RALEIGH, N.C. _ North Carolina education leaders on Thursday turned down a new Native American charter school but disagreed over whether the denial was because of the school's portrayal of U.S. history.
Leaders of Old Main STREAM Academy want to serve the "indigenous peoples" of Robeson County, who on average have lower test scores that other groups.
But Davis Academy Chadbourn in Columbus County was the only one of five new charter schools that had applied in July to open in 2020 that received approval Thursday from the State Board of Education.
Amy White, who chairs the state board committee that handles charter schools, said the denial was not because of Old Main STREAM's curriculum.
"This application just simply did not meet the threshold and high standards that should be in place when an accelerated application comes before us," White said.
But state board member James Ford spoke up in defense of Old Main STREAM on Thursday. He said it's clear the North Carolina Charter Schools Advisory Board did not recommend the school because of how the curriculum portrayed the experiences of Native Americans.
"We should acknowledge that some of the contention, according to the minutes, was not necessarily about whether it was up to snuff," Ford said. "It was about the portrayal of American history."
Charter schools are taxpayer-funded schools that are exempt from some of the rules that traditional public schools must follow. There are 196 now open across the state.
The advisory board voted 4-3 in October to recommend that the state board approve Old Main. But at the November meeting, state board members questioned the divided vote and asked CSAB to take a second look at Old Main STREAM.
"When we have an accelerated application, we need to see a very strong consensus vote from our CSAB, and we did not have that this time," White said Thursday. "It's such a big lift that if the CSAB isn't unanimous or closely unanimous about an acceleration, that it raises concerns the school is not ready to make that opening within basically a 10-month period."
On Nov. 12, the advisory board voted unanimously to not recommend the school. Concerns were raised about whether the school's curriculum is too activist and not inclusive enough.
Advisory board members questioned the school's use of "red pedagogy," an approach popularized by Sandy Grande, a Connecticut College professor who wrote the book "Red Pedagogy: Native American Social and Political Thought."
CSAB member Lindalyn Kakadelis had objected to comments Grande made in a 2005 Cornell Chronicle article where she 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."
Kakadelis said she read Grande's book and found it to be "divisive" and didn't talk about the greatness of America.
Old Main STREAM's supporters have lobbied the state board to approve the school or to allow it to tweak its application and go back before the advisory board. White said that Old Main STREAM and the other rejected charter schools should consider applying next year.
In a Dec. 3 Medium article, Grande said she's not involved with the school but hopes the application will be approved. She said approving Old Main STREAM would put Robeson County at the forefront of indigenous education.
"In short, the Lumbee (Tribe) and other children of Robeson County deserve this school," Grande wrote. "They deserve to be included in the nation's vision of a just future; one that is unifying in its dreams of liberation for all."
Ford, the state board member, said that state leaders should endeavor to be culturally relevant and responsive. He said the state should be looking at approving charter schools that break away from the traditional narratives of American history.
"Coming off of Thanksgiving, I'm still seeing North Carolina public school teachers and students dressed up as indigenous folk," Ford said. "As long as we're permitting that, I think we should be willing to present a perspective, a historical portrayal of one that centers the lives and experiences of both black and indigenous folk.
"To me that's not inherently threatening except for that it does disrupt some of our mythologies about American history."
