About.

The Sankofa Community Academy is grounded in Molefi Kete Asante’s Afrocentric curriculum theory (1991) and model for revolutionary pedagogy (2017). Afrocentric curriculum disrupts the focus and structure of the dominant Eurocentric model by grounding all academic study within a global frame of human history and the foundations of knowledge and practice in all disciplines. The term “Afrocentric” refers to the focus on Africa as the initial locus of human development, which is distinct to the focus on Greek, Roman, and other Western European societies and cultures that is the foundation of the traditional curriculum model.
Shifting curricular focus to one that is inclusive of all human history enables all students to identify and connect their own personal history to that of humanity over time. This early identification and recognition have demonstrated a positive impact on identity development, academic engagement, and developing cultural literacy and competence in very young learners (Sleeter and Zavala, 2020).

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OUR MISSION

The Sankofa Community Academy provides an authentic, inclusive, and culturally responsive Afrocentric educational experience for students in pre-kindergarten through middle school, focused on academic excellence rooted in mastery and grounded in personal health and wellness, assuring that all students thrive and succeed.

OUR VISION

All learners, connected to their whole selves, understanding the scope and diversity of their whole past, moving forward together and building a way for all to follow – to “Go back to get what has been left behind” in the currently structured K-12 educational system in Wisconsin - equity and inclusion - and plant the seed of resilience for future generations.
Sankofa is an African word from the Akan tribe in Ghana. The literal translation of the word and the symbol is “it is not taboo to go back to get what is at risk of being left behind.” The Sankofa bird reminds us that we must continue to move forward as we remember our past. And at the same time, we must plant a seed for the future generations that come after us.

The word is derived from the words:
​SAN (return),
KO (go),
FA (look, seek and take)

THE CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY

Our shared history has created the world in which we currently live, work, and learn. Increasingly, we understand that we live in a society that is inequitable in ways that harm us all. Inequity poses a strong challenge to the democratic society we continually strive to build. The systems that we’ve inherited contribute to inequity; they were conceived and grounded in systematic bias and both implicit and explicit racism that have been present in our society since the founding of our nation. Restructuring our inherited systems to produce equity and justice is the defining challenge of our time.
​What is the educational system we’ve inherited? It’s always been a two-tiered system, with different types of schools for those destined to be leaders and thinkers, and those destined to work. The public system, built in the early 1800’s was designed for a society that still considered some people to be property, and segregated housing, work, and virtually all social activity around race, ethnicity, gender and class – all of which were thought to be unchangeable. The system was designed to teach these truths and maintain the status quo. (Banks, 2007). The role of history and social studies as disciplines in both maintaining the status quo – and in challenging it – cannot be overstated (Dei, 2010). 
The outcomes of the inherited system are clear to see in Wisconsin. Despite decades-long efforts to transform the system of public schooling, too much of the inherited design remains. Wisconsin’s tragic claim to fame is a persistent, decades-long gap in educational outcomes between white K-12 and college students and their peers who are people of color (Borsuk, 2018; 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress). These gaps may contribute to disproportionately large negative impacts on citizens who are black or people of color. One example is the black male incarceration rate of 12.8%. – double the national average. And Wisconsin consistently ranks as among the worst in the nation in health and wellness outcomes for black children, migrant children, and children of color. (Annie E Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT Data Book, 2016).
No one working in the system wants to produce these outcomes. The challenge is to redesign the inherited system so that it no longer produces and reinforces segregation and unequal outcomes as it was originally designed to do. This is the challenge and the opportunity that led to the founding of the Sankofa Community Academy.
What is the opportunity? Boaventure De Soussa Santos, Distinguished Legal Scholar in UW Madison’s Law School and Director Emeritus of the School of Sociology, University of Coimbra (Portugal), has famously said in relation to rising nationalism and the global migrant crisis that “Alternatives are not lacking in the world. What is indeed missing is an alternative thinking of alternatives.”
Dr. Molefi Kete Asante ‘s model of Afrocentric curriculum is an alternative approach to educating, with demonstrated success in changing not only the learning outcomes but the life outcomes of students who learn through the model.

Our Board

Mrs. Andrea Bell-Myers
Founder of Sankofa Community Academy; Elementary, Middle School, Special education teacher, as well as adjunct instructor

​Dr. Moreen K Travis Caravan
Interim Vice President of Academic and Faculty Affairs, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science

​Mr. Paul Myers
Summa cum laude master’s physical therapy & UWP Health Advisory board

​Ms. Adwoa Asentu
Communication specialist and ethnic studies​

​Mr. Anderson J. Lattimore
former chief financial officer in the 3rd largest school district in WI **​

​Ms. Velia Gomez
Special Education and Spanish & English/EL

Ms. Heidi Helgeson
Special Education Specialist​

​Cynthia Brown
Financial specialist/Record keeping​

​Dr. Kenneth Jackson
Retired superintendent **

Mrs. Anita Cruz, Esquire
Juris doctorate and financial planning **​

​Mrs. Rebecca Swenson
Health Care Nurse, FNP, BSN​

Dr. Maya Evans
Director of Growth Strategies, University of Wisconsin-Madison **​

​Rev. Dr. Monica Cummings
Master of Divinity & founder of the Kenosha Center for Spirituality and Healing​

​Dr. Molefi Kete Asante
Chair of African American Studies Program at Temple University and founder of the first Ph.D. Program in African American Studies​

Karen Evans
Retired principal **​

MEET THE BOARD AND AWARD WINNING CONSULTANTS