What does this mean for how VCS honors Black history month?
Valley Charter Schools aims to honor and celebrate Black history, not just in February of every year, but in an on-going way. One important way we do this is through a focus on representation of a diverse group of students in our curriculum. We belong to the Diverse Charter Schools Coalition – a national network of diverse- by-design schools who are all committed to making this model as meaningful as possible.
In this work, VCS has a strong commitment to promoting equity of access and outcomes for all of our students. We believe that a coherent and aligned K-8 anti-bias curriculum is needed to honor that commitment.
To this end, we examine our units of study with the lens of strengthening alignment to these four big categories and accompanying questions:
| Access To the Content: How will all students access the curriculum? | Critical Thinking: Does it require students to think critically about relevant topics? | Representation: Are the lives of a diverse group of students reflected in the material? | Social Justice: Does the unit empower students to act against prejudice? |
At VCES, teachers have been highlighting different moments in Black history throughout the month and at VCMS, teachers have embedded topics related to racial equity and social justice into many of their units.At VCES, teachers have been highlighting different moments in Black history throughout the month and at VCMS, teachers have embedded topics related to racial equity and social justice into many of their units.
If you’d like to learn more about how we approach anti-bias work in our classrooms, please check out these slides which we put together as part of the “Virtual Excellent Schools Visit” we were asked to participate in by the Diverse Charter Schools Coalition.
Valley Charter School 