There is increasing evidence that students have better academic performance when they are taught by teachers of the same race. However, in the United States this is not often the case, contributing to racial disparities in educational achievement. Dr. Bettina Love explores this dynamic in her new book We Want to Do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, and argues for dismantling tweaks to curriculum and testing that perpetuate inequality in school in favor of what she calls "abolitionist teaching" which draws on the history of the 19th century abolitionist movement, focusing on integrating lessons on racial violence, oppression, resistance, and social change in the classroom.
