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Board hears progress report and recommendations from African American achievement initiative
Summary
San Francisco Unified's African American Achievement & Leadership Initiative presented its first-year accomplishments and school-site plans; parents and community groups urged sustained multi-year funding, family liaisons and ethnic-studies expansion. The board thanked presenters and asked staff for implementation details.
San Francisco Board of Education members heard an update Tuesday on the African American Achievement and Leadership Initiative and related parent-advisory work, including a set of concrete recommendations aimed at raising outcomes for African American students across the district.
Landon Dickey, special assistant to the superintendent for African American Achievement and Leadership, told the board the initiative now tracks pre-K through 12 indicators and has piloted'among other efforts'an African American village roundtable to provide intensive, tier-3 supports at selected sites. He said about 4,500 African American students are enrolled in the district'a figure that includes schools and charters when broader counts are used'and that the initiative is working with community partners on postsecondary pathways and targeted school-site supports at Mission High, Martin Luther King Jr. and Willie L. Brown Jr. Middle School.
The African American Parent Advisory Council highlighted accomplishments such as monthly meetings that drew parents from more than 39 schools and events that celebrated seniors headed to college. APAC leaders asked the board to fund African American family liaisons at schools with significant African American enrollment, mandate cultural-competency professional development for staff and adopt districtwide ethnic-studies courses for grades K'12.
Faith- and community-based leaders, including Rev. Amos Brown of the NAACP, praised the initiative and urged the board to consider multi-year funding cycles, saying one year is not sufficient to show measurable improvement.
Board members thanked presenters and community speakers, and several commissioners pressed staff for more granular implementation details, including how funding would be used at school sites, metrics to track progress, and timelines for hiring new positions. The board asked for a follow-up with recommended budget implications and clearer school-by-school plans ahead of the next budget cycle.
The initiative team said it will publish an annual African American Achievement report this fall once the latest SBAC results are finalized and will return with more detailed implementation plans and staffing proposals.
