This volume brings together leading scholars and practitioners to address the theory and practice of African-centered education. The contributors provide (1) perspectives on the history, methods, successes and challenges of African-centered education, (2) discussions of the efforts that are being made to counter the miseducation of Black children, and (3) prescriptions for—and analyses of—the way forward for Black children and Black communities. The authors argue that Black children need an education that moves them toward leading and taking agency within their own communities. They address several areas that capture the essence of what African-centered education is, how it works, and why it is a critical imperative at this moment. Those areas include historical analyses of African-centered education; parental perspectives; strategies for working with Black children; African-centered culture, science and STEM; culturally responsive curriculum and instruction; and culturally responsive resources for teachers and school leaders.

Although schools with an African-centered educational focus have existed for over 200 years, they have most often been independent institutions. Within the past few years, the idea of incorporating an African and African-American cultural orientation in public schools has been explored. This exploration has proceeded in a number of ways: in Baltimore, MD, African-centered education was instituted in selected classrooms within an otherwise traditional school. In Milwaukee, and in other cities such as Detroit, MI, and Washington, DC, African-centered programs have been implemented in selected schools.

The Afrocentric School, a Blueprint is a handbook that guides the prospective educationist, parent, student, and reader to understand African cultural history from an Afrocentric theoretical perspective. Africa is placed in the center of the African experience from the ancient times until now. Who were we? This book endeavors to answer that question. This handbook humbly offers some ideas based on ancient African principles that relate to the critical role of teaching our children. Grounded in the love of African humanity-women, men, girls, and boys, this handbook counters anti-African and anti-Black beliefs that have been propounded over centuries. This work expresses the recognition that there exists a range of African cultural values, beliefs, and behaviors just as there is amongst the different peoples who conquered Africa. In this work, the cultural legacy and heritage of Africa is embraced with the aim of providing adequate knowledge to achieve a reawakening of the cultural memory. The handbook provides a foundational curriculum for children aged 3-15 years, and its standards are based upon expectations developed from a baseline study on child development and education. The curriculum can be particularly helpful for those interested in or who are already teaching children of African descent; it can appeal to those who have established Afrocentric schools, those who are endeavoring to do so, those who wish to amplify an existing curriculum, those who want to teach their children, or those who simply wish to expand their knowledge.

The achievement of students of color continues to be disproportionately low at all levels of education. More than ever, Geneva Gay's foundational book on culturally responsive teaching is essential reading in addressing the needs of today's diverse student population. Combining insights from multicultural education theory and research with real-life classroom stories, Gay demonstrates that all students will perform better on multiple measures of achievement when teaching is filtered through their own cultural experiences. This bestselling text has been extensively revised to include expanded coverage of student ethnic groups: African and Latino Americans as well as Asian and Native Americans as well as new material on culturally diverse communication, addressing common myths about language diversity and the effects of "English Plus" instruction.