Sheila Coleman

Social Justice Curriculum: Empowering Youth to Lead Educational Change at Sacramento High School Sheila Coleman

Students in urban areas across the country are routinely denied access to the educational opportunities that will allow them to be successful in life. In order to change these circumstances, young people must be educated, empowered, and trained to make a difference. The purpose of Social Justice: Empowering Students to Lead Educational Change is to do all three. The curriculum was designed for a predominately African-American student population attending an urban high school that was recently converted into a charter school in 2003. Because many of the students were products of various social and economic inequalities that countered their academic achievement, the curriculum was relevant. Students became intimately aware of the complex problems in education and the variety of ways to combat these challenges. Students applied all that they learned to a culminating project that entailed designing and implementing a group lesson for elementary students at a local school. The culturally congruent curriculum for social transformation proved to make a positive impact on the students? lives and their community.