• Category 2

    Selected in 2022

  • Grades: 6 - 10
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 1,107,000
    Student Enrollment: 617
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 86%
    White/Caucasian: 2%
    Hispanic: 4%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 7%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:21
    % Reduced Lunch: 74%
    % ELL Learners: 4%
    Founded: 2018
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Dr. Monica Hunter
  • CONTACT:
    3307 East Indian Trail
    Louisville, KY 40213
    502-485-7600
    tracey.dobbs@jefferson.kyschools.us
W.E.B. DuBois Academy
Louisville, KY
"We believe academic and social-emotional excellence are needed to raise our young lions into the kings they were meant to become."
1. Tell us about your school’s success.
Despite the pandemic, Black DuBois students were able to shrink the 6th grade math Black-White achievement gap by 16 percentile points and the 6th grade reading Black-White achievement gap by 17 percentile points from 2019 to 2022. Similarly, Black DuBois students closed the 7th grade Black-White achievement gap by 11 percentile points in both math and reading. Except for 8th grade math, all MAP achievement gaps between Black DuBois students and their White JCPS grade-level peers were less than 10 percentile points whereas the smallest overall gap between all Black and White JCPS middle school students was 25 percentile points.
2. Talk about the greatest contributing factor(s) that promoted positive change in your school.

We shifted to owning a data driven approach to instruction, with the following expectations: Standards deconstruction; assessment development based standards deconstruction and priority standard alignment; assess learning (The goal is for at least 80% of the scholars to show mastery. The assessments are filtered through Mastery Connect, which allows teachers to have immediate access to assessment data.); analyze the data to determine instructional next steps; plan for and teach corrective instruction, based on assessment data; and, reassess students who did not initially reach mastery. This allows teachers to identify necessary next steps for each individual student. At this point, if the teacher has reached 80% mastery, he or she will move on to the next priority standard, but still allows students to get practice via warm ups, homework, remediation during Passion classes, etc. The continual and intentional practices also aids in closing the achievement gap.
3. How has ESEA funding supported the school's success?
We’ve utilized Title 1 funding to provide opportunities for teachers to participate in monthly PD sessions, new teacher mentor cohorts, and Saturday School enrichment opportunities.

In addition, we adopted systems and resources around coaching, feedback, and instructional next steps following: Elena Aguilar’s Coaching for Equity, JCPS’s Diversity, Equity, Poverty, and Desravines, Aquino, and Fenton’s coaching models.

In addition, our gifted and talented students are afforded the opportunity to spend two weeks at Western Kentucky University's Gifted and Talented Camp, where students are immersed with rigorous STEAM and leadership specific activities while they reside on the college campus.
4. What professional development activities were used to improve teaching and learning?
Our schoolwide data driven professional learning plan focuses on high-leveraged instructional and systematic practices. Teacher’s individualized support includes weekly coaching, modeling, and/or co-teaching based on each teacher's needs. Finally, every content teacher has a monthly “Data Conversation” with their content principal or assistant principal to discuss the percentage of students who met mastery of priority standards per their common formative assessments. They discuss performance data, corrective instruction action plans, and enrichment opportunities for students who met the grade level learning target.

Students are also held accountable and celebrated for their learning. Students reflect on their achievement level, create plans for growth, and conference with staff members to review their plans and receive feedback on their performance and next steps.
5. Talk about the cultural shift leading up to your school's success.
We believe academic and social emotional excellence are needed to raise our young lions into the kings they were meant to become. We guarantee each student will demonstrate growth by becoming more adept mathematicians, readers, writers, and speakers, while also becoming better role models, listeners, and leaders in their homes and communities.

The evidence-based pedagogical practices of the DuBois Academy draw from culturally responsive teaching methods to actively engage our students as they grow as learners and self-aware young men. The core tenets emphasize literacy, numeracy, social sciences, technology usage, and speaking a foreign language. In addition, we show P.R.I.D.E. by focusing on five key leadership attributes; perseverance, resilience, initiative, discipline and empathy.

The intentional systems of academic awareness, social and emotional preparedness, and stakeholder accountability is the cultural shift we needed to forge this success.
6. How has community involvement strengthened your success?
Our community partnerships have greatly impacted our school's success. Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity mentors our scholars and hosts a one day conference for 100 of our students. Community Leaders/Business Owners visit our middle school campus biweekly to provide support from the lens of their career or entrepreneurship. Metro United Way provides funding for all scholars to receive a tie, to represent their grade level, or bow tie, to represent their GPA of 3.5 or higher. Associates from the Speed Art Museum mentor our gifted artists and provided a space for this to be a part of the superhero exhibit from August - September of 2022. They also solicited and were awarded support from Marvel Studio artists to consistently work with our gifted artists as they prepared for the exhibit. Verizon: We are a VILS school and received a grant to purchase iPads and to develop a VILS lab. Students feel school and self pride as they participate in events led or supported by our community partnerships.
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2022

  • Grades: 6 - 10
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 1,107,000
    Student Enrollment: 617
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 86%
    White/Caucasian: 2%
    Hispanic: 4%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 7%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:21
    % Reduced Lunch: 74%
    % ELL Learners: 4%
    Founded: 2018
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Dr. Monica Hunter
  • CONTACT:
    3307 East Indian Trail
    Louisville, KY 40213
    502-485-7600
    tracey.dobbs@jefferson.kyschools.us