Charter school for American Indians is rejected after NC board rules it is too divisive
A new charter school targeted at Native Americans in Robeson County has been rejected amid questions about whether its curriculum is too activist and not inclusive enough.
The N.C. Charter Schools Advisory Board voted Tuesday to reverse its recommendation that the state approve the 2020 opening of Old Main STREAM Academy, a charter school targeted at “indigenous peoples.” Advisory board members raised concerns about the school’s use of “red pedagogy,” an approach tied to an educator critical of how the United States has treated Native Americans.
“Red pedagogy” is popularized by Sandy Grande, a Connecticut College professor who wrote the book “Red Pedagogy: Native American Social and Political Thought.”
CSAB member Lindalyn Kakadelis pointed to a 2005 Cornell Chronicle article where Grande said “the United States is a nation defined by its original sin: the genocide of American Indians — and everything afterwards [is] just another chapter in the fall from grace.”
“I did not find one thing in the book that talked about the greatness of America,” Kakadelis said. “Now let me make it perfectly clear: America has sins. There are things I wish we had never done, slavery included.
“Bad marks on our country. But we learned from them and we’re changed and we’re not what we used to be. I’ve got to say that everything I found was divisive instead of bringing unity.”
Kakadelis also objected to how the book talked about red pedagogy being committed to “including Marxism in a dialectical revolutionary relationship.”
Raising performance for Native American children
Tuesday’s vote comes during Native American Indian Heritage Month, which Old Main’s leaders pointed to Tuesday as they unsuccessfully lobbied for the elementary school. They said something different is needed to help Native American students, who on average have lower test scores and higher suspension rates than many other groups.
“I’ve been in school districts where there’s not one American Indian entered into the pipeline for higher or advanced curriculum because they feel like they are not capable or don’t have the ability,” Brenda Deese, a board member for Old Main, said Tuesday.
“What I can tell you is this: There are abilities among American Indian children. ... Historically this state and the United States have not met those needs now. All we’re asking for is a chance.”
Charter schools are taxpayer-funded schools that are exempt from some of the rules that traditional public schools must follow. Old Main was among a group of five applicants who applied in July for an accelerated opening in 2020.
The advisory board voted 4-3 in October to recommend that the State Board of Education approve Old Main. Several members were absent during that meeting, including Kakadelis.
But at least week’s meeting, several State Board of Education members raised concerns about the divided vote and the school’s curriculum. State board members also expressed concern about approving another charter school in Robeson County at a time when the school district is having financial challenges because of declining student enrollment.
The advisory board was asked to reconsider its earlier vote. On Tuesday, most of the concerns were raised about the red pedagogy curriculum and the school’s mission statement, which says its purpose is “to grow Indigenous leader practitioners.”
“What are you going to do if a white child comes?” Kakadelis said. “Or a black child comes? Or a Hispanic child comes? I know your heart would be to grow them as leaders too, but that’s not what your mission statement says.”
Deese told advisory board members that they’d be inclusive and accept all children who attended. As a charter school, it would be required to accept all students.
“Yes we did give a nod to the American Indian and the indigenous communities because we want the doors to be open,” Deese said. “But we also recognize those doors are going to be open to all children.
“I work in the public schools. I would never discriminate. But I also understand that if we don’t do something different, the schools are going to continue to fail.”
Culturally relevant curriculum
Concerns were raised about red pedagogy, which the school says in its application involves making the curriculum culturally relevant to its American Indian population. This includes talking about indigenous rights, environmental justice and reading works by Native American authors.
Deese said that the curriculum needs to be made culturally relevant because “American Indians do not fare well in typical education.”
“Culturally relevant shouldn’t mean other people are bad and what I saw in ‘Red Pedagogy’ was the suggestion that other people are bad and I don’t think we ought to be teaching that to anybody in our schools,” said CSAB member Cheryl Turner.
Another advisory board member said her reading of Grande’s book is that it “seemed to be activist related” with it talking “about community power and sovereignty and other things that are of concern.”
Old Main school leaders were encouraged to revise the curriculum and to reapply in the future.
“My desire would be that you bring back another application,” Kakadelis said. “I would stay away from red pedagogy as far as I could.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2019 at 4:05 PM.
