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What is Monarch Training and Development LLC?

In early 2017, Abdul Muhammad helped organize a local march with Black Lives Matter Iowa founder Sean Carlton-Appleton, who decried “soft racism” in the area.

“According to a press release for the event,” the Ames Tribune reported, “those issues include the recent Ames school report card that highlighted significant racial disparities between black and white students, racial epithets being used at Iowa State University football games, swastikas being posted around the ISU campus and stories of subtle and blatant racism in Ames. Although the march is attempting to address some issues that have been experienced at ISU, Carlton-Appleton said it is not an ISU organization.”

With the Black population in Ames at about three percent, Muhammad acknowledged that meetings mostly had white participants. In the local media article, Muhammad said the community hadn’t had a significant racial event. “Just because we haven’t had that, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t issues that affect black families and black lives in Ames, Iowa,”

Research shows that a multimodal learning approach for adult learners has several benefits. This approach is the best way to reinforce learning of new concepts, aids in long term retention, helps participants incorporate new information into their daily practice, increases feelings of efficacy, and reduces teacher’s feelings of irrelevance of content (Brookfield, 1990; Brockett, 2008; Beavers, 2009). Additionally, using a multimodal workshop facilitation approach empowers teachers to be viewed as the experts that they are rather than feeling like they are being passively taught (Brockett, 2008).”

Then, later, Muhammad spoke at an Ames board meeting to support Black Lives Matter Week of Action in the school district. Not long after, a local media report published a screenshot, allegedly written by his wife, Jean Muhammad, the student and family advocate in Ames High School since 2017. 

In the screenshot, she allegedly wrote: 

“Want a quick glimpse into *our* interracial marriage?

Me-Going to give Abdullah a kiss goodnight, ‘Okay, I’m going to bed…’

Abdul- singing in his reggae voice, ‘I say we kill da white people…’

Me-Laughing hysterically, ‘Okay, love you.’”

Black Lives Matter at Schools became the subject of statewide controversy.

What services does the  Monarch Training and Development LLC offer?  

• Speaking and keynote talks
• “Dismantling Race WORKshop”
• “Implicit Bias WORKshop”
• “Equity audit”
• “Consulting and strategic planning”

What K-12 work has the Monarch Training and Development LLC done? 

IOWA

Ames Community School District

The morning of Monday, Jan. 20, 2020, Ames High School in Ames Community School District hosted a 2-1/2-hour event called, “Understanding Implicit Bias WORKshop,” led by local consultant, Abdullah Muhammad, a founder of Monarch Training and Development, for a $3,500 fee. 

According to Invoice #200302, Muhammad charged $15.56 per hour per participant, for a total bill of $3,500 for 90 participants. He waived a $700 fee for a half-hour time extension and included his three-and-a-half hours for event preparation, planning meetings and post-session debrief.

The contract noted the “WORKshop” would include “experience-sharing” and “individual reflection.” It said: “Host understands that the format of the WORKshop is designed to be a mixture of content-delivery methods including lecture, group discussion, experience-sharing, individual reflection, and preliminary action planning.