African Free School Evaluation, Regular School Year, and Summer. ESEA Title I, 1970-1971.

The African Free School has been in operation as an experimental class, supported by Title I funds since September 1970. The major goals of the program are: (1) to improve the academic and emotional achievement of the students, and (2) to teach racial dignity and pride without teaching racism. The AFS Program consists of the regular AFS experimental class and a control group which was established for purposes of comparative evaluation. Both groups were similar in terms of services received, equipment and supplies available, type of cultural enrichment activities, amount of individual attention, and involvement in the ungraded approach. They differed only in regard to curriculum and instructional methodology. The control group used the regular Newark City School District curriculum, while the experimental AFS group was taught according to the curriculum and methodology of the African Free School which was designed to satisfy the normal requirements for standard subject matter while introducing culturally related materials and curriculum. The academic achievement of the control group appears to be substantially better than that of the AFS Class concerning word knowledge and problem solving. The evaluators feel that the outcomes may be distorted to some degree by the distinctly small sample and the presence of a number of "underachievers" in the AFS class. (Author/JM)