Closing The Gap On Assimilation and Gentrification in a Title I Middle School

Amanda McDonald • Cahn Fellow 2022

As a turnaround school, we have focused on creating an environment that celebrates and empowers culture.  As we have found success and been celebrated in the district as a highlight for building and maintaining a positive student culture, we have found that our classrooms are still struggling to engage students in their academics. Students prefer to spend time outside of the classroom versus with their teachers learning. As we explored schools where academics are thriving, they were either white and privileged students or the school's culture is rooted in assimilation practices. We have little to no examples of schools who found academic success, as well as an increase in enrollment, that didn’t participate in gentrifying or assimilating  the school culture. 

Learn about the methods we used to invest in rigorous planning processes rooted in student's interests, and how it allowed students to begin to build and sustain a positive academic mindset. Through creating a culturally responsive academic culture, students feel invested and centered in their success thus positively impacting student achievement. Come alongside us on the journey to dismantle historical systems of inequity one step at a time, one system at a time. Always forward.