Innovative Banneker School Serves City's Minority Students

Disappointed with the education that his daughter, Briana, was receiving in the Cambridge public school system, Robert L. Hall decided to take matters into his own hands.

"She just wasn't being challenged," Hall says, referring to his daughter's days at Iitzgerald Elementary School.

Briana is now a happy second-grader at the Benjamin Banneker School, Cambridge's first and only charter school, located in North Cambridge.

And her father is a satisfied parent.

Part of a nationwide charter school movement, the Banneker school opened its doors this past September, joining over 400 charter schools currently operating across the country.

A type of independent public school, a charter school is usually started by parents, teachers, businesses and community leaders who are dissatisfied with the curriculum and teaching methods or fed up with budget battles and bureaucracy at traditional schools.

"Here was an opportunity for parents and teachers to do something they wanted to do--run a public school the way they wanted it to be run," says Charles S. Nesson '60, Weld professor of law at the Harvard Law School, who helped form the school's charter proposal.

"The mission grew out of this body of parents and teachers who wanted school to be friendly to those students who felt alienated by the public school system," Nesson says.

Banneker aims to help minority students succeed academically by emphasizing math, science and technology in its curriculum.

"We believe there is an over-enrollment of children of color in special education, and we don't believe they all belong there," says Afiya Graham, the school's executive director. "Our conviction is that we have intelligent children who are misunderstood and mislabeled."

Graham identifies many of the school's 190 students as "children marginalized by Cambridge public schools."

"When you look at the demographics, these children are overwhelmingly African-American males, so the school began with a commitment that children can excel in math and science," Graham says.

But as mainstream as the subject matter may sound, the school has chosen to emphasize these areas in a non-traditional manner.

Structured around interdisciplinary, thematic units, the school's curriculum is centered around the study of particular groups of people, for example, those in African nations or on Caribbean islands.

"We apply a strategy that ensures we cover the depth of the people," Graham says. "If we end up on African soil, we talk about everything--temperature, the equator, geography and the land."

Graham says research shows that children learn better when they can make associations between the material they are learning and a larger theme.

"Educators in schools do not always teach from a research basis," Graham says. "It is rare to find a school that teaches by applying."

Banneker parents seem supportive of the school's methods.

"The Banneker school is taught from a multi-cultural perspective with an emphasis on math, science and technology," says Lana W. Jackman, whose son, Mark, is a second-grader. "My child is being exposed to a world view because the school pulls in from the whole globe, not just the United States.

The six-week units conclude with an exhibition featuring student-produced artwork and research.

Jackman says the student exhibitions were nothing short of extraordinary.

"Your child is like a little peacock taking you around and showing you everything he learned for the past week," Jackman says. "You see those kids shine from the work that they've done.

Parental Involvement

But Graham says the student exhibitions promote parental involvement, a necessary component for the success of any charter school.

Hall, who serves on the after-school committee and as a member of the board of trustees, says the emphasis on parental involvement was an important factor in his decision to enroll his daughter at Banneker.

"This is an opportunity that is second-to-none," Hall says. "This is an entire educational experience for both students and parents."

Jackman says that as a professional working parent, it was a pleasant change to see teachers interested in her ideas for the classroom.

"The Banneker school actively involves the parents in the whole process--teaching and learning," says Jackman, an academic adviser at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. "I wanted to be able to speak to another professional who would listen to my ideas about what could be done in the classroom."

Jackman, also a representative on the board of trustees, says she is thrilled with the school's welcoming environment.

"You can walk into a classroom and see what your child is learning without making an appointment," Jackman says.

Parents have also been receptive to the diversity of faculty, part of the school's plan to provide minority students with role models.

"Role models for African-American children are not in Cambridge public schools, but we have quite a few people of color on staff," Graham says, adding that this makes the school more attractive to professional minority families.

"The school is working to raise our daughter's self-esteem and her social and cultural awareness," Hall says. "They have an outstanding number of educators in the school. There are parents who serve as role models. Together we make it a focal point of our community."

First-Year Challenges

But the first year in operation has not been without its problems.

Nesson says "philosophical differences" on the board of trustees led to the recent resignation of five members.

"The board was split over the style of management and the relationship that should exist between the board and the executive director," he explains.

Nesson says he has high hopes for the new chair of the board, Mildred Blackman, a former Cambridge public school teacher and principal who is also working at Harvard's Principal Center.

"She understands from a principal's perspective how the board should relate to the principal and the day-to-day running of the school," Nesson says.

And like any fledgling institution, Graham says, the Banneker school needs additional funds.

Publicly funded, the school currently receives $7,293 per student, the equivalent that would have been spent on students in their neighborhood public schools.

Banneker also received an anonymous donation of $100,000 in the beginning of the year.

"There's never enough money to do the things we want to do, but we can still operate," Graham says. "Like every new venture, everything we've had to do, we've had to create. The challenge has been creating school while running school."

Graham says she would like to see the school move into a larger building. Currently, the school rents space from Our Lady of Pity Catholic Church.

She is also anxious to enroll more students next year when the school hopes to add a sixth grade to its current kindergarten through fifth grade program.

Eventually, Graham hopes to meet the charter's original goal of teaching seventh and eight grades as well.

Parents say they are optimistic about Banneker's future.

"I see the school becoming well-rooted in the Cambridge community and becoming a reflection of the community which is ethnically and philosophically diverse," Jackman says. "I see the Banneker school reflecting the richness of Cambridge.

"There's never enough money to do the things we want to do, but we can still operate," Graham says. "Like every new venture, everything we've had to do, we've had to create. The challenge has been creating school while running school."

Graham says she would like to see the school move into a larger building. Currently, the school rents space from Our Lady of Pity Catholic Church.

She is also anxious to enroll more students next year when the school hopes to add a sixth grade to its current kindergarten through fifth grade program.

Eventually, Graham hopes to meet the charter's original goal of teaching seventh and eight grades as well.

Parents say they are optimistic about Banneker's future.

"I see the school becoming well-rooted in the Cambridge community and becoming a reflection of the community which is ethnically and philosophically diverse," Jackman says. "I see the Banneker school reflecting the richness of Cambridge.