What Works: “Messaging. Mentoring. Monitoring.
Ministering. Money.” – Dr. Robert M. Franklin, President of Morehouse College
The University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of
Education’s Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education released a report
highlighting the success stories of 219 black youth from 42 campuses who graduated
from colleges and universities. It is worth
noting that out of the 221 nominees, only two declined participating in the
interviews conducted for the study, showing the high interest in and the need
for encouraging future minority student enrollment. The paper focuses not
on the already widely discussed disparities of educational achievements between
Black male students compared to other students
but on how these successful participants gained admission into competitive
institutions and became actively involved on their campuses.
The interviews address pre-college experiences and
the influences that family members, peers, and significant others had on the developing
college aspirations of the participants interviewed. The study then questions
which interventions and support mechanisms aided these aspirations and what
compelled the students to become engaged both academically and
extracurricularly once on campus. While pre-college socioeconomic factors often
contribute to disparities in college enrollment and campus involvement, 56.7%
of the participants came from low-income and working class families, providing
a large sample of success stories that are important to consider in
relationship to the dominant discourse
on Black male disengagement. Additionally, the study navigates how these
participants became successful in “environments that were sometimes racist and
often culturally unresponsive” on college campuses that were predominantly White,
revealing valuable lessons that, if changes are made, could impact future
students both on and off campus.
The report briefly cites compelling statistics that
speak both to cultural and economic barriers; demonstrating the need for
studies examining the success of Black males rather than only focusing on
demographic failures. According to the U.S. Department of Education, in
comparison to Black female students, Black male students consistently had lower
graduation rates at all higher educational levels. A publication entitled “They
(Don’t) Care about Education: A Counternarrative on Black Male Students’ Responses
to Inequitable Schooling” found that Black male students have the lowest
college completion rate among both the sexes and all racial groups in higher
education, with only 33.3% of students graduating baccalaureate degree programs
at public colleges and universities within six years against 48.1% of students
graduating overall. And rates of college enrollment for Black males have
remained stagnant since 1976 at 4.3%, found in another report
analyzing trends in Black make status in flagship public universities in all 50
states. These statistics both prove the noteworthy nature of the successes of
the participants interviewed and the critical need for reforms aimed at
supporting Black male achievements.
The study found that all the participants had strong
family support systems with the assumption that, even in families with no
background of higher education, there was never
question of whether or not to go to college. Instead, the question was where to go. Other key findings suggested
that parental knowledge of the college process was a key factor for college
entry, including how to enroll students in college preparatory programs, how to
select colleges and how to apply for scholarships. Secondary and postsecondary
school teachers and guidance counselors were often found to maintain practices
that negatively affected Black male students’ opportunities, and so, the study
recommends professional development programs that will help those counselors
focus energies on alleviating educational disparities and learn how to better
work with minority students.
Other recommendations included connecting teens to
effective college preparatory experiences, removing financial barriers to
college enrollment, building summer programs to facilitate the high school to
college transition, assuming institutional responsibility for black male
achievement, supporting ethnic student organizations, developing peer support
venues, addressing campus racial issues, solving masculinity and gender
relationship misperceptions within the Black male student population, and creating affirming spaces for gay,
bisexual, and questioning Black students, if not just improving LGBT programs
overall. The recommendations in this report suggest there is a strong role for
policymakers. Lifting barriers and
creating opportunities through policy is an essential role in ensuring
equitable outcomes and supporting black male students on their path to success.
For more information on how to reduce disparities in
education, see our Policy for
Results reports on Increasing
College Completion, Increasing
High School Completion, and Improving
Early Grade-Level Reading.
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