An exploration of the factors driving the high MCAS performance of the Benjamin Banneker charter public school: a portrait of academic excellence in elementary education
Embargo Date
2025-05-12
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
The condition of education for Black and Brown students continues to be grim in Massachusetts, a state that is among the best in the nation for student success and academic achievement. Data from the 2019 and 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) reveal glaring and persisting disparities in academic performance among low-income students of color in the Commonwealth. This chronic disparity in educational outcomes between White students and their Black and Hispanic peers, commonly referred to as the achievement gap, is more acute in predominantly Black schools. Although schools with a high concentration of Black students tend to be failing schools, this is not the case at the Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School (Banneker). Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Banneker is a predominantly Black Title 1 K-6 STEM school that has closed the Black-White achievement gap for the last five consecutive years on the MCAS in English Language Arts, mathematics, and science. This single case study examined the perspectives of educators at the Banneker, in order to explore the factors driving the high MCAS performance at the school. The researcher analyzed data from surveys, interviews, and document review, through the explanatory frameworks of the Seven Correlates of Effective Schools and racial matching. The data from this qualitative single case study revealed that the school’s success may be attributed to the presence of the Seven Correlates of Effective Schools, that are deeply embedded into the school’s culture. In addition, the school’s success appears to be a result of the matching of students and educators who are demographically similar as well as three interrelated factors that form the Banneker’s Academic Core of Excellence (ACE). These three factors are as follows: teaching quality support, diversity and inclusion, and fulfillment and purpose. The findings of this study have important implications for how to successfully educate not only Black and Brown students, but all students in any school setting. The issue therefore is whether or not we have the will as individuals or as a collective to honor the humanity of all children regardless of their race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status.