R. Rakeem Miller, Sr. is an educator with a passion for urban education and a heart for empowering students, families and fellow educators. He is also a husband and a father who is devoted to his family.
He has served as a social studies teacher for the past 6 years in Camden City charter schools. He has experience teaching social studies to grades 5 through 12, mentoring first-year teachers, coaching, writing curricula, facilitating professional development and as an assistant principal of school-wide discipline. Currently, he is a director of a federally funded after-school program in the Woodbury City school district.
Mr. Miller is honored to be married to his wife of 7 years. Their union has yielded 4 beautiful children. He and his family currently reside in Southern, New Jersey.
Mr. Miller is also an author of two books and a contributor to one book. He is the author of The Double D's of Destruction: How Our Distracted and Desensitized Consciousness Is Destroying Our Communities and Failing Our Children and The Cooper Street Offense: A Philosophy for Reaching, Teaching and Discipling Black and Hispanic/Latino Students in Inner City Schools. He is a contributor in Black Male Teachers: Diversifying the United States' Teacher Workforce.
He is a graduate of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey with a B.A. in Political Science and an M.P.A. in Public Policy and Administration. Currently, he is pursuing a doctoral degree in Public Affairs and Community Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
You cannot effectively serve urban students and engage with urban families if you are unwilling to go where they live. I don’t mean that you have to do a house visit for every student that you teach. However, you should know the neighborhoods where your students live and […]
For the most part I'm a very easy-going person. However one of the things that I cannot tolerate is being disrespected by an colleague or superior. I don’t tolerate being disrespected by a child either, but I digress. A few years ago, I had a job where I […]
I came into the world of education as a teacher seven years ago. I taught social studies; primarily U.S. and world history. I taught in Camden, New Jersey. The majority of my students were Black and Latino. One of the things I prided myself on was teaching students […]
Months ago, the Education Trust released a report titled Through Our Eyes which detailed the experiences and feelings of Black teachers in American public schools. The revelations that Black teachers made in the report echoes many of the thoughts and feelings that I experienced while in the classroom. […]
One of the more unsettling realities about teaching is being a push-in teacher. A push-in teacher is a one who doesn't have their own classroom and uses an “open” classroom when it is their period to teach. Rather than sharing a classroom with another teacher, an administrator decides […]
I recently read a thread on Twitter regarding two Black children and their discomfort with their teacher’s usage of the N-word during a lesson. Long story short, a White teacher, in a room of mostly White students, in an attempt to teach about the N-word (the lesson objective […]
With the changing demographics of America’s student population, the teaching demographic in America’s schools must change with it. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, non-White teachers represent only 19% of the teaching workforce; Blacks make up 6.8% and Latinos only 7.8%. There is scholarship that articulates the […]
Where Race and Sport Intersect at the Point of Commentary
A blog on race, equity, and urban education
... A Strong Rhyme to Step To
"To sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth."
Navigating Inner City Ministry in Real Time
Fatherhood at the corner of Faith and Fragility
