Supporting the Academic Success of African American Young Men

Welcome

For the past 2 months I have been working with a charter school on improving the academic and social experiences for their young men. This coed, urban, school has had tremendous success over the years in educating their students and preparing them for college. The student population is 100% African American. They recognize that they have had significantly more success with their girls.

After working with the school leadership to map out the project, the Head of School informed his faculty and the schools board of trustees about the project. Since that time I have begun the work of conducting what we are calling a programmatic “audit” or evaluation to better understand the reasons why the boys have not done as well, and to develop specific programming and training designed to improve their approach with boys. This includes examining the available “hard” data (grades, attendance, SAT scores, etc.).

I am also conducting a series of focus groups with faculty, administrators, students, parents to get a their perspectives on why the young men have not performed as well as the young women. These focus groups will meet periodically through the year to guide programmatic efforts and to track progress. I added this “soft” data component to compliment the hard data and more completely explain what is going on.

While it is early in the process, a clear theme has emerged. The school is challenged with providing social and emotional support to students experiencing stress from the social and environmental influences that are a part of urban life.

Students identified a need for adult support in dealing with the following issues:

• Racial and gender stereotypes
• Violence and gangs in their communities
• Alcohol and other drugs
• Sex and sexuality
• Peer pressures
• Education and career aspirations 

Interestingly the adults agreed that the young men needed support in dealing with these issues. At the same time they felt challenged with how to best support the young men. While there were individual adults who were effective in supporting young men in dealing with these issues, there was not a school-wide approach. There is also limited support to parents in helping their sons navigate these issues.

Faculty reported that it was easier to focus on academic skills, curriculum, and test scores. When they notice a student struggling the tendency was to work harder in these areas, because that was what they were trained to do. They wanted to provide better support, but they did not know how.

The social and emotional stress these young men are dealing with makes it difficult to be fully available for learning, and puts them at risk for acting out or getting into trouble at school. Any plan or approach to improve the academic performance for these young men must include a component to address their social and emotional needs.  

I will continue to work with the school over the summer and into next school year to develop a plan/approach to better support these young men. I will continue to periodically provide progress update for this project on this blog.