Breaking Glass Ceilings: Supporting Higher performing Black elementary students in Underserved Communities

More support and resources must be allocated in education for teaching students who naturally outperform their peers. There is even less support provided for Black students who naturally excel. These students require rigor and intentional lessons to continue challenging themselves and growing as scholars. As an elementary school teacher, I found it essential to study the best practices for supporting these students and identify the possible academic and nonacademic benefits of programs structured around creating rigorous literacy lessons incorporating Bloom’s Taxonomy and project-based learning. This study centers around methods to support Black elementary students in the top ten percent of their class and the methods utilized to create and implement an intervention focused on creating rigorous and challenging literacy support. The intervention: a six-week cycle of lessons (Appendix B) centered around uplifting current classroom material and expanding students' thinking took place with four students. The intervention sessions concluded by presenting a cause-and-effect framework based on the student's topic of choice. Studies explored students’ interests and feedback regarding the implementation of the intervention and the teacher's perception of these students both before and after the intervention. Results presented a positive impact based on qualitative data from both the student and teacher perspectives. Quantitative data also presented growth and some benefits of the intervention.