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Today, the Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC), together with the Opportunity to Learn Campaign, launches Solutions Not Suspensions, a national campaign calling for a moratorium on out-of-school suspensions. Teaching Tolerance supports this initiative.

I am intellectually aware of Paola’s poverty. Nine out of 10 students at our school come from families whose income level meets the federal poverty guidelines. Paola, an immigrant from El Salvador, is one of them. The first-grader lives in a small apartment with her grandma, mom, sister and uncle. Combined, the adults earn less than $26,170 a year.

"When you went downtown, did you see a hobo?" The tone was mocking with a giggle at the end. I cringed. Turning around, I saw one of my students: a young girl with freckles and a polka dot bow in her hair. She was a student who always had a smile to share, was the first to offer an extra pencil if anyone lacked and was always willing to help others. The callousness of her remark was out of character. I wondered if she was repeating something that someone else had said. Perhaps she just thought hobo was a funny word.

When Gary enrolled in her class, my friend Mary was warned that he had an attitude problem. But on his first day in her high school basic art class, she soon realized that Gary's main problem was the attitudes of certain other students.

Conversations about religious diversity can happen in the classroom. Start by making a safe space where folks can tell their stories and share their religious identities.

The young activists who emerged from the Parkland, Florida, school shooting offer educators a tremendous opportunity to celebrate the power of youth activism—past and present.

Tracking and ability grouping remain common practices in schools across the country despite research showing these practices contribute to segregated classes and opportunity gaps. In Walla Walla, Washington, a group of educators decided to try something different.

Mia can't understand why the new kid, Amena, seems sad. But she learns that a little empathy goes a long way.