03/05/2025
By Zakkiyya Witherspoon

The School of Education invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Jaleesa Shevorne Anselm on “Do You See What We Need? Identifying and Eliminating Access Barriers for Increased Black Student Enrollment in Predominantly White Independent Schools"

Candidate: Jaleesa Shevorne Anselm
Degree: Doctoral- Leadership in Schooling
Defense Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Time: 11:00 AM
Location: Remote Zoom link
Thesis/Dissertation Title: Do You See What We Need? Identifying and Eliminating Access Barriers for Increased Black Student Enrollment in Predominantly White Independent Schools

Dissertation Committee
Dissertation Chair: Michelle Scribner, Ed.D., Clinical Professor, Mathematics and Science Education, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Dissertation Committee Member: Linda Riley, Ed.D, Visiting Faculty, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Dissertation Committee Member: Jim Nehring, Ed.D. Professor Emeritus, Leadership in Schooling, School of Education, Teaching and Educational Leadership
Dissertation Committee Member: Phitsamay Uy, Ed.D. Associate Professor, Leadership in Schooling, Graduate Coordinator for Ed.D Programs, and Co-director of Center for Asian American Studies

Abstract:
This study addresses the problem of practice identifying and eliminating access barriers for increased Black student enrollment at Field School (pseudonym), a private, independent school in a New England suburb. Field enrolls around 200 students annually with less than 13% of those students identifying as Black; in 2023, Field only had eight students who described themselves as Black. Research on Black academic achievement dictates Black students need to see their racial identity mirrored in their teachers and peers. Field has zero Black classroom teachers and only 10% of teachers identifying as People of Color. Black students and their families describe adverse racialized treatment and feeling like they do not belong. Through the research, Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) rose as one measure of improving the conditions for Field’s current Black students, establishing Field as a school that supports Black students adequately. To address the needs of current and future Black students, all 34 full-time teachers were trained in Culturally Responsive teaching, and a subset of four teachers developed and implemented a series of Culturally Responsive lessons with their students. The specific model utilized for this study was Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s model, which includes the five-pursuit framework, which structures CRT through the pursuits of Identity, Skills, Intellect, Criticality, and Joy, as something all teachers should incorporate into their unit lesson planning. Teachers in the implementation group reflected on how the intervention impacted their Black and non-Black students and affected teachers’ previous attitudes about CRT, which increased minimally by less than 10%.