Achievement
Bi-literacy: Reading and writing proficiently in two languages.
Numeracy: A set of math skills that might be used in everyday life; e.g. arithmetic, money, time, etc.
Social Emotional Learning: The process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
Assessment
High Stakes: means that student test scores are used to determine accolades or sanctions for campuses/districts; and advancement or grade promotion (including graduation) for students.
Curriculum & Instruction
- 21st century learning: Core competencies needed to thrive in the age of technology such as collaboration, computational thinking (expressing solutions in a way computers can execute/algorithms), problem solving, critical thinking and digital literacy.
- African American History: The history, culture and contributions of African Americans is America History. This content should be taught daily as it finds its place in all subject areas. In the study of history, African American History should be taught at its origin on the continent of Africa. The majestic kingdoms and the natural wealth should be emphasized. Slaves were not taken from Africa. Highly educated, skilled, and talented men, women and children were taken from Africa and trained to be slaves in the Americas. Slavery must not be taught as the starting point for African American history.
- Arts education: Performing arts such as dance, music, theater, and visual arts such as drawing, painting, sculpture, and design works.
- Classroom Management/Discipline: The wide variety of skills and techniques that teachers use to keep students organized, engaged, creative, focused, attentive, on task, and academically productive during a class. Effective classroom management maximizes student learning.
- Content Knowledge: Mastery of the big ideas and specific concepts in a subject area. Educators must know how to address misconceptions, learning gaps, frustration levels, and real life learning relevancy.
- Cross-cultural communication: Verbal exchange of thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, aspirations and/or ideas in a non-judgmental atmosphere of acceptance between two or more persons from different ethnic backgrounds.
- Culturally Responsive Classroom: An asset-based learning environment where student’s strengths are the springboard for meeting daily objectives. Students learn about African American history and culture are interwoven in daily instruction so students feel seen, valued and empowered. The classroom must be a sanctuary for student dialogue and the free flow of ideas. The student voice should be heard loud and clear. It must be respected, celebrated and cherished. The classroom must be a healthy community anchored in rigor, grit and a challenging, interactive learning environment.
- Diversity: Exploring and incorporating differences along dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, age, ability, religious, political beliefs or sexual orientation to enrich learning and the classroom environment. Differences are valued and viewed as assets.
- Entrepreneurship Education: Entrepreneurship education seeks to provide students with the knowledge, skills, creativity, vision and motivation to encourage entrepreneurial success by participating in socioeconomic development through product creation, business/services creation, branding and small business development.
- Environmental Education: The study of ecological systems, the conservation of natural resources including air, land, and water, as well as the preservation of plants, natural habitats and the protection of animals that are essential to sustain human life on planet earth.
- Equity: All essential resources are available and provided to everyone. Everyone gets what they need to achieve their goals.
- Financial Literacy: Understanding of knowing how money is made, spent, and saved, as well as the skills and ability to use financial resources to make decisions. These decisions include how to generate, invest, spend, and save money.
- Inclusion: Opportunities for students who are differently-abled to learn alongside their peers in general education classrooms. Inclusive classrooms are welcoming and support the diverse academic, social, emotional, and communication needs of all students.
- Internet as a Public Utility: A laptop is the 21st century textbook. All students should have a laptop and a wi-fi/broadband connection whether learning is virtual or in person. The Internet must be a public utility.
- Professional Development: Educators must receive relevant, meaningful, and on-going training in the critical areas of pedagogy, content knowledge and best practices, diversity, technology, communication, and culturally responsive teaching.
- Racial discrimination (4 terms):
- Implicit bias: Implicit biases are attitudes or stereotypes that unconsciously affect our actions, decisions, and understanding. Implicit biases often conflict with a person’s explicit and/or declared beliefs.
- Microaggression: Everyday verbal and non-verbal, conscious or unconscious,
environmental slights, insults of indignities, sent to members of marginalized groups because of their group membership. - Stereotype threat: When an individual or group’s actions are being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype or the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotypes.
- Adultification: Is a form of racial prejudice where African American are treated as being more mature than they actually are by a reasonable social standard of development. This commonly occurs in dress code situations, school discipline and legal matters.
- Relationship: Students must be valued, given voice, listened to, encouraged, supported, guided, held accountable, mentored, and cared for. Students must know that they are important and that you are cheering for them. Empathy and kindness are balanced with tough love, grit and rigor.
- Rigor: Instruction, schoolwork, learning experiences, and educational expectations that are academically, intellectually, and personally challenging.
- School Culture: School culture generally refers to the beliefs, perceptions, relationships, attitudes, and written and unwritten rules that shape and influence every aspect of how a school functions. The curriculum, instruction and classroom environment should contribute to an overall positive school climate that promotes value, respect, creativity and achievement.
- Technology: Collection of digital resources including laptops, tablets, interactive white boards, artificial intelligence tools, on-line classroom services and robotics.
- Textbook/Curriculum: All textbooks, digital instructional materials and curriculum resources should be up-to-date, culturally relevant and standards based.
- Virtual Classrooms: An online learning environment that allows for live interaction between student and teacher. It is a shared learning space that includes videoconferencing, online whiteboard, shared screen capabilities, participation controls, breakout rooms and instant messaging tools. The teacher has the particularly important role of the moderator who guides the learning process and supports group activities and discussions.
