Giving Compass' Take:

• In this video from Chalkbeat, a school counselor in Detroit discusses how educators must be cognizant of social justice issues and strive to create more equity.

• Are we confronting the issues of race directly in our districts? How can we do so in a constructive, meaningful way?

• Here's how we can improve disciplinary practices to create more equity in education.

When Joy Mohammed said she wanted to be the LeBron James of school counseling, she didn’t mean she wanted a guaranteed spot in the hall of fame. She meant that she wanted to join a team that no one believed in — a team with all the odds stacked against it — and still win.

As Mohammed sees it, her teammates were students at Detroit’s Western International High School, where the counselor saw herself as a “covert operator against latent racism.” against racism. At Western, where 90 percent of students are black or Latino, Mohammed worked to make sure students saw their heritage reflected in their education, from the music at the homecoming dance to the English curriculum in the classroom.

Mohammed’s tales of life inside Detroit schools make up the last installment in a series of four videos recorded at “Tale the Teacher,” a storytelling event co-sponsored by Chalkbeat in October. Educators took the stage at the event to share what they’ve seen from the front of the classroom — or, in Mohammed’s case, from inside the counseling office at one of Detroit’s largest high schools.

Read the full article about educators as civil rights activists by Koby Levin at Chalkbeat.