African Centered Education Initiative at the Madison Metropolitan School District:
Culturally Relevant Education for All
Culturally Relevant Education for All
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 2 of 2
Several years ago, on any given Saturday morning during the academic year, one
could find Andreal Davis — now the assistant director for equity and family
involvement — and other teachers from Lincoln Elementary School and the Madison
Metropolitan School District (MMSD) teaching dozens of children at the African
American Academic Academy (AAEA). After reciting together “I Am Somebody,” a
motivational poem written by Davis, the students would focus on reading, math, music,
art and other subjects by infusing the work that they were doing with relevant
information about African American history and culture. By the end of the three hour
sessions, the students were academically charged.
Most of the teachers have left AAEA, but it has arisen in African Centered
Education (ACE) that Davis and others have been working on in MMSD for the past few
years. During the current school year, the ACE philosophy is being used at Falk,
Part 2 of 2
Several years ago, on any given Saturday morning during the academic year, one
could find Andreal Davis — now the assistant director for equity and family
involvement — and other teachers from Lincoln Elementary School and the Madison
Metropolitan School District (MMSD) teaching dozens of children at the African
American Academic Academy (AAEA). After reciting together “I Am Somebody,” a
motivational poem written by Davis, the students would focus on reading, math, music,
art and other subjects by infusing the work that they were doing with relevant
information about African American history and culture. By the end of the three hour
sessions, the students were academically charged.
Most of the teachers have left AAEA, but it has arisen in African Centered
Education (ACE) that Davis and others have been working on in MMSD for the past few
years. During the current school year, the ACE philosophy is being used at Falk,
Hawthorne, Lowell and Mendota Elementary Schools.
As Davis was refining and honing the ACE principles and philosophy for use in MMSD schools, she used cultural immersion
techniques to give her original cohort of teachers an understanding of culture and cultural identity.
“We went to Atlanta to study best practices and models at the National Black Child Development Institute conference,” Davis said.
“We went on several site visits and we went to visit Morehouse College. People saw African American males being successful and
being proud of who they were and standing on a similar philosophy that we were operating under. Teachers were studying Black
communication forms, call and response, looking at the use of the body and eyes and proverbs and oral storytelling. It allowed people to
have a cultural immersion in their studies focusing on specific areas. The idea behind that trip was to immerse teachers in workshops
and have them rub elbows with scholars around cultural relevance, but also provide them with some historical site visits that solidified
the information we were trying to convey to them about the importance of looking at culture and placing culture at the center.”
Michelle Belnavis, an instructional resource teacher, is part of Davis’ team. In her work on literacy, Belnavis ended up working
with many African American students and she thought a lot about how culture impacts learning.
“In using the district initiatives of balanced literacy, reading and writing, traits of a reader and a writer, I was able to think about
ways where cultural relevance and practices of your instruction can be married to those district initiatives and woven throughout
those,” Belnavis said. “So in doing that work, I was then able this year to expand my horizons a little bit more and just focus on the
cultural relevance piece. So now the district initiative for literacy is called a comprehensive literacy model. We are using that model in
a way where we are really making sure and certain that cultural relevance is in the center of that model. And before you are able to
instruct and teach any child, you have to be able to have that piece of identity where you are developing engagement and motivation and
that student is being engaged in what you are teaching now. So in this role, I am able now to use the literacy component, cultural
relevance practices and join those in a way where we are meeting the whole child’s needs.”
It is said that the language is the culture and culture is the language. In the ACE model, teachers learn the student’s culture —
especially as it relates to language — respect it and use it to provide instruction. So with African American children, ACE is cognizant of
children’s speech patterns and how they can be measured in different ways that many teachers are not accustomed to. Davis worked
with one instructional resource teacher at Hawthorne last school year and now Belnavis is continuing the work there.
“Andreal’s training helped them by developing some interventions that can be used when you are actually instructing children in
literacy,” Belnavis said. You use different kinds of protocols, different ways that you use their language to help guide your instruction,
how you talk about home language and school language and when and where you use that. Teachers need to be able to validate how
they instruct children with their language when they validate their home language and then teach them how to code switch to school
language.”
While ACE originally focused on African American children, Davis and her team are kicking it up to the next level, evolving the
model to be relevant to each culture that the teacher encounters. “It is our hope that we actually have a model created where again
culture is at the center and you are able to use many cultures or move in and out of several cultures with the model that we’ve created,”
Davis said. “It is our hope to start with what we know and we are fluent in and be able to share that with other people. And grow this to
a place where we will be able meet students from many cultures. So in our division of equity and family involvement, we have Title VII
Indian education. We’re looking to hire a Latino family involvement coordinator. We have a Hmong community liaison. It is our hope that
we will be able to explore more commonalities and have people be able to become fluent in working with several or many groups of
students.”
ACE is not a six training wonder and then teachers are certified to be culturally relevant teachers. Rather it is a life-long philosophy
of learning. “We looked at six specific areas: African American language development, family involvement, Black communications,
classroom management, teaching from a set of African-centered principles and culturally relevant literacy practices. We are life-time
learners of cultural fluency. You continuously immerse yourself with site visits, with school visits, with people in the community, with
guest speakers, with conferences and workshops, with reading, articles and book studies, living the principles that we are teaching. So
it is a life-long journey. That’s the idea that we used when we rolled it out last year. Teachers choose one strand of the six areas that
they want to delve deeply into each year.”
At Falk Elementary School, there is a sense of déjà vu as the children walk down the corridor with flags, enter their classroom and
recite “I Am Somebody” in a circle. All of the students, regardless of their cultural background, shout the words, the poem’s meaning
having cultural relevance for each of the children in his or her own way.
“One of the things that we learned in ACE was to also have morning meetings or Harambee time,” said Amanda Agboka, a music
teacher at Lowell Elementary. “It is just a time of unity and community to start the day off and to remind us that we have a purpose by
saying affirmations, instilling in the kids that they have an identity and education is important and that they are here for a purpose and a
reason.”
These are values shared by all cultures, each in their own way. And through the emphasis on those culturally relevant values, the
ACE team hopes to have a positive impact on the education of all students in the Madison public schools.
As Davis was refining and honing the ACE principles and philosophy for use in MMSD schools, she used cultural immersion
techniques to give her original cohort of teachers an understanding of culture and cultural identity.
“We went to Atlanta to study best practices and models at the National Black Child Development Institute conference,” Davis said.
“We went on several site visits and we went to visit Morehouse College. People saw African American males being successful and
being proud of who they were and standing on a similar philosophy that we were operating under. Teachers were studying Black
communication forms, call and response, looking at the use of the body and eyes and proverbs and oral storytelling. It allowed people to
have a cultural immersion in their studies focusing on specific areas. The idea behind that trip was to immerse teachers in workshops
and have them rub elbows with scholars around cultural relevance, but also provide them with some historical site visits that solidified
the information we were trying to convey to them about the importance of looking at culture and placing culture at the center.”
Michelle Belnavis, an instructional resource teacher, is part of Davis’ team. In her work on literacy, Belnavis ended up working
with many African American students and she thought a lot about how culture impacts learning.
“In using the district initiatives of balanced literacy, reading and writing, traits of a reader and a writer, I was able to think about
ways where cultural relevance and practices of your instruction can be married to those district initiatives and woven throughout
those,” Belnavis said. “So in doing that work, I was then able this year to expand my horizons a little bit more and just focus on the
cultural relevance piece. So now the district initiative for literacy is called a comprehensive literacy model. We are using that model in
a way where we are really making sure and certain that cultural relevance is in the center of that model. And before you are able to
instruct and teach any child, you have to be able to have that piece of identity where you are developing engagement and motivation and
that student is being engaged in what you are teaching now. So in this role, I am able now to use the literacy component, cultural
relevance practices and join those in a way where we are meeting the whole child’s needs.”
It is said that the language is the culture and culture is the language. In the ACE model, teachers learn the student’s culture —
especially as it relates to language — respect it and use it to provide instruction. So with African American children, ACE is cognizant of
children’s speech patterns and how they can be measured in different ways that many teachers are not accustomed to. Davis worked
with one instructional resource teacher at Hawthorne last school year and now Belnavis is continuing the work there.
“Andreal’s training helped them by developing some interventions that can be used when you are actually instructing children in
literacy,” Belnavis said. You use different kinds of protocols, different ways that you use their language to help guide your instruction,
how you talk about home language and school language and when and where you use that. Teachers need to be able to validate how
they instruct children with their language when they validate their home language and then teach them how to code switch to school
language.”
While ACE originally focused on African American children, Davis and her team are kicking it up to the next level, evolving the
model to be relevant to each culture that the teacher encounters. “It is our hope that we actually have a model created where again
culture is at the center and you are able to use many cultures or move in and out of several cultures with the model that we’ve created,”
Davis said. “It is our hope to start with what we know and we are fluent in and be able to share that with other people. And grow this to
a place where we will be able meet students from many cultures. So in our division of equity and family involvement, we have Title VII
Indian education. We’re looking to hire a Latino family involvement coordinator. We have a Hmong community liaison. It is our hope that
we will be able to explore more commonalities and have people be able to become fluent in working with several or many groups of
students.”
ACE is not a six training wonder and then teachers are certified to be culturally relevant teachers. Rather it is a life-long philosophy
of learning. “We looked at six specific areas: African American language development, family involvement, Black communications,
classroom management, teaching from a set of African-centered principles and culturally relevant literacy practices. We are life-time
learners of cultural fluency. You continuously immerse yourself with site visits, with school visits, with people in the community, with
guest speakers, with conferences and workshops, with reading, articles and book studies, living the principles that we are teaching. So
it is a life-long journey. That’s the idea that we used when we rolled it out last year. Teachers choose one strand of the six areas that
they want to delve deeply into each year.”
At Falk Elementary School, there is a sense of déjà vu as the children walk down the corridor with flags, enter their classroom and
recite “I Am Somebody” in a circle. All of the students, regardless of their cultural background, shout the words, the poem’s meaning
having cultural relevance for each of the children in his or her own way.
“One of the things that we learned in ACE was to also have morning meetings or Harambee time,” said Amanda Agboka, a music
teacher at Lowell Elementary. “It is just a time of unity and community to start the day off and to remind us that we have a purpose by
saying affirmations, instilling in the kids that they have an identity and education is important and that they are here for a purpose and a
reason.”
These are values shared by all cultures, each in their own way. And through the emphasis on those culturally relevant values, the
ACE team hopes to have a positive impact on the education of all students in the Madison public schools.
Above: MMSD’s Michelle Belnavis (l) and
Andreal Davis
Andreal Davis