This summer, communities across the nation celebrated the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. As the leader of a K-12 charter school in Trenton, New Jersey—the site of a pivotal battle in the American Revolutionary War—I am using this milestone to urge my fellow educators to reconsider whose stories we tell about our nation’s founding.
Black and brown students have been asked to learn through curricula that were not designed to reflect or engage them. Traditional historical curricula often rely on instruction that is outdated and disconnected from students’ lived realities.
For many, this gap broadens due to a narrow cultural lens that highlights slavery and leaps to the civil rights movement, repeating well-known facts and tales of Black trauma.
The solution to igniting these young minds may be right in their backyard.
I was born and raised in Trenton, a city where history isn’t just found in textbooks; it’s right outside our front doors. Trenton is where Washington’s troops claimed victory after crossing the Delaware. The city later became the backbone of American industrial manufacturing.
Today, as a Black woman and CEO of Foundation Academies, I am proud to lead a school educating more than 1,200 students in the hometown that shaped me. This personal connection drives my conviction that education must be rooted in place.
When educators overlook the stories beneath their feet, they miss a powerful opportunity to engage young people who have long felt excluded from the American narrative.
While the well-established stories of America’s history are vital, a narrow focus on them creates an equity gap. It teaches students that their ancestors were footnotes rather than architects of history, and that their heritage is grounded only in violence and oppression.
This lack of recognition, combined with negative framing that ignores Black agency, is a systemic barrier to sustained student engagement.
‘Men Without Shoes’
Place-based learning, also known as place-based education, offers a different path. The approach immerses students in local heritage, culture, and hands-on experiences as the foundation for their studies.
Research from the University of Alaska Fairbanks shows that even a single place-based assignment can foster a deep sense of community and belonging—a dynamic that holds just as true on the streets of Trenton as anywhere else in the nation.
For district leaders, place-based learning aligns with high-impact educational practices, connecting academic content to real-world contexts students care about while encouraging improved attendance and academic achievement.
We saw this firsthand when, earlier this year, we partnered with the Princeton Battlefield Society to apply this approach in our high school. In recognition of the 100th anniversary of Black History Month and the nation’s semi-quincentennial, we challenged 30 students from our Black Student Union to uncover the lives of the 14 Black Revolutionary War soldiers who fought in the battles of Trenton and Princeton.
Historians estimate Black soldiers comprised between 5% and 20% of the colonial army. While scholars have long acknowledged Black participation in General George Washington’s army, little attention was paid to who these men were as individuals.
Because no information about these men exists online, our students could not rely on search engines or social media to guide their findings. Instead, they used academic databases and primary sources at the Trenton Free Public Library, examining pension records to reconstruct erased lives.
Structured as a professional-level research team, students moved away from a traditional book report toward a collaborative multimedia product. This past February, their work culminated in “Men Without Shoes,” a first-of-its-kind interactive exhibit featuring a student-produced documentary and AI-generated monologues that gave voice to these 18th-century heroes.
A new pride in place-based learning
The results of this place-based shift were clear:
- Skills development: Students sharpened critical thinking, creativity and collaboration – skills transferable beyond the classroom.
- Academic confidence: Connecting Black patriots to their own community reshaped how students viewed themselves in history.
- Community pride: Students demonstrated increased motivation to learn and take pride in Trenton and Princeton.
For district leaders, the roadmap to scalable place-based learning starts locally:
- Collaborate with museums, artists, authors and historical societies who can unlock expertise and resources.
- Integrate modern tools such as AI and video production—tools students are familiar with—to support digital literacy and student engagement.
By championing place-based learning, we do more than teach historical facts. We empower students to see they are making history.
When students realize that history didn’t just happen somewhere else, they gain the confidence to make it their own—both in and out of the classroom—and to rethink how they can impact the next 250 years of our nation’s existence.
