Cultivating Success: Empowering African American Students through Equity, Inclusion, and Academic Achievement

Karen Ward • Cahn Fellow 2022

The Manchester Avenue Elementary school-wide End of Year Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) data revealed that only 58% of our students were proficient readers.  Once we drilled down to subgroup data, we quickly learned that 50% of our African-American students lacked foundational reading skills.  We had to act on behalf of these deserving students and we had to act quickly.  In our ongoing commitment to improving achievement for African-American students, we used the Black Student Achievement Plan as a vehicle to implement a multi-tiered approach that addressed the academic and social-emotional needs of our most vulnerable students.  By acknowledging and valuing their cultural backgrounds, we attempted to create a learning environment that fosters equity, inclusivity, engagement, and academic achievement.  This problem of practice examined African-American student performance on DIBELS, and building teacher capacity.  The findings suggest that the implementation of a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS), rigorous professional development, and meeting student’s social-emotional needs will yield positive results.