ABSTRACT
Schools are notorious for having either no real system of evaluation or one that is not useful to teachers. And teachers are often reluctant to get feedback from students and to use it in productive ways. The authors will share examples for evaluating the quality of student–teacher relationships in the classroom. First, educators must start identifying themselves as white out loud, meaning an observable engagement in conversations about race that include whiteness. They must actively ask how their race is showing up, how it might affect the way they work with colleagues, students, and families. One of the biggest barriers they face is that the vast majority of white teachers believe deeply that they cannot possibly be racist toward their students. In fact, they condemn racism, and so they believe there is no possibility that what they are doing with children could be racist.
