The King School Experience:

An Innovative Approach to Address 
the Black-White Achievement Gap

by Peggy Patten NPIN Parent News

President Bush's campaign to "Leave No Child Behind" challenges educators to consider the performance of all students in our nation's schools. Up to now, it has been clear that our educational system works better for some students than for others. In particular, an achievement gap exists between Black and White students, between children from wealthy and poor families, and between those for whom English is a second language and those for whom English is a first language. The most troubling news of all is that these achievement gaps appear to be widening.

Consider the achievement gap between Black and White students. Test scores of Black students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are lower than those of their White counterparts in math and reading at all grade levels. The achievement gaps are greater than they were in the late 1980s [10]. Other measures underscore the disparity of school experiences between Black and White students. Black students are three times as likely to drop out of school and twice as likely to be suspended from school as White students. Black students are over represented in special education classes and underrepresented in college preparatory classes in U.S. high schools. In many of our nation's cities, there are more Black men in prison than in college [6; 9].

Various theories are offered to explain the achievement gap between Black and White students. Differences in available school resources, parenting styles, and peer culture are cited as contributing factors. Teaching style and teacher expectations of students are known to influence student achievement [3; 6; 8; 11]. In addition, the quality of instruction affects academic achievement. Some teachers with deep content knowledge of the subjects they teach and teachers with strong verbal skills have been successful at closing the achievement gap [4]. We also know that poverty contributes to the disparity in school performance but is not solely responsible for all of the differences between Black and White students [13]. It may be that underlying factors creating an achievement gap vary with the unique characteristics of student populations and school cultures.

Many schools across the United States have instituted reforms at the school and classroom level to address the achievement gap. Parent News interviewed Principal David Adcock and fifth-grade teacher Carolyn Brown of Martin Luther King, Jr., Elementary School in Urbana, Illinois (http://www.cmi.k12.il.us/Urbana/king/), about a unique initiative they have implemented to address the educational needs of the school's African American students.

The African American teachers and staff at King School came together to brainstorm approaches to help their school's African American students (and African American male students in particular) experience more success in their schoolwork. Some of the teachers were familiar with successful school initiatives in Detroit and Milwaukee that had focused on the needs of African American males.

During the school years 2000 and 2001, King School developed a program for fourth- and fifth-grade African American students. The lead teachers for the classes were African American, and a majority of the students were male. The new program supplemented the standard fourth- and fifth-grade school district curriculum with the SETCLAE curriculum. SETCLAE, which stands for Self Esteem through Culture Leads to Academic Excellence, applies an African-centered approach to curriculum content. For example, the SETCLAE curriculum acknowledges the contributions of African American authors, scientists, and mathematicians more frequently than does the traditional curriculum.

In addition to its curricular components, the SETCLAE program emphasizes civic and community responsibility. Prominent African American community members (most of whom were male) were invited to class on a weekly basis to talk with the students about their work. The fourth- and fifth-grade students were also paired as mentors with younger students at King School. Another component separate from the SETCLAE class consisted of weekly classes in African American culture. Parents and community members who volunteered to participate in the model program at King School occasionally came together over lunchtime and in programs after school to extend the experience for students.

One of the most powerful changes King School staff saw as a result of this new program was the increased level of confidence and leadership among participating African American students, especially during the weekly discussions with community speakers. As more students developed confidence and assumed leadership roles, many became more serious about their academic performance. In some cases, students who previously had experienced behavior problems volunteered to participate in academic competitions and performed well in those scholastic events. Experiencing a classroom climate that was more attuned to the needs of African American students and having regular contact with positive adult role models in their community helped some students forge a new identity that valued school success.

King School staff learned several lessons from this new approach to educating their African American students. First, while they were pleased with the outcomes of their two-year initiative in the fourth and fifth grades, they recognized the need to implement many of the classroom approaches earlier, when children begin kindergarten.

Second, the initiative worked, they believe, because it grew from a need identified by their staff and parents. It was a bottom-up approach, not a top-down mandate. Local ownership of this approach was extremely important to its success.

Third, the experience of the new approach underscored the value of thinking "outside the box" and trying a new approach. Some staff members and parents were skeptical about having a class that targeted a single group such as African American males. In the end, they trusted the insights and professional judgment of the teachers at King School who carried this idea forward, and they tried to remain open to new ways of working with students.

Finally, the experience reminded King School staff of two essential tenets of education: (1) Different instructional styles are often needed for different students, and (2) students' learning styles and teachers' instructional styles are culturally influenced.

Although the model program for African American students is no longer offered at King School, many aspects of the model have been maintained, such as the weekly "Students of African Ancestry" culture classes and the Umoja Leadership Curricula designed by the African American Community Empowerment Program for the intermediate grades. Some teachers in each of the grade levels at King School have begun to incorporate some of the SETCLAE curriculum elements into their classes. Most importantly, teachers at King School continue to meet to discuss their own experiences and best practices with African American students. By doing so, they hope to help all teachers, regardless of ethnic background, expand their repertoire of instructional methods that work for all students.

One aspect of the King School initiative for its African American students was assigning students to classes with African American teachers. Research by Thomas Dee, an economics professor at Swarthmore College, supports the academic benefits to African American students who are assigned to teachers of their race. Dee analyzed test score results from Tennessee's Project STAR class-size initiative, which randomly paired students and teachers in the participating schools. Dee tracked students from kindergarten through third grade. Ninety-four percent of the White students and 45% of the Black students in Dee's study were in classrooms with teachers of their own race. Dee found that students who had a teacher of the same race for at least one of the four years studied scored 3-4 percentile points higher on standardized tests of math and reading than peers who were never assigned to teachers of the same race during the four-year period studied. The race effects were especially strong for poor children and for Black students. Dee could not say whether students did better because they saw their teachers as role models or because teachers treated students differently in some way [2; 12].

Dee's findings and the King School experience present challenges for teacher recruitment. Minorities have historically been underrepresented in teaching. Minority children constitute 40% of elementary and secondary enrollment in the United States, yet minority teachers make up just 13.5% of the teaching force [1; 2].

A teacher does not need to be the same ethnicity as her students, but teachers who share the cultural and ethnic background of students can provide insights that might not otherwise be understood ([3], p. 181; [7]). In her book The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children, Gloria Ladson-Billings argues for changes in our teacher preparation process to help teachers understand the central role of culture and to structure time to observe culturally relevant teaching ([6], Chapter 7).

African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and American Indians account for one-third of the 54 million school children in the United States, a proportion that is predicted to grow to two-thirds over the next 15 years [5]. Diversifying the teaching force and recognizing the role of culturally relevant teaching in the teacher preparation process may help narrow the achievement gap and insure that our educational system leaves no child behind.

For More Information

Inequality at the Starting Gate
http://www.epinet.org/

Closing the Achievement Gap: Principles for Improving the Educational Success of All Students
http://eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/digest/dig169.asp

The Black-White Test Score Gap
http://brookings.nap.edu/books/0815746091/html/1.html#pagetop

Minority Student Achievement Network
http://www.msanetwork.org/aboutus.asp

Add It Up: Using Research to Improve Education for Low-Income and Minority Students
http://www.prrac.org/additup.pdf

Raising Minority Academic Achievement: A Compendium of Education Programs and Practices
http://www.aypf.org/forumbriefs/2001/fb111901.htm

Erasing the Education Gap
http://www.ucc.org/justice/witness/wfj062402.htm

Get Teachers, Parents on Same Page
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1848339p-1845219c.html

The Broad Foundation
http://www.broadfoundation.org

Sources

[1] Borja, Rhea R. (2001). Black state lawmakers target "gap" [Online]. Available: http://www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=14caucus.h21.

[2] Dee, Thomas S. (2001). Teachers, race and student achievement in a randomized experiment [Online]. Available: http://papers.nber.org/papers/W8432.

[3] Delpit, Lisa. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: New. (ERIC Document No. ED387274)

[4] Education Trust. (1998). Good teaching matters: How well-qualified teachers can close the gap [Online]. Available: http://www.edtrust.org/main/documents/k16_summer98.pdf.

[5] Johnston, Robert C., & Viadero, Debra. (2000). Unmet promise: Raising minority achievement [Online]. Available: http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=27gapintro.h19.

[6] Ladson-Billings, Gloria. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (ERIC Document No. ED373128)

[7] Lewis, Mark S. (1996). Supply and demand of teachers of color. Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Teaching and Teacher Education. (ERIC Document No. ED390875)

[8] Lumsden, Linda. (1997). Expectations for students. Eugene, OR: ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management. (ERIC Document No. ED409609)

[9] National Black Caucus of State Legislators. (2001). Closing the achievement gap: Improving educational outcomes for African American children [Online]. Available: http://www.nbcsl.com/news/pdf/cag.pdf.

[10] Sadowski, Michael. (2002). Closing the gap one school at a time [Online]. Available: http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/2001-mj/gap.shtml.

[11] Schwartz, Wendy. (2001). School practices for equitable discipline of African American students. New York: ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education.

[12] Viadero, Debra. (2001). Teachers' race linked to students' scores. Education Week, 21(3), 8.

[13] Walters, Sabrina, & Skertic, Mark. (2001). Achievement gap "not all poverty"; Race is a factor. Available: http://www.suntimes.com/education/nwx-nws-gap15.html.

 

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