Detroit Public Schools: Afrocentric Education and Other Ideas for Change

I’d like to extend some kudos to recent coverage in the Detroit Free Press of Detroit's floundering public school system and what might help turn things around. It’s a pretty hard-hitting, five-part expose of what a struggling urban school district looks like: Kids coming to school from broken homes beset by poverty, abuse, and violence; teachers scrambling to connect the dots despite continual layoffs and burgeoning class sizes; abysmal attendance rates, graduation rates, and test scores.

Problem-solving suggestions in the series include using federal funds slated for low-income students to hire more teachers; creating publicly-funded boarding schools, like the ones led by the SEED Foundation in Washington, DC; continuing the new DPS Reading Corps, a volunteer-staffed preschool tutoring program, and Parent University, a monthly class offering empowerment resources for parents such as how to help with their kids' homework and advocate for education in front of elected officials; and asking DPS students themselves what they would do to improve the system (one-on-one tutoring, for instance, is a popular concept).

Another on this extensive list: Afrocentric education. Students in at least four out of the five DPS schools that focus on African and African-American history, culture, and values outperform their peers at Detroit's other public schools. While these schools are open to all students and have a diverse faculty, they prioritize "the seven principles of Kwanzaa, a celebration of heritage and culture," the article reports, "and the 42 rules of Ma'at, the Egyptian goddess of truth and justice."

Haki Madhubuti, co-founder of four African-centered schools in Chicago, is quoted as claiming that these schools outperform others because of their "family-oriented environment," citing self-worth, self-determination, and an inclusive community as key to these schools' success. “We demonstrate that it’s critical that you love yourself," Madhubuti says. "Most certainly, we’re not anti-white. We’re not anti-anybody. We’re just pro-black people, pro-progressive people.”

Of course, Afrocentric education speaks louder to predominantly African American communities, but I wonder if there is a way to incorporate what’s lauded here -- this focus on community, family, self-esteem, and self-empowerment -- into other schools. What is it about a unified school theme that holds students and staff together so well? Would it work to create other, similar public schools that emphasized Latin American history and culture, for instance, in areas with predominantly Latino or Hispanic populations?

In any case, congrats, Detroit, for prioritizing all of the above. Whatever schools can do to increase the individual attention these students receive -- from lessons in self-esteem to one-on-one tutoring to smaller class sizes -- is a great start.

Photo credit: karpov the wrecked train