Closing the achievement gap has been a continuous topic of conversation in the United States for decades. School leaders have explored many ways to address the academic achievement of their marginalized student population. One approach has been the implementation of culturally relevant pedagogy and curriculum. By implementing a curriculum in which students see themselves and the world around them, educators empower students to think independently and critically about topics and concepts. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the impact of a culturally relevant curriculum on African American students' achievement on the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) test. The participants in this study were African American students enrolled in an urban charter school system at three different locations within Saint Louis, Missouri. This quantitative study was a multi-year cohort comparative analysis evaluating the implementation of a culturally relevant curriculum with African American students and their achievement on the state assessment's English Language Arts segment. The intent of this study was to discover if students exposed to a culturally relevant curriculum have more academic success on the standardized test. This study revealed that only one grade level of the culturally relevant curriculum made a significant impact on the MAP scores. Educators must be diligent in consciously working to incorporate the culturally relevant curriculum into the classroom to reach their ultimate goal, which is to build successful citizens with critical thinking skills. By creating a curriculum where students see themselves in the world around them, educators empower them to think independently and grow to be better scholars. The ability to know where oneself fits into the world at such a young age is a lesson these students will carry with them forever. Further research on the long-term effects of these lessons should be a priority in the education field. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]