Research by Nell Duke and Julia Lindsey inform Freedom Schools Literacy Academy
The research contributions of SOE’s professor Nell Duke and doctoral student Julia Lindsey are cited in a guest commentary piece in The Philadelphia Citizen. The article “Tackling Literacy: The first-ever virtual Freedom Schools Literacy Academy models liberation education—and gets results” is authored by Sharif El-Mekki, founder and CEO of The Center for Black Educator Development.
El-Mekki described The Center for Black Educator Development’s first-ever virtual Freedom Schools Literacy Academy, which opened 125 spots to support students in the face of school disruptions. The opportunity was very well received by families and supported students’ significant learning gains over the summer.
El-Mekki adds, “Likewise, our virtual Freedom Schools Literacy Academy leveraged the best practices of the Liberation Schools, the Philadelphia Freedom School movement, and the Children’s Defense Fund and were informed by the ongoing research of Dr. Nell Duke, Miriam Ortiz, and Julia Lindsey, collaborators with The Center for Black Educator Development, to achieve significant gains in early literacy for our young scholars, who made leaps in literacy in the middle of a pandemic while having their racial identity positively reinforced.”
