachers produce better academic and behavioral outcomes for black students compared with their white…

  • Beyoncé Launches Formation Scholars in Honor of Lemonade Anniversary

    Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter is doing her part to help young women when it comes to their education. In honor of the anniversary of her heralded album Lemonade, the singer announced the creation of the Formation Scholars. Formation Scholars awards will be given out for the 2017-2018 academic year to four women who are “unafraid to…

  • Ron Clark Academy Welcomes Its 5th-Grade Class in the Most Turnt Up Way

    If you don’t know about the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, you should know that not only does the school look like something out of a Harry Potter movie, but its principal and founder, Ron Clark, has some slick dance moves. Last week the academy welcomed its newest fifth-graders in the most lit way. Not…

  • Memphis, Tenn., High School Students Receive $80,000,000 in Scholarship Offers

    Students at Whitehaven High School in Memphis, Tenn., have 80 million reasons to be proud of their academic endeavors because its graduating class has secured more than $80 million in scholarships. Last week the students were honored at their Academic Signing Day, but one student took home the largest piece of the scholarship pie, according…

  • Yes, You Can Measure White Privilege

    Whenever anyone slips the words “white privilege” into a conversation, it immediately builds an impenetrable wall. For some white people, the words elicit an uneasy feeling because, for them, the term is accusatory without being specific. It is a nebulous concept that seemingly reduces the complex mishmash of history, racism and social phenomena to a…

  • Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Just Removed Some Huge Consumer Protections for Student Loan Borrowers

    While we were all distracted by other things Tuesday, Betsy DeVos used her powers as education secretary to roll back some key policy memos issued by the Obama administration that strengthened consumer protections for student loan borrowers. The Washington Post reports that the U.S. Department of Education is in the process of issuing new contracts…