Sankofa Shule

Sankofa Shule was a charter school in Lansing, Michigan.

The school's name is a mix of Akan and Swahili words.[1]

History

It was established in 1995. Its original enrollment was 116. For a period it occupied a building that also had a beauty school.[2] The charter school's authorizer was Central Michigan University.[3]

By 2002 CMU and the school were involved in a conflict over finances.[3]

In 2007 CMU stopped renewing the charter,[4] and the school closed.[5]

Operations

The school used "Baba" and "Mama", from Swahili, as ways to address male and female teachers,[1] and it used variations of the buba as its school uniform.[2] The school featured prominent African-Americans in its decorations.[1]

Students were placed in classes organized by ability instead of traditional grade level classes.[6]: 559 

The physical education curricula included dance styles from the African continent.[7]

“Sankofa Shule … produced low-income African American students who could read two to four levels above grade level, who did algebra and calculus in grade school and who out scored the Lansing School District and the state of Michigan on state the accountability test (MEAP) in 2000 in mathematics and in writing. The school was called ‘an educational powerhouse’ by U.S. News & World Report in the April 27, 1998 issue.” Lisa Delpit, Multiplication is for white people raising expectations for other people’s children, 2012

Curriculum

The school used an Afrocentric curriculum. The school had foreign language classes for Swahili, French, Japanese, and Spanish.[1]

See also

References
  • Rivers, Shariba (2010). "Sankofi Shule". In Kofi Lomotey (ed.). Encyclopedia of African American Education. pp. 558-560. doi:10.4135/9781412971966. ISBN 9781412940504 – via SAGE Reference. – ISBNs for the Google Books pages: 1412940508, 9781412940504 – see entry in the thesaurus

Notes
  1. Mayes, Mark (April 5, 1998). "Area charter schools focus on heritage, accomplishments". Lansing State Journal. Lansing, Michigan. p. 6A. – Clipping from Newspapers.com.
  2. Andrejevic, Mark (September 6, 1995). "Lansing students shift to new charter schools". Lansing State Journal. Lansing, Michigan. pp. 1A–2A. – Clipping of first and of second page at Newspapers.com.
  3. Terlep, Sharon (January 4, 2002). "CMU widens probe of Lansing charter school". Lansing State Journal. Lansing, Michigan. pp. 1A, 5A. – Clipping of first and of second page at Newspapers.com.
  4. Geary, Nicole (June 9, 2007). "Sankofa Shule likely to close". Lansing State Journal. Lansing, Michigan. pp. 1A, 3A. – Clipping of first and of second page at Newspapers.com.
  5. "CMU CLOSES LANSING CHARTER SCHOOL". Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Retrieved February 27, 2023.
  6. Rivers, Shariba (2010). "Sankofa Shule (Lansing, Michigan)". In Lomotey, Kofi (ed.). Encyclopedia of African American Education. SAGE. pp. 558–560. ISBN 978-1-4129-4050-4.
  7. Mayes, Mark (April 5, 1998). "Segregation creeps back into schools". Lansing State Journal. Lansing, Michigan. pp. 1A, 7A. - Clipping of first (text detail) and of second page (text detail 1, text detail 2, and text detail 3) at Newspapers.com.
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