St. Paul Public Schools leaders have teamed up with several community organization leaders and educators to develop a program to help close the educational disparities Black children face through centering culture at the heart of the curriculum.
Executive Chief of Administration and Operations Jackie Turner is helping lead a committee of 17 local leaders and educators to create a program that will focus on the African American experience and weave history and culture throughout the curriculums taught in school.
“The ultimate goal is to look at the long-term success of African American students in the school district,” Turner said. The district plans to run the program through an elementary school that resides in a part of the city accessible to Black families. They will announce the location of the school this spring.
“We’ve looked at demographics of the district to determine if there are certain schools, sites and neighborhoods where a higher percentage of African American students live,” she said.
The committee looked at other programs around the country that implemented the African American experience and culture in their curriculum for students. They’ve built some of their work upon the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School model as one area of reference.
The committee members are made up of district staff, school board members, and leaders from organizations such as the local NAACP chapters, the African American Leadership Council, and the St. Paul Black Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance.
Once the committee reaches the point of finalizing the program scope, they will bring on parents whose children are in the district to weigh in on the curriculum. Many members of the committee have children in SPPS according to Turner, so much of their input comes with that in mind.
One member of the committee is Network for the Development of Children of African Descent (NdCAD) Founder and Executive Director Gevonee Ford, whose organization has focused on developing the literary skills of Black children here in the Twin Cities. “Culture, history and heritage is often the missing component in our education system, specifically when it comes to reaching and teaching and supporting Black children and families,” Ford said.
Some of the questions that came up for Ford during the committee meetings when they worked to develop the programming for students is the cultural backgrounds of teaching staff, how much of an inclusive approach they can have with the broader community, and how they can build upon it once the school is open.
Ford underlined his focus on making sure that children at this school were academically competitive in relation to their peers and allowing them to feel empowered through the coursework.
“Our work has taught us that we have to meet our children where they’re at. We have to shine the light on their strengths, which allows the children then to build on their strengths to fill in any academic gaps that they have,” he said.
He hopes that with the confidence and self-efficacy instilled in students, they’ll work not just to meet the educational standards set but exceed them. While the curriculum in the school will be focused on implementing African American culture in every lesson, there will be no difference in academic standards, according to Turner.
“How it gets implemented will be the difference,” Turner explained. The pedagogy and what is used to teach the children and the professional development that’s used for this group of teachers would look different at this particular program than at a different school.”
As an example, Turner stated that students in a science class would conduct experiments and learn the standardized information that’s required of them, but there would also be a lesson on a relevant African American scientist and the contributions he or she made to the field they’re covering. Historical lessons would be taught primarily through the writings of African American historians.
In looking to expand the interest and engagement from students through this program, she pointed to the success of the Freedom School at SPPS. With a school of roughly 500 students, Turner said that there has been a major change in behavior with the introduction of culturally relevant lessons.
“Negative behaviors decrease. You see engagement heightened, and when educators are taught well on how to use this curriculum in their school or in their classroom, their excitement goes up because they begin to see the connection between the student and the learning,” she explained.
Turner emphasized that the school in question would be a magnet school, meaning no student would have to attend, but rather parents can choose to enroll their children.
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