°ÄÃÅÅܹ·ÂÛ̳ Opinion welcomes commentary from a range of perspectives within the K-12 education community. The following individuals with various roles in education regularly offer their insight and reflections on the field.
Our current bloggers (Peter DeWitt, Larry Ferlazzo, Rick Hess, and Michael Nelson) curate their own content under their respective °ÄÃÅÅܹ·ÂÛ̳ Opinion blogs. While their blogs are lightly moderated by the °ÄÃÅÅܹ·ÂÛ̳ Opinion team, the opinions expressed in their posts are strictly those of the bloggers and do not reflect the opinions or endorsements of °ÄÃÅÅܹ·ÂÛ̳, or any of its publications.
Our frequent opinion contributors (Sharif El-Mekki, S. Kambar Khoshaba, Bettina L. Love, and Jherine Wilkerson) write essays for °ÄÃÅÅܹ·ÂÛ̳ Opinion. Though the views in the essays are also their own, contributors’ essays are reviewed and edited by the °ÄÃÅÅܹ·ÂÛ̳ Opinion team.
Continue reading for more information about who they are and what they write about.
DeWitt is a former public school teacher and principal and the founder and CEO of the . He now facilitates professional learning in the United States and abroad and is the author of many bestselling educational books, including Leading With Intention (Corwin, 2024), which he co-authored with Michael Nelson.
DeWitt also moderates °ÄÃÅÅܹ·ÂÛ̳’s A Seat at the Table, a live, online video conversation and webinar which features experts in the field.
He taught and was an administrator in three schools serving West Philadelphia across his 27-year career. El-Mekki is the founder of the and and helped launch Philly’s 7th Ward blog and the 8 Black Hands podcast.
Ferlazzo is an award-winning English and social studies teacher at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, Calif., and the author or editor of 12 books, includingThe Student Motivation Handbook (Routledge, 2023) and The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox (Wiley, 2018). He also maintains the popular blog.
The director of education policy studies at the (AEI) think tank, Hess is the author of many books, including Getting Education Right: A Conservative Vision for Improving Early Childhood, K–12, and College (Teachers College Press, 2024), which he co-authored with Michael Q. McShane, and A Search for Common Ground: Conversations About the Toughest Questions in K–12 Education (Teachers College Press, 2021), which he co-authored with Pedro A. Noguera.
In addition to his work in the realm of policy, he has taught high school and college.
He is a high school principal in Lorton, Va., who also spent eight years as a middle school principal. He is also the author of the book Pulling Back the Curtain on School Leadership (Lulu.com, 2024).
Love is an award-winning author and professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition, she has authored several books, including most recently Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal (St. Martin’s Press, 2023).
He is a leadership coach and the co-leader of the with Peter DeWitt with whom he co-authored Leading With Intention (Corwin, 2024). Nelson has been a public school educator for more than 40 years, serving as a teacher, principal, curriculum and instruction director, assistant superintendent, and superintendent.
She is currently an art teacher in Fayetteville, Ga and previously taught English/language arts. You can connect with her on or on .