How an AP African American studies class helps Brooklyn students engage with history

In 1968 Cal State founded the first Chicano studies program, which focused on the history of Mexicans and their relationship to the U.S. Since then, several universities followed suit. The program was also made possible through the activism of 15,000 students, who walked out of class in the historic East L.A. walkouts demanding a better education. While there are critics, educators believe these type of programs are beneficial to Hispanic students. “Now they have tools to understand the microaggressions they’ve experienced or the economic struggles in this society, and that they’re not the only ones.”

San Antonio Independent School District has adopted a new approach that allows low-income students to go to school out-of-district in order to level the academic playing field. By creating a map of the most in-need families and designing school admissions to allow for flexibility, administrators have been able to help students attend and excel in schools they otherwise wouldn't be able to access.

After leading Seattle’s storied Garfield High School for more than a decade, Principal Ted Howard is having a crisis of conscience, wondering if his hard line with youth of color is hurting the very students he most wants to help.

Susan Miller Dorsey High School is the first school in California to pilot a new advanced placement African American studies course, which covers the history of Black social movements, societal achievements, and in the United States. Students in the course say it has exposed them to deeper knowledge about their communities and helped them express themselves.

Starting in the late 80s, Hartford school officials implemented programs to reverse the de facto segregation present in the district. Chief among these programs was developing 42 magnet schools, many of which provided specialized education in topics popular with students and relevant to the workplace. Currently, around half of Hartford’s students attend integrated schools.

Students in advanced classes in Howard County, Maryland schools are disproportionately white. Faculty and administration are working to identify, understand, and change the ways that implicit bias favors white students as early as elementary school. Other steps taken include the elimination of some prerequisites to advanced classes and a shift in mindset that students in advanced classes are trying to become college ready rather than already being college ready.

A school in Brooklyn uses a lottery-based acceptance system to ensure a diverse class. And instead of sorting the struggling kids from the gifted, they embedded an honors program which kids can opt into without changing classrooms.

Schools in Adamawa State are increasing the number of female teachers, which is inherently increasing the number of female students attending school. Previously, over 50% of girls in the area had not been in school, or dropped out, but with the increase of female teachers, the number of girls in school has dramatically increased.

The KNOSK secondary school is working to reduce the number of out-of-school youth in Nigeria by providing students with a quality education for a daily fee much lower than other school options. The school offers various payment plan options and gives the students uniforms, lunch, and sanitary products.

The Destiny Trust performs outreach in slum settlements and encampments to connect homeless children with residential housing and get them enrolled in school, sometimes via placing them in boarding schools. Through fundraising and partnering with other groups such as religious organizations, the nonprofit has sponsored the education of nearly 3,000 children since launching in 2012.