More than 65 percent of the School District's students are African American. Yet despite the predominance of African American students in the classroom, a comprehensive curriculum reflective of their heritage has been lacking.
A resolution adopted by the School Reform Commission (SRC) last February has begun to shake up this status quo.
The most talked-about element of the SRC resolution is the new requirement that all Philadelphia high school students complete an African American history class, starting with the graduating class of 2009.
Philadelphia School Reform Commissioner Sandra Dungee Glenn, who is African American, has been a driving force in the District's recent efforts to review its policy on the infusion of African and African American history in the curriculum.
Bolstered by years of pressure and protests from community activists, Dungee Glenn won the support of the District's School Reform Commission for a new set of policies – making Philadelphia the first school district in the country to require students to take an African American studies course.
Memorable protest in 1967
The effort to infuse African American studies into the curriculum dates back at least to the 1960s. Philadelphia was not immune to the wave of Black Power insurgence that washed across the nation during that decade. This was evident when 3,500 students walked out of Philadelphia classrooms on November 17, 1967, to demand an end to cultural exclusion.
That organized action was the most memorable protest for the teaching of African American history in the Philadelphia schools, as it provoked a police riot outside the School Administration building, in which many demonstrators were clubbed. Other demands of the students included the right to wear traditional African clothing and the renaming of several high schools after Black leaders.
The incendiary climate was indicative of many African Americans' expressed desire to affirm their cultural identities.
Concessions were made on the School District's behalf in 1968 when Superintendent Mark Shedd mandated the infusion of African American history throughout the curriculum. In the two years that followed, the District supported this directive by creating a nine-point implementation plan, an African and African American Curriculum Specialist position and an African American Resource Center. However, the intent of the policy was never fully realized.
According to Dungee Glenn, there have been “attempts to put African American history on the side, never as a central issue. It's never been infused in our curriculum.”
This failure motivated her to begin working on a focused African and African American history initiative three years ago. As an alumna of Girls High, she recalls being frustrated in high school when – no matter what the subject – little was included in class discussions about people who looked like her.
Dungee Glenn recollects her ninth grade world history teacher glossing over Egypt and providing no context about the “beige people” portrayed in the text.
As she visited schools throughout the city in her SRC role, the commissioner says she observed students' lack of motivation about their education and noted that “not much seemed to have changed.” She attributed this disconnect, in part, to a flawed curriculum that did not reflect African American students' existence.
“There's nothing to ground kids,” she states. “The only messages about Black existence are negative media images.”
To gain a comprehensive perspective on the issue, she began to review research on the nexus between self-esteem and student performance and concluded that self-esteem “really did have a link to academic outcomes,” along with teacher perceptions.
She notes, “History gives people a sense of themselves and who they were and what they have become. It gives a sense of where they fit in. Most people have a slavery perception [about African Americans].” Therefore, it is “important to correct misconceptions and misperceptions that most people have of people of African descent.”
Winning over the commission
According to Dungee Glenn, she “did not have to do any convincing” of her fellow SRC members. “I think folks kind of got it.” School District CEO Paul Vallas was always supportive of the initiative and believed the SRC should make the final decision related to the proposed mandate, the commissioner says. She also cites the key role of community activists: “It shows what's possible when the will is behind it.”
On February 16, 2005, the School Reform Commission unanimously passed SRC-1, which mandates an African and African American history course in all high schools by September 2005. This year's entering Class of 2009 is the first required to take the course for graduation, with the District recommending that it be offered in the sophomore year.
Dungee Glenn says that the mandatory high school history class allows a “specialized focus in the context of world and American history.” The commissioner notes that African American history is a “particularly important component of [world and American history] and therefore should be a separate course at the high school level.”
Though attention has been focused on the mandatory history course, the February SRC resolution contains two additional directives to improve the academic achievement of African American students – districtwide infusion of African American studies in grades K-12 and the development of a comprehensive plan for narrowing the racial “achievement gap” (see SRC Resolution).
According to the resolution, the stipulated infusion is designed to “ensure that all students and teachers gain intellectual respect for children of African descent.”
The SRC resolution requires the District to use internal and external experts for its comprehensive plan to close the achievement gap for all racial and ethnic subgroups.
Instructional and leadership staff is to be diversified, and professional development that highlights successful teaching and learning styles, particularly for African American males, is to be instituted. The comprehensive plan must also “identify the causes and provide remedies for the over-representation of African American and Latino males in special education.”
Dungee Glenn is confident about the outcomes the resolution will produce. She maintains that the District has the infrastructure to support the resolution's implementation, and based on the professional development, textbooks, and research she has reviewed, “There is rigor to ensure that it is done well.”
She specifically credits the work of District Chief Academic Officer Gregory Thornton and African and African American Curriculum Specialist Dana King for providing the needed academic rigor.
CEO Vallas is obligated to provide the SRC with updates on the progress of the issues outlined in the resolution every 120 days, until satisfactory progress has been made.
Controversy and interest
Since the unanimous February vote affirming the resolution, there has been local, national and international interest, with school districts in California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Wisconsin examining the initiative in Philadelphia. Dungee Glenn has even been contacted by Silvia Galleta, the Secretary of Education for the state of São Paolo in Brazil.
Aside from a few SRC speakers who expressed disagreement with the mandatory course and one caller on the commissioner’s WURD-AM radio show, School Days, the direct response Dungee Glenn has received has been overwhelmingly positive, she says.
But there are opponents to the policy – most visibly Pennsylvania House Speaker John Perzel and Chester Finn of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (see Mandated African American history draws strong reactions). Both have argued that the resolution, by elevating the history of one group, discriminates against and minimizes other cultures whose history is not mandated.
However, Dungee Glenn maintains that just because the District’s world and American history courses are not named for particular racial groups does not mean they are not also racialized.
Dungee Glenn states that the goal of the course is “to bring onto the world stage the history of a continent that has been deliberately excluded – the history of an entire race that has been excluded.”
Dungee Glenn believes the content of the new course is important to cover regardless of districts’ racial composition because there is a need to be “honest with children and honest in education.” And, in the past, she says, the School District of Philadelphia has presented “misinformation and outright lies.”
She adds, “Given the predominance of African American children in this district, it took on added importance in my eyes that it be a strong and central focus in our curriculum.”
The African American Resource Center, created in 1970 and dismantled a few years ago, no longer exists to provide support to teachers and schools to ensure that African and African American history is embedded in the curriculum. However, Dungee Glenn says she is “much happier that we’ve moved to implementing a course, even though we have not had a formal office, than [with] having an office and not having any implementation.”
As a policymaker, the commissioner says she took a perspective based on her own background. She adds that she would not stand in the way of other groups’ efforts related to curricular inclusion – but that does not mean similar efforts would start with her.
She believes “this course is a very appropriate response to [the] needs of children’s education right here and right now. Perhaps five years from now we’ll be able to blend, infuse and include more critical elements.”
“This course will get more scrutiny to make sure that it’s accurate and not about self-promotion,” she adds.
The commissioner is quick to emphasize that she is concerned about education for all students, and the African and African American history mandate is just one of many things she has fought for within educational reform.
“Having young people graduate and lead productive lives” is how Dungee Glenn describes her fundamental focus, and she says she “aggressively supports whatever helps that happen.”