Sal Cusmano

Student Learning Analysis

4-5-21

The Student Learning Analysis (SLA) I conducted was on the Civil Rights Era and looked

at initial preconceptions on how African Americans and other minorities were treated in the

North compared to the South. The standard I tied my assessment to was Michigan K-12 High

School US History Standard 8.3.5 Tensions and Reactions to Poverty and Civil Rights – analyze

the causes and consequences of the civil unrest that occurred in American cities, by comparing

civil unrest in Detroit with at least one other American city. The other city I chose to compare to

Detroit was Selma, Alabama. To start the analysis, I had my students complete a pre-write the

day prior to instruction which I used to help construct my PowerPoint. Following that, I

presented my material and had the students complete a post-write to show their newfound

understanding.

Section 1: Assessment and State Standard

My pre-assessment for the students was for them to answer the following question: “Do you

think life was better in the North or South for African Americans during the Civil Rights Era?

Why or why not?”. This assessment was tied into the standard of 8.3.5 Tensions and Reactions

to Poverty and Civil Rights – analyze the causes and consequences of the civil unrest that
occurred in American cities, by comparing civil unrest in Detroit with at least one other

American city. The city I had my students compare to Detroit was Selma, Alabama. The reason I

chose Selma was because I wanted to have a very stark example to compare to the Detroit Race

Riots when presenting my PowerPoint. That way when the students did their post write it

would force them to really think if the North was better than the South during the Civil Rights

Era while not skewing the information by comparing the Detroit Race Riots to a more peaceful

southern protest.

Section 2: Assessment Produced Useful Information

When reading through my students’ initial thoughts there were a few points that came up that

had me alter my materials. The first and biggest change occurred because I had a few students

who were new to the US ask me what I meant when I was discussing the North and the South in

the context of the United States. The other main point was that students brought up slavery in

their responses in a way that made it seem like they thought slavery was still going on. These

points of information were very useful to me as I designed my lesson materials. Also, many of

my students said that they thought the North was better for African Americans than the South.

Section 3: Analysis of Assessment Produced Insights to Student Thinking

The initial responses produced a great deal of insight into my students’ thinking. In the

responses I received, 20% of the students mentioned slavery as though the practice was still

going on even though by this point in history slavery had been outlawed for 80-100 years. An

example of this can be found in this student’s response:

“I think life was better in the North for African Americans during the Civil Rights Era because

almost all slavery dropped and got replaced. Because there is not a lot of work that they

would have to do being a slave life would be better in the North.”

In addition to this, one of my students who was new to the US was confused by the terms

North and South in the context of the United States and race relations and asked me and the

co-teacher what was meant by those terms before he submitted his response. This was also

very beneficial to me as I had taken it as read that all of my students knew what I was referring

to when I used the terms North and South, but that wasn’t the case, and it was helpful to know

that I shouldn’t have assumed that prior knowledge.

Finally, 90% of my students argued that life was better in the North for African Americans than

in the South and that the North was mostly free from the racism that plagued the South. An

example of this would be this student’s response:

“I think life was better in the north for African Americans. I think life was better there,

because first off, I feel like there was better jobs in the north, like factories are better than

farms. Secondly, African Americans were more accepted in the north rather than in the

south.”

Section 4: Instruction is Formed by Student Thinking

With the information acquired above I amended the materials I was using to help compare and

contrast the North and the South and their treatment of African Americans during the Civil

Rights Era. The first change I made was to include a map of the United States that broke the

United States up into regions like the Northeast, Midwest, South, Southwest, Northwest, etc.
and I went over which states were a part of each region to give my students more context of

the two areas that are being compared. The other change I made was to include a brief timeline

that included major events for civil rights to help clear up confusion about slavery still being

around in the 1960s. These changes were easy to make, and they seemed to help students

understand the material more.

Section 5: Additional Assessment Info Determined Student Growth

Following the presentation of the material I had the students write a post-write answering the

same pre-write question on if life was better in the North or the South during the Civil Rights

Era. The post-write responses showed a lot of growth. Whereas previously students would

mention things like slavery being a reason for the south being worse than the north, the post-

write responses showed more nuance and were more chronologically appropriate. In fact, after

the lecture 0% of my students mentioned slavery as a thing that was occurring anymore at this

point.

An example of this can be seen in the follow up response of the first student

“I think life was just as bad in both the North and South for African Americans during the Civil

Rights Era because there were many protests that ended in a bad way. Also, both sides didn't

have many rights to begin with. In both the Detroit race riots and the Selma there were riots

that would happen between protestors and the police. Protestors from both sides got beat

and many things got destroyed. As well as many protestors dying. Living in Selma would be

better than living in Detroit however, I still believe that both sides were just as bad.
Some reasons why Selma was just a little bit better was because President Johnson

eventually let people march safely. He even called the national guard to protect protestors

and to prevent riots from happening. Even though there were still many bad things about

Selma it was better than Detroit. In Detroit there were more bad things happening than good

and the riots were worse than in Selma. Riots had caused businesses to go out of business

and many fires to start.

Yes, my opinion has changed from the pre-write now that I have more resources. Now I think

that they are the same and just as bad. However, I am leaning towards Selma more just

because the president made sure that they marched safely as well as them passing a voting

rights act, which gave African Americans the right to vote. I believe that Detroit had some

good things happen, but they were mostly bad. I am still in the middle as of where it would

be better to live because they both have good things and bad things.”

This response shows a lot of growth in that it no longer mentioned slavery as an institution that

was taking place in this point in history, but instead focused on the lack of rights African

Americans had during this time period.

The responses also showed more nuance by looking at how students now argued that the

North may not have been free from all the racism that student originally thought. In fact, 100%

of my students mentioned some of the North’s flaws in their post-write responses whereas

previously they mainly focused on the issues of the south. While about 90% of these responses

argued that the north was just as bad as the south, about 5% of my students argued that the

South was better than the North since that was where most of the fights for civil rights were
taking place. An example of this growth can be seen in the follow up response from the second

student:

“Looking back at the pre-write and the PowerPoint, I believe it was somewhat better to live

in the south. Finding out that where neighborhoods were mostly black were safer for the

African Americans. Detroit was not safe, because it was mostly white.

Searching through the PowerPoint, I found out that when African Americans were moving

north, going to Detroit was dangerous, because it was mostly white meaning the police force

was white. This was an issue, because it led to lots of racial profiling and police brutality.

Following was the economic downturn of Detroit. This resulted in massive unemployment.

Eventually followed the Detroit riots that ended horrible with 43 deaths 7000 arrested, 1400

burnt buildings, and 5000 homeless.

Lastly, the south was a good place to live at, because when they had the Selma to

Montgomery march the U.S. National Guard troops were protecting the protestors. On this

march protestors marched to make things right and let people vote without literary tests.

This march was a 54-mile march for good to raise awareness.”

This student showed growth by looking at how although the South faced its own issues there

were many protest marches going on to help guarantee the rights of African Americans in the

south and that the north had its own issues with police brutality and lack of jobs for African

Americans and moving on from the simple view of North is good and South is bad.

Conclusion
My SLA was conducted on the idea of comparing the North and the South during the Civil Rights

Era and to challenge the comfortable idea that during that time things in the North were fine

and it was only the South that had any issues regarding race relations. The pre-write portion of

the assessment produced very useful information and gaps in student knowledge such as what

is meant by the terms North and South in the context of the United States and race relations

and when slavery ended in relation to the time period we were discussing. Using that

information, I was able to alter my teaching materials to include a map of the US that broke the

US into regional zones to make it easy for students to understand what was meant by North

and South as well as a timeline to show students when slavery ended in relation to the era of

time we were discussing during that unit. Finally, my students showed great advancement in

their thinking when discussing the perils faced by many African Americans in both the North

and the South during the Civil Rights Era.