Dirk Tillotson

Dirk Tillotson is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Great Schools Choices, which supports community-based charter school development and increasing access for underserved families. He has worked for over 20 years supporting mostly charter community schools in Oakland, New Orleans and New York City, and he’s even consulted on education issues in the Middle East. As a child, his parents moved their family to a high-performing school district where they were the first Black family on the block. The challenges of that experience embedded in him a desire to create academically high-quality schools where students don’t have to check their identities at the door. Dirk currently resides in Oakland, California, and blogs at Great School Voices.

Posts By Dirk Tillotson

California

Better Late Than Never, OUSD Commits to Housing on Unused Properties

In California, growing numbers of school districts are putting their vacant land and buildings to work to house vulnerable students and families. In November, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD)...

California

How Low Will Standards Go for Underserved Parents? Oakland Families Are About to Find Out.

“My baby wants to go to Stanford,” an irate grandmother told me, “and this is what they give me.” She sent me a series of texts with her grandson’s teacher, demanding to know why she wasn’t told that...

California

Some Kids Need a Brick and Mortar School. I Know Because I Was One of Them.

The most terrifying and dangerous experiences I had as a child were at home. I am not alone. My mother battled demons and heard voices, including those telling her to kill her child. An innocent game...

California

Without Internet Access, Our Most Vulnerable Children Are Locked Outside the Digital Schoolhouse Door

Philadelphia's problem is America’s problem. If you want to go to school, see a doctor, apply for a job, enroll in training or receive government benefits—you need a computer and an internet...

Student Voice

Haifa Was Forced to Choose Between Her Faith and School, She Chose Faith

There are students who admire the change and influence of great women in history. And then there are students who use their own influence to make history themselves. Haifa is one of those students....

California

14 Percent of Your Students Have an Actual Plan to Commit Suicide

Fourteen percent of your students have a suicide plan. Thirty-one percent report suicidal thoughts, but 14 percent of them actually have a plan. One in 10 female students report being forced to have...

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