Conspiracy of Care

2008-01-18T09:25:00.000-05:00

Here's an alternative for educating young Black Americans. Unfortunately it feels like a new form of segregation. It will have the pluses of some of the segregated schools that produced many well educated Black citizens, but it will also deny many young Blacks what our tax dollars should provide. It is a dilemma to either pull out and try to save a generation, or continue to work on reform but perhaps have too many lost kids.

Black Americans should be applauded
By Karl Priest Published 01/15/2008 Commentaries and Reports Rating:
KARL PRIEST
Karl Priest was a West Virginia educator for 34 years in including four years as a principal. He taught students from kindergarten through ninth grade, mostly as a math specialist, and spent his last nine years as a Junior High and Middle School math teacher. Karl is currently the State Coordinator for Exodus Mandate (http://exodusmandate-wv.org/).
View all articles by Karl Priest

Black Americans should be applauded
Karl Priest
Columnist EdNews.org

While black citizens are understandably angry about what happened to a young woman in Logan County, WV they should be even more upset about what is happening to their children nationwide. Every school day black students are being neglected (or worse) by the public school system.The reality of this shameful situation should warrant a march out of the public schools by Black Americans.

Black professor Walter Williams looked at the research statistics and concluded that "black education is a disgrace". Dr. Williams believes that, rather than an apology for slavery, the government should apologize for "fraudulent education" and the devastating impact the public schools have had upon black students.

Harvard's Civil Rights Project has reported findings that government intervention in the public schools has not reduced racial achievements gaps. The director of the Civil Rights Project has called the report "depressing". The situation is even worse than depressing.

The superintendent of Pittsburgh City schools, Mark Roosevelt, calls the gap between black and white students the "civil rights issue of our time". He calls the situation "bleak, terrifying, embarrassing, humiliating" and states that America is threatened because of it. Roosevelt admits that the longer that children stay in the public schools the worse off they become.

In 2002 the national NAACP office declared that "The facts are clear: the persistent failure of schools to provide equality of opportunity for all students is having a devastating impact on communities of color and the future of our nation. "Unfortunately, the NAACP wants to try to fix the failing public schools. Their honorable goals will be to no avail.

The Nation's Report Card, which is provided by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), has revealed that "the Black-White achievement gap between socioeconomically similar children is null (amounting to nothing) at kindergarten entry but sizable by third grade". In plain English, the data shows that the schools play a major part of the problem in causing the achievement gap.

For West Virginia, the Nation's Report Card discloses that, in 2007, 54% of black 4th graders and 48% of black 8th graders scored below Basic in reading.In mathematics the 2007 below Basic percentages for black children were 36% and 69% respectively.Those figures are shocking and sad.

In 2004 America observed the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Blacks cannot wait another 50 years for the public schools to do what those courageous blacks of 1954 had hoped for. In a terrible twist of fate the public schools first barred out black children and now the public schools have bogged down black children. The public schools have been called the "Great Equalizer", but who wants to be equal with failure?

The public schools have been a major battle ground for the Civil Rights movement and Black Americans should be applauded for what they have accomplished in this regard. Unfortunately, they were swimming in the sea of racism and climbed aboard the public school Titanic which was already sinking. Now, Black Americans need to realize the gaping hole in the public schools cannot be plugged and they must rescue their children and board the lifeboats of alternative education.

Most black parents are like all loving parents. They do not want their children socialized with drug and alcohol using classmates.Likewise black parents are concerned about school violence and sexual predators. Black parents demand rigorous academics and high morals. Also, many blacks maintain that the public schools only provide superficial Black History while providing low expectations and both overt and subtle racism.

There is a wonderful option for thinking black parents to achieve true educational freedom without the daily lessons of servitude and conformity provided by the public schools.

Homeschooling is growing by leaps and bounds and it is difficult to keep up with the data, but in 2003 black children made up about 5 percent of homeschooled students. The rate of black homeschoolers is increasing faster than homeschoolers in general. Reports from media sources such as NPR, Newsday, CNN, BET, Reuters, FOX, the Chicago Tribune and others reveal that black families are choosing homeschooling by the thousands.

Referring to public schools, Gilbert Wilkerson (founder of the Network of Black Homeschoolers) proclaims, "We can do better. We have the courage, the strength, the spirituality, the economics--everything we need within the Black community." He also says that blacks do not have to settle for government education programs. "Why are we waiting around for somebody else...to give us a hand for something we can do ourselves? I know we can do better."

There is real diversity of reasons why blacks choose to homeschool.The black adults who homeschool are a mixture of single and dual parents, as well as grandparents. Also, the philosophies and learning strategies of black homeschoolers are as unique as the individual families.

The founders of the National Black Home Educators Association remind us that homeschooling is not a new idea. It was commonly done by everyone's ancestors. For blacks, after slavery, many black mothers did a wonderful job homeschooling their children.

A Google search for "black homeschool" will bring up an amazing number of resources for black parents who want to find a way to give their children the education they deserve. Also, Exodus Mandate-West Virginia will provide assistance upon request.

Granted, many blacks have great reservations about abandoning the public schools. Many black homeschooling pioneers have carefully thought through those and other issues.Joyce Jenkins (director of the National African-American Homeschoolers Alliance) says that blacks "no longer want their children used as guinea pigs in educational experiments to see if their test scores will rise a percentage point or two."

The bottom line is that it is about parents protecting and doing what is best for their children. For the sake of their children, blacks marched up the public school steps. Now, the evidence is overwhelming that black children are at risk. Thankfully, blacks have the right to march back down the public school steps to education freedom.

Published January 16, 2008

Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by SKR) Rating:
As a public high school teacher I have observed that black students (particularly boys) fall terribly behind. Public schools aren't ignoring black students. They can't. The test scores are too important if nothing else. I've observed the problem to be some sort of society based mystery and its not just a black thing. These kids don't care about the sacrifices their great grandparents made to earn it. I've sat with a group of my boys and argued the math that, yes, a college degree will get you farther in life then selling drugs. Their white peers are only a half step behind them on the way down. On the up side I've found that black girls are the most motivated and most rewarding group to work with in general. We must find a way to reach ALL of our boys and teach them the value of respect and hard work.
Comment #2 (Posted by Jim Billingsley) Rating:
A courageous letter that presents real solutions to a very real problem. It is not just black children who have been condemned to the irreclaimable government schools, but all children whose parents shirk their responsibility to provide their children an education grounded in truth. The government schools today are incompatable with any family whose values include: virtue, honesty, chastity, responsibility, and liberty.
Comment #3 (Posted by Joseph Mastropaolo) Rating:
The article is excellent but does not go far enough. The root reason that the public schools fail Black America is their monolithic teaching of evolution that portrays blacks as nearly apes. The public schools teach that Darwin was a great scientist. Well, here is what Darwin said: "At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes . . . will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as the baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla." -- Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man. New York: A.L. Burt Co., 1874. p. 178. Black Americans should boycott the public schools until evolution is expelled.
Comment #4 (Posted by Dr. Bill Bray) Rating:
Karl has a message we all need to hear, and heed. Good stuff.
Comment #5 (Posted by EME) Rating:
As a home schooling mom, I am delighted to see black families leave government schools and begin to home school their children. This is a great article and I pray that it encourages more black Americans to join the exodus from the public school system.

2007-12-16T15:57:00.000-05:00

He Gets It!!

Howard Stevenson who spoke last week in the Atlas/Wheelock series on the Education of Young Black Males turned out to be another outstanding presenter who had much to share with both his audiences. Now in its second year, this series has brought to Boston some of the best educators in higher education who understand the issues around the eduacation of Black male youth, and who have demonstrated effective strategies for improving their lives.

Stevenson is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania and ran a five year research project at a disciplinary school in Philadelphia in which he woked on ways to help young men and women deal with anger. The project seized on moments of anger during the school day when staff members could help students process what they were feeling and explore alternatives.
“...entitled PLAAY (Preventing Long-term Anger and Aggression in Youth), found that the impact of a cultural socialization intervention reduced the rejection sensitivity of the PLAAY youth compared to a control group. The intervention involved the culturally relevant teaching of emotional empowerment through athletic movement in basketball (TEAM), self-control in martial arts (MAAR), cultural pride reinforcement within a psycho-educational group (CPR), and bonding in family interventions (COPE) to help youth with histories of aggression to manage their anger within school settings. COPE (Community Outreach through Parent Empowerment) focused on identification and promotion of resilience of the parents of boys with histories of aggression.

Insights from the program were numerous;

Stevenson told both Monday’s and Tuesday’s audiences that if they were to take nothing else from the sessions, they should leave with the mantra “Boys not men”. He emphasized that these were kids in different developmental stages from ages 5 to 19, and too often they were treated like men and punished like men. Gloria Ladson Billings made the exaxct point in her session last month.

Style matters- While it may seem to be an excess to some, it actually provides a way of making things work, either by providing an external or internal cover. Style is particularly important in young black male culture.
How we manage hypervulnerability is important. Young black males are particularly vulnerable to slights whether they are racially motivated or not, and need help in knowing how to maqnage them.
In Catch 22 ,“you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t”; Stevenson felt these kids were in Catch 33; “you’re damned even if you don’t do anything.
Black boys need to know that they are often not being treated as an individual but as representatives of a stereotype. This changes the effectiveness of their response. If they are being treated as men and as a threat, bravado may be counter productive-even if iy feels good.
Get them to buy your arguement. Don’t just tell them but let them make their case for what they think should happen, and then present your case to them. If they buy it, great; if not, at least they’ve heard your take.
Fear of Calamity-not to fear something that is dangerous is unhealthy

It was clear that Stevenson understands the life of the Black male, and the issues he constantly faces. He presented this environment clearly and cogently, stating things as they are, and coming up with specific ways to counteract them.
He gets it!!!

2007-12-11T17:58:00.002-05:00

Howard C. Stevenson

Associate Professor & Chair, Applied Psychology and Human Development Division

Education
1980: B.A., Psychology and Sociology, Eastern College
1985: M.A., Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary
1985: Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology

Areas of Expertise
African-American psychology
At-risk youth and high-risk boys
Family and parental engagement
Racial integration and re-segregation

Professional Biography
Dr. Stevenson is an associate professor and director of the Professional Counseling and Psychology Program (PCAP) in the Applied Psychology and Human Development Division at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1994 to 2002, he was Faculty Master of the W. E. B. DuBois College House at Penn. In 1993, Dr. Stevenson received the W. T. Grant Foundation’s Faculty Scholar Award, a national research award given to only five researchers per year which funds five years of research. In 1994, Dr. Stevenson was a Presidential Fellow at the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, where he participated with 35 other community activists and researchers from 30 countries to present their community health intervention projects. In 1995, Dr. Stevenson served as a member of a 12-member academic panel to consult on the development of a National Strategic Action Plan for African-American Males, sponsored by the National Drug Control Policy Office in the Office of the President. Dr. Stevenson has 20 years of experience as a clinical supervisor and therapist in family and child psychotherapy. For three years, he served as an administrator, a clinical supervisor, and a family therapy trainer in residential treatment centers for emotionally disturbed adolescents in the State of Delaware’s Division of Child Mental Health. Currently, he consults with various community-based mental health and social work agencies.

Research Interests and Current Projects
His research and consultation work identify cultural strengths that exist within families and seek to integrate those strengths in interventions to improve the psychological adjustment of children and adolescents and families. From 1998 to 2003, he directed two research projects that underscored themes of cultural relevance and empowerment and were funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. The first, entitled PLAAY (Preventing Long-term Anger and Aggression in Youth), found that the impact of a cultural socialization intervention reduced the rejection sensitivity of the PLAAY youth compared to a control group. The intervention involved the culturally relevant teaching of emotional empowerment through athletic movement in basketball (TEAM), self-control in martial arts (MAAR), cultural pride reinforcement within a psycho-educational group (CPR), and bonding in family interventions (COPE) to help youth with histories of aggression to manage their anger within school settings. COPE (Community Outreach through Parent Empowerment) focused on identification and promotion of resilience of the parents of boys with histories of aggression. The second project involves the Success of African American Students in Independent Schools (SAAS) and was co-investigated by Drs. Margaret Beale Spencer and Edith G. Arrington. This project involved understanding the protective role of racial identity and racial socialization processes in the development of emotional coping strategies for African-American students and families in predominantly White independent schools.

Courses Taught
AFAM 310: Contemporary Issues of Identity and Community Focused Research
EDUC 522: African American Psychology
EDUC 557: Interaction Processes with Adolescents
EDUC 782: Psychological Intervention with Youth
EDUC 784: Psychological Consultation

Selected Publications
Hughes, D. L., Johnson, D., Smith, E., Rodriguez, J., Stevenson, H. C., & Spicer, P. (in press). Parents’ ethnic/racial socialization practices: A review of research and directions for future study. Developmental Psychology.

Hall, D. M., and Stevenson, H. C. (in press). Double jeopardy: Being African American and “doing Diversity” in independent schools. Teachers College Record.

Fantuzzo, J., Stevenson, H., Abdul Kabir, S., & Perry, M. (in press). An investigation of a community-based intervention for socially isolated parents with a history of child maltreatment. Journal of Family Violence.

Davis, G. Y., & Stevenson, H. C. (2006).Racial socialization experiences and symptoms of depression among Black youth. Journal of Child and Family Studies.

Cassidy, E. F. & Stevenson, H. C. (2005). They wear the mask: Hypermasculinity and hypervulnerability among African American males in an urban remedial disciplinary school context. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma, 11(4),53–74.

Stevenson, H. C., McNeil, J. D., Herrero-Taylor, T., & Davis, G. Y. (2005). Influence of neighborhood cultural diversity on the racial socialization experiences of Black youth. Journal of Black Psychology, 31(3), 273–290.

2007-12-05T07:12:00.000-05:00

Playing with Anger: Engaging the Emotional Lives of Black Boys in Schools

Free lecture: Monday, December 10, 2007, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
All day workshop: Tuesday, December 11, 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Howard Stevenson
Associate Professor and Director of the Professional Counseling and Psychology Program (PCAP)
Applied Psychology and Human Development Division
University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education

2007-11-25T13:26:00.001-05:00

Schools as Pipeline to Prison

Gloria Ladson-Billings suggestion(below) that schools by forcing kids out before graduation were funneling them into the prison system seems to be true in Texas. Those dropouts are most often Black young men, who had first been assigned to Special education. A new report by Texas Appleseed provides the data to prove the hypothesis. Below is an editorial from the Houston Chronicle regarding the resuts of the report. The full report can be found at Texas Appleseed

Editorial
Nov. 22, 2007, 7:37PM
Prison track
Texas has to make schools safe for learning without turning misbehaving students into criminals
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
Something went horribly wrong after Texas decided to crack down on mayhem in public schools by
mandating zero tolerance for weapons, drugs and violence on campus. Given broad discretion to
remove unruly pupils from class, teachers and administrators restored order. But they also created a terribly efficient fast track to prison for
a shocking number of Texas schoolchildren.
According to an analysis of statewide data for 2001-2006 and thorough studies of more than a dozen Texas school districts, the number of
students suspended and the number removed to alternative discipline campuses skyrocketed after the Legislature's 1995 overhaul of school
discipline laws. This, the public interest law group Texas Appleseed states, has caused a "school-to-prison pipeline" that puts inordinate
numbers of youngsters on a path to dropping out of school and into the juvenile justice system. The far end of the pipe pours into Texas'
massive adult prison system.
Appleseed's report, "Texas' School-to-Prison Pipeline, The Impact of School Discipline and Zero Tolerance," argues that schools that suspend
and expel students to Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs for minor misbehavior not covered by the zero-tolerance mandates
unwittingly funnel kids into this life-stunting pipeline. Infractions that have gotten children suspended or expelled include profanity, rough
play, bringing prescription medicine to school and disrupting class.
For many at-risk youths, suspensions lead to lost academic ground and more behavior problems. Once in a DAEP, students are five times
more likely than mainstream counterparts to drop out. The link to crime is clear: In Texas, one in three juveniles in a Texas Youth
Commission lockup is a dropout. Dropouts comprise 80 percent of the adult prison population.
The school-to-prison pipeline is filled with black, Hispanic and special education students, who are far more likely to be given discretionary
referrals for discipline than their numbers in the school population would predict. Also, contends the American Civil Liberties Union, pressure
to do well on high-stakes standardized tests pressures schools to suspend poor academic performers in order to raise overall scores.
Much of this damage is avoidable: Fully two-thirds of Texas students sent from their school to a DAEP campus are transferred at campus
officials' discretion. (The remaining third are mandatory removals under state law.) What's more, the harm is haphazard. Some school
districts employ discretionary referrals at much higher rates than others, so where a child goes to school, rather than the offense, is a better
predictor of whether a student ends up at an alternative campus.
Groups such as Texas Zero Tolerance, a statewide organization to reform public school disciplinary codes, complain that schools have taken
zero tolerance to extremes, often involving police in minor student misconduct — even in elementary school. Students are being arrested at
school for breaking campus rules and prosecuted in court. Schools fail to immediately notify parents when their children are interrogated by
police.
School districts can improve this grim picture by employing research-based strategies and offering teachers more classroom management
training. Parents must be more involved in their children's education, and schools should provide them the tools to do so, informing parents
right away about behavior issues.
Appleseed says it will urge lawmakers to improve oversight over alternative education programs to ensure that minimum education standards
are enforced, and to intervene at schools that make inordinate numbers of disciplinary referrals. Furthermore, lawmakers should revive a bill
that passed in the House last session but died in the Senate that would have made it mandatory for districts to consider a student's intent
when determining punishment. Such a law might have kept a young Katy Independent School District student out of the criminal justice
system for writing "I love Alex" in small letters on a school wall.
Texas can do better. Schools can be safe for learning without turning students into criminals for minor infractions, exacerbating an out-of-
control dropout problem and setting kids who are merely unruly on a path toward prison.

2007-11-18T19:07:00.000-05:00

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
Gloria Ladson-Billings
Part II

The second leg of CRP’s 3 legged stool is Cultural Competence.

Cultural Competence

teacher understands culture and its role in education

teacher takes responsibility for learning about student’s culture and community

teacher uses student’s culture as basis for learning

teacher promotes a flexible use of students’ local, national, and global cultures.

In a Culturally relevant teacher’s classroom

the teacher recognizes self as a cultural being

the teacher recognizes student’s culture as a resource for learning

the teacher links student learning to student’s culture

the teacher avails self of opportunities to learn about and from student culture

the teacher serves as a “culture broker” between the school and the community

(Poor people won’t come to school to sit through long meetings. If they have a task to do, they’ll happily do it)
(middle class people are in school appearing to be helping, but are there for reconnaissance; checking out who the good teachers are)

The third leg of CRP is Socio-political Consciousness

America is an oligarchy-run by corporations

the teachers knows the larger socio-political context of the school community

the teacher plans and implements academic experiences that connect students to the larger context

the teacher believes that students’ success has consequences for his/her own future and quality of life

the teacher has an investment in the public good

The CRP classroom with socio-political consciousness
1.Teacher understands the large socio-political context in which schooling takes place
2. Teacher views his or her work as transcending the classroom
3. Teacher understands that students’ cultural, ethnic, economic, language, backgrounds impacts their social positions
4. Teacher links students with broader cultural identities and sense of personhood

SOME FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES FOR TEACHING ALL STUDENTS WELL

Our children are educable.

When students are treated as competent, they are likely to demonstrate competence

When teachers provide instructional “scaffolding” students can move from where they are, to where they need to be.
the focus of the classroom must be instructional

Real education is about extending students’ thinking and abilities.

Effective teaching involves in-depth knowledge of both the student and the subject matter.

The above 6 principles of teaching need to guide us all in our work as teachers.It is not an easy job and we need people with real intellectual passion to be in the classroom.

2007-11-17T13:33:00.001-05:00

Gloria Ladson-Billings
Full Day Presentation
Wednesday November 14, 2007 Atlas Communities and Wheelock College

Gloria Ladson-Billings used her presentation Wednesday morning to articulate what Culturally Relevant Pedagogy is. She apologized for presenting her earlier work but said it was still the best she had to offer.

CRP is based on three equal parts

Academic Achievement (Student Learning)

Cultural Competence -Culture is what makes sense and feel right; teachers need to understand their own culture; most teacher training is psychologically directed rather than culturally

Socio-Political Consciousness-helping kids understand that what they are learning has impact outside of school

Billings explained each area and then described what each looked like in a Cultural Relevant Classroom.

Academic Achievement (Student Learning)

teacher presumes educability of all children

teacher clearly delineates what achievement means in the classroom

teacher knows the content; the learner; and how to teach content to learner

teacher supports a critical consciousness toward the curriculum

teacher considers academic achievement a complex notion; not amenable to a single static measurement

In a Culturally relevant teacher’s classroom, academic achievement is shown by

clear goals for student learning

majority of class time dedicated to teaching/learning

teacher addresses student learning

teacher can articulate individual student progress

teacher is knowledgeable and skillful

Grading
Relative to the class
Relative to the national cohort
Relative to the child’s potential at that point

2007-11-14T21:29:00.000-05:00

Gloria Ladson-Billings and Ron Walker

Gloria Ladson-Billings-Absolutely Great!

I spent an hour and a half on Tuesday evening and 3 hours Wednesday morning mesmerized by Gloria as she explained what is needed to teach all children in our schools. I had read Dreamkeepers many years ago and felt then that this women "got it", and understood teaching. After listening to her over these past two days I've become a disciple. If everyone could read or hear what she has to say and then practice it, we would move beyond the achievement gap/education deficit and really reach our children.

There is no way I can reduce her presentations since she is succinct and direct in what she says and each aspect of her talk is carefully linked to earlier parts. The best I can do is share specific points she made exactly as she made them.
What she presented Wednesday at the all day session was completely different from what she said at Wheelock Family Theater on Tuesday.

There were some specific points she made in her first presentation. She focused on how schools fail to educate black boys by perceiving them as men, and therefore a threat. What follows is treatment of their behaviors in much more severe ways than the behaviors of white children, and eventually the loss of many of these young black boys to the educational system.

Here are a few special points:

When we talk about school reform in America, we are not talking about all schools, but the 20-25 largest school systems, urban and black majority. We are basically happy with our other schools.

Black boys are suspended with a much higher frequency than any other group but what is interesting is it is not for the violation of specifically stated rules but rather of " implicit interactional codes," i.e. things that students have to figure out on their own that these are violations of the system.-disrespect; excessive noise; threat; and loitering.

there is a love/hate relationship between America and Black boys. On one level Black culture, dress, music, style are pervasive worldwide and Black athletes and entertainers are revered, but the anonymous Black man is seen as a threat, a problem to be solved. Black boys are not seen as students but as athletes and entertainers, and any Black person who is successful is considered exceptional and not really Black.

Schools see Black boys as a group to fear and that needs to be controlled. Gloria pointed out how white suburban schools have far fewer rules for the kids behavior in free space than do schools with Black populations

The dichotomy for Black males in school is infantalization to criminalization. When they are young they are seen as cute, sweet, charming but by age 9 they are seen as men and are treated with adult expectations.

Ladson-Billings says there is a different standards of "boys will be boys" when it comes to a school's treatment of black and white boys.

Teacher in urban schools often have a tacit agreement with Black male students. You don't disrupt my class and I won't
expect any work from you. They are taught with Martin Haberman's Pedagogy of Poverty.

The feminization of schools has greater impact on young Black males-demand for silence;demand for stillness;demand for respect without reciprocity; demand for responsibility without freedom; and demand for compliance without positive engagement.

Dr. Billings ended by saying schools need to move Black boys from childhood to young adulthood, not from boys to men!

During her discussion she had mentioned the number of Black men in prison and the rise from 100,000 in 1990 to over 1,000,000 in 2001. In response to a question, she pointed out that if schools throw kids out, there is no longer many manufacturing jobs in this country so they can't find decent jobs and the only place left for them is prisons

2007-11-12T22:06:00.001-05:00

Boyz to Men? Teaching to Restore Black Boys' Childhood
Free lecture: Tuesday, November 13, 2007, 4:30-6:30 p.m.
All day workshop: Wednesday, November 14, 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Gloria Ladson-Billings
Professor Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Past President, AERA

2007-11-02T08:32:00.000-04:00

Unexpected source of support for single-sex classrooms and schools

Unfortunately this opinion piece by an economics professor at Harvard in today's Boston Globe focuses on the aggression differences between boys and girls, not their learning style differences, but it makes some good points.

EDWARD L. GLAESER
Violence, learning, and the gender divide
By Edward L. Glaeser | November 2, 2007

RECENT STORIES about whether men and women think and learn differently because their brains are different have argued that any cognitive differences that may exist are small and that classrooms should not be divided by gender.

I agree with the view that teaching math in different ways to girls and boys is pernicious and silly. But schooling is about teaching socially productive citizenship as well as geometry, and the difference in male and female propensities toward self-destructive violence is no myth.

Men are more than eight times as likely as women to commit murder and more than 50 times as likely to engage in a gang-related killing. My gender commits 84 percent of all violent crimes. Young men are four times more likely than women to carry a gun and five times more likely to commit suicide.

The tendency of young men to be violent is not peculiarly American. A classic criminology textbook, "Principles of Criminology," notes that crime rates for men greatly exceed those for women "for all nations, for all communities within a nation, for all age groups, for all periods of history for which reliable statistics are available, and for all types of crime except those peculiar to females."

Recent research on suicide bombers by my colleague Effi Benmelech finds that more than 94 percent are men. Male violence is not even uniquely human. Richard Wrangham's superb book, "Demonic Males," is about murder among apes.

While male violence is universal, societies differ in their ability to channel that violence. With the right kinds of investment, male aggression can be put to good uses, such as winning the World Series and running hedge funds.

We are failing our young men because we have not made that investment. We have made our streets safer by incarcerating millions, more than 90 percent of whom are male, but we have inflicted a terrible cost on millions of lost boys.

Investing more in schools that provide both economic opportunity and social skills is an alternative to prisons in the fight against youth violence. But should those schools refuse to "sort students" on the basis of gender or should they recognize and react to the greater male propensity toward crime. There is no single, right answer and pragmatism, not doctrine, should shape our policies.

Sometimes, we should refuse to recognize gender and treat men and women identically. In other settings, it may make sense to use gender-specific tools to help violent young men and even to separate boys and girls. We shouldn't require teachers to communicate in the same way to girls and boys if more specialized messages can help build better connections with both genders.

Programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters, which has helped thousands of young people, have long used gender as a sorting mechanism. A big brother may find it easier to connect with an at-risk boy and that connection may end up saving the boy from self-destruction. Indeed, its website proclaims "though Big Brothers Big Sisters is always looking for volunteers from all walks of life, right now there is a greater need for men."

Single-sex schools are among the thorniest issues relating to gender and at-risk youth, and the evidence on such schools is murky. Many single-sex schools have been successful, but their success may tell us more about the children they admit than about the impact of the school.

Still, the magnitude of society's problems compels us to be open to educational innovation. While co-education is surely best for most Americans, we should also allow parents the opportunity to enroll their children in single-sex charter schools that give more discipline for boys, more safety for girls, and more targeted support for both genders. We should not rule out a single-sex program like Baltimore's Baraka School, which gave at-risk boys the chance to live and study on the Kenyan outback.

I want my daughter and son to be taught science and math in exactly the same way, but I will not be surprised if my son needs a little more help learning to control his teenage aggression. After all, I needed a little more help.

Edward L. Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard University, is director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston.

© Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

2007-10-31T12:31:00.000-04:00

Year II-Education of Black Male Youth

The second year of the Wheelock/Delores Walker Johnson Center for Leadership at Atlas Communities afternoon and all day sessions on the Education of Black Male Youth opened yesterday with a presentation by
Benjamin Wright Chief Administrative Officer of the Metro Nashville Schools and a leader in single sex education.
While the crowd of nearly 200 teachers administrators and students expected more specific talk about single sex schools and classes, Mr. Wright promised more of that for today's full day session and focused on specific issues in the education of Black male youth in any school.

Ben Wright told of his own personal journey from Mississippi to Palo Alto California where another transposed Mississipian, his math teacher, took special interest in him and provided a tutor so he could keep up with his studies. This taught him the efficacy of such tutoring. But America has changed since those times and young black men face special hurdles.
The talk focused on the de-traumatizing of Black male youth and also the de-traumatizing of their teachers.
As Wright sees it, Black boys come to class with a different experience than most teachers realize. They are not ready to receive them and perceive them as a threat. Black boys receive negative responses to their behavior early on, and by third grade many of them have given up on school.

Wright's message to teachers is avoid confronting these boys and instead empower them. Use them as active participants in the classroom. Make sure each has a job to do. Wright commented that "tough love" has nothing about love about it. Making kids conform for no reason creates problems.

Wright said that whether it's getting to school by walking in unsafe neighborhoods, or having long bus rides to comply with desegregation Black boys come with negative baggage, and they need to be de-traumatized before we can teach them. We also need to de-traumatize ourselves from whatever is bothering us to be able to be open with them.

Wright also pointed out that educating boys is a unversal problem and European and Asian countries find the graduation rate for boys below that of girls.

Every child comes to school ready to learn, but we are not at their readiness level.

Wright takes a different view on the issue of high school graduation, and feels we put too much emphasis on it. He feels we need to focus on getting a job and having good work habits. These kids see money as important, and do not see the connection with school. We should teach them to be entreprenaurs, with a strong work ethic.

4 points if you are working with Black boys:

1. You should have hope for them that goes beyond the neighborhood. Take them out of the neighborhood.

2. Be happy with yourself.

3. All parents do the best they can.

4. Know what resources are out there to help them besides you.

We want them to have the same hope for themselves as you have for them.

Q&A

Ben wright responded to the question " shouldn't these boys learn the system and operate within it i.e. sitting down when asked?" He feels the kids should boycott the system and not let it bring them down. De-traumatize the teachers and the justice forces. Don't expect what is unnecessary.

Single sex education."Most of our country's leader went to single sex schools without being the victims of stereotyping."

Don't teach kids to be black or white; teach them to be human beings.
As to feeling sorry for Black boys: Show understanding and empathy, not sympathy. Keep expectations high.
Wright also spoke of de-traumatizing adults so they can be more effective with kids.

He offered ways to keep parents involved in the school Have a good reason for parents to come to the schoo,l and when they get there be nice to them.

Wright prefers to have times available in the school day for kids to do homework. The school day should be enough.

As a school leader you should talk about a belief system: capacity to love and be loved. Create a family feeling with faculty and students and have no negative talk about kids.

Ron Walker closed the session by telling the prospective students in the audience that if they don't have a passion for teaching, they should not go into it. It's important but very hard and demanding, and kids need that passion from teachers.

Wheelock College announced it is committed to supporting this program for three years.

Next up: Gloria Ladson Billings "Teaching to Restore Black Boys' Childhood" November 13 & 14, 2007.

I solicit comments from anyone who attended today's all day session.

2007-10-25T07:40:00.000-04:00

From Diverse Online
Current News
Five Men, Five Different Views on Educating Black Males
By Cassie M. Chew
Oct 15, 2007, 21:41

Black males are discovering that they don’t need to ‘hit the books’ in order to make a living, and this is the reason behind recent statistics that report that as many as half of them drop out of high school and don’t pursue a college education.

“There was a time when we were always taught that education was for us to get a good job, buy a house, raise a family — education doesn’t play the necessary role in those things any longer to young Black men,” according to poet, writer and filmmaker Malik Salaam.

Salaam was a member of a panel of five men who gave passionate, albeit divergent, views on how to make education a priority among today’s Black males during a forum convened by U.S. House Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., at the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference last month.

During his opening statement, Johnson cited statistics from the Schott Foundation for Public Education’s December 2006 report, “A Positive Future for Black Males,” which found only 42 percent of Black males entering ninth grade will graduate. The report also found that Black students, who comprise 17 percent of public school students, make up 41 percent of special education placements, and 85 percent of these students, are boys.

The different backgrounds of each panelist shaped their perspectives on these statistics.

Instead of education being the foundation for economic stability, success

in the music and entertainment businesses and the sale of illegal drugs has enabled some young Black men without high school diplomas to have nice homes and nice cars, said Salaam, a poet featured on the HBO series “Def Poetry.”

“We have to market education as something that builds the self — that builds the inner person, that builds you as a human being — and get away from the material aspect of it because they can replace that easily with hip hop music and crack cocaine,” Salaam said.

Dr. Robert M. Franklin, president of Morehouse University, recalled the community’s role in getting him to excel in school.

“The elders in my village, in my church, in my neighborhood, they paid attention to my educational achievements. They didn’t wait for graduation, they said ‘boy, you doing good,’” Franklin recalled.

“There’d be a mother in the church that would come by and slip a dollar in my hand and I’d say, ‘My God, somebody notices,’” Franklin said. “We have lost the practice of paying attention to the small achievements in Black boys lives,” he said.

Armstrong Williams, syndicated radio host of “The Right Side” agreed that not enough attention is paid to Black male students who are excelling academically. He didn’t agree that providing positive reinforcement is a responsibility to be shared by the community and argued that success is dependent on the child’s own desire to learn, fueled by parental encouragement.

“It doesn’t matter what the community does. It doesn’t matter what the church does. When that kid gets in that classroom, he or she must have the desire to learn, to have discipline, to respect authority, to understand that they are making an investment,” Williams said.

While growing up, Williams said his parents encouraged him to read newspapers and books. “The best example is not the pastor, it’s not the teacher, it’s the mother and the father who will have the most impact on that child, whether you like it or not,” he said.

Journalist V. Dion Haynes, a Washington Post education writer who contributed to the newspaper’s series “Being a Black Man,” agreed that part of the problem is a breakdown of families, yet said some blame must be placed on a breakdown of the school system.

“In some cases, kids come to school enthusiastic and ready to learn … a lot of them get turned off by education because of the teachers who don’t want to be there, because the building is falling apart, because the quality of the education they get it’s just so low they are not engaged.”

Instead of highlighting his own personal experiences with learning, the Rev. Jessie Jackson, president and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, said the dropout rates are a civil rights issue.

There are issues relating to educational access that weren’t addressed in Brown vs. Board of Education or during the integration of schools that don’t give Black students an equal playing field, Jackson said. He citied policies that base school funding on property tax revenue, voucher programs, educational tracking that puts White students on the academic track and Black males on the athletic track, and policies that lead to greater expulsion rates among Black students.

“I can’t use me as an example for other kids to do the same,” Jackson said. “Black kids are facing structural disorder, and that’s where we do well with equal protection under the law,” Jackson said.

Rep. Johnson said he wants to use the information to develop an initiative.

“My intent is to continue the dialogue and to digest the feedback that I continue to receive,” Johnson said. “Ultimately, the discussion should result in some workable strategies that we can all utilize to address this crisis.”

--Cassie M. Chew

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© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com

2007-10-01T12:44:00.000-04:00

SCHOOL DISCIPLINE TOUGHER ON AFRICAN AMERICANS

Here is the precis by The PEN Weekly of a Chicago Tribune report on the inequity of school discipline by race. This is not new, yet we seem unable to respond to it, and change it.

America’s schools remain as unequal as they have ever been when it comes to disciplinary sanctions (think suspensions and expulsions), according to recent data collected by the U.S. Department of Education for the 2004-05 school year, reports Howard Witt in the Chicago Tribune. On average, African American New Jersey public school students are almost 60 times as likely as white students to be expelled, Minnesota black public school students are suspended six times as often as whites, and in Iowa, black students, who constitute only five percent of public school enrollment, account for 22 percent of suspended students. In every state except Idaho, black students are suspended in numbers greater than would be expected given their proportion of the student body. In 21 states alone, the percentage of black suspensions is more than double their percentage of the student body. Unfortunately, this is not purely a socioeconomic issue, as middle- and upper-class black students are being disciplined more often that their white peers as well. Russell Skiba, widely regarded as the foremost authority on school discipline and race, says "we can call it structural inequity or we can call it institutional racism." The problem goes way beyond being unfair to black youths, as research shows that a history of school suspensions is a strong predictor of future trouble, or the first step on the "school-to-prison pipeline" for black youths. Additionally, few districts across the country have recognized the stark inequity in school discipline. One district that has done something is the Austin (Texas) Independent School District. When school administrators realized blacks accounted for 37 percent of students sent to punitive alternative schools, yet only 14 percent of the district’s population, they introduced a program aimed at encouraging positive student behaviors rather then punishing negative ones. At one school, disciplinary referrals dropped from 520 in 2001-02 to just 20 last year. Skiba cautions that "there is no silver bullet for this problem," and it is possible that schools implementing positive behavioral programs are simply reducing white suspensions, while increasing black suspensions.

2007-08-29T21:43:00.000-04:00

There was probably a better way to say this.

Ozen HS emails on black males' seating cause stir
By DEE DIXON , The Enterprise

An e-mail sent out about helping low-performing students at Ozen High School caused some confusion Monday - and drew some national media attention to boot.
Assistant Principal Elvena Colbert sent out an e-mail stating that all black male students were to sit on the front row in classrooms.

Today, The Drudge Report linked to the story:

Principal James Broussard later sent out an e-mail urging staff to disregard the one distributed by Colbert.

Broussard's e-mail explained that the intent was to identify students who received low Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills scores.

Then, teachers would have those students sit toward the front of the class or change the seating chart so they could be more easily engaged in classroom discussions, said Willis Mackey, Beaumont assistant superintendent.

He said teachers have tried to brainstorm ways to help student succeed.

"People want to beat (students) down and talk down at them," he said. "We need to have the ones who are not successful and put them on the front row. Kids who are not excelling need special attention. ... Why are we letting kids sit on the back row and fall asleep or look out the window?"

He said it is not a black and white issue but one about economically disadvantaged students.

Coming up with ways to help low-performing black male students was the topic at a recent meeting of the 100 Black Men of Greater Beaumont.

Data shows that this group performed poorly, with only 50 percent passing state assessments in math and science, Mackey said.

At that meeting, a local pastor asked what could be done to help the black students at Ozen and Central high schools, Mackey said.

Mackey, who visits Ozen about four times a week and sees how teachers are trying to come up with inventive ways to encourage students, urged members of the group to identify low-performing students and mentor them throughout the year.

Vernon Durden, 100 Black Men chairperson, said Monday's messages were taken out of context.

"The e-mail was a good-intentioned e-mail," he said. "It wasn't meant to be demeaning. It is another method to tell our boys, 'We want you to take a lead role in your education. We want you to be men.'"

The group also launched a program to encourage men to take a more active role in their children's education by dropping them off at school and mentoring.

The main intent is for our males to be more involved because the females are doing well in schools," Durden said.

"They (the young men) need to sit in front of the classroom and not in the back dozing off. ... There is no intent of anybody for all the black kids to go to the front or black males to go to the front."

He added members of the group want the low-performing students to be more aggressive about their education by paying attention in class and not "pass notes" or "goof off."

Roberto Flores, League of United Latin American Citizens, said on the outset it seemed to forget other groups but that once he understood the goal was to encourage low-performing students it made sense.

"I think everything got lost in interpretation," Flores said, adding he understands how some students want to just skate by in school.

ddixon@beaumontenterprise.com
(409) 880-0733

©The Beaumont Enterprise 2007

2007-08-21T16:17:00.001-04:00

Apropos of everything in this blog:

School discipline hits some kids more-St Petersburg FL
Boys are most likely to find themselves in the principal's office. The question is why.
By LETITIA STEIN, Times Staff Writer
Published August 17, 2007

Boys are sent to the principal's office almost twice as often as girls. And minority students are far more likely to receive referrals than their white classmates.

The St. Petersburg Times conducted an analysis of all discipline incidents last year in Hillsborough County schools. The review found several disturbing patterns:

Boys were involved in 65 percent of all disciplinary incidents. There was only one type of violation where girls outpaced boys by a significant margin: dress code.
Black boys were involved in one in four discipline incidents -- more than anyone else and far more than their percentage in the overall school population. They were frequently cited for vaguely defined transgressions, such as disobedience and inappropriate and disruptive behavior. By contrast, white students, the largest racial group, were cited less often. The handful of categories they dominated generally allow little room for interpretation, such as possession of alcohol, drugs and tobacco, leaving campus without permission, truancy and vandalism.
School officials are concerned that bullying is being under-reported. Many schools cited zero incidents. Fewer than 300 bullying incidents were recorded last year, most of them by middle schools.

Experts caution that the biggest problem with boys may be that they are misunderstood. That may be even more true with minority students.
Boys roughhouse. They learn by doing. By middle school, when discipline incidents soar, many have a child's immaturity but a man's appearance.
If we don't have the right environment of learning and emotional growth, it's very easy for them to get in trouble," said Mike Trepper, executive director of the Boys Initiative Tampa Bay, a nonprofit that is working closely with the school district.
The stakes are especially high for black boys, who were involved in 27 percent of discipline incidents last year even though they account for just over 10 percent of the population.
Cultural misunderstandings may be a factor. White females make up the majority of Hillsborough's teachers.
"I sometimes think the African-American male has gotten a bad reputation," said Natalie Smith, a seventh-grade teacher at Stewart Middle School near downtown Tampa. She finds that some of the children already are labeled troublemakers by the time they get to her room.
Smith, who is African-American, believes some black boys struggle to make sense of conflicting messages. Those from single-mother homes may be the male head of their household. They make the rules. Then at school, they must follow them.

Across Hillsborough, black students were cited for "disobedience/insubordination" and "disrespectful" behavior almost twice as often as white students.

Don't Forget:
Why Black Males are So Over-Represented in
School Discipline Systems and How This Can Be Changed
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 4pm – 6pm, Free Public Lecture
Thursday, January 24, 2008 - 8am – 4pm, All Day Seminar ($175 registration fee)  Jabari Mahiri
Associate Professor of Language and Literacy, Society and Culture
University of California Berkeley, Graduate School of Education

2007-08-20T16:54:00.000-04:00

Save the Dates (5) for the 2007 Fall Lecture Series!

The Education of Black Male Youth:
What Educators Need to Know and Be Able to Do

Cleveland's single-gender schools lag in applications

Posted by Angela Townsend August 06, 2007 21:06PM

The highly touted single-gender academies opening later this month in Cleveland haven't made much of a splash yet with parents.

As of Friday, the district had received 222 applications for the four schools -- not enough to fill even half of the available slots. The enrollment goal at each school has been set at 120 students in grades kindergarten to two.
Cleveland schools Chief Executive Eugene Sanders said he's neither surprised nor discouraged by the lower-than-capacity numbers.

"We're in the first few weeks of our campaign," he said, adding that it is not uncommon for many parents in the district to wait until closer to the start of school to enroll their children.

Sanders launched the schools as a way to offer parents new options and give the district a way to boost enrollment. Warner and Douglas MacArthur elementaries will be all-girl schools. Valley View and Kenneth Clement elementaries will educate boys.

The newly built Warner Elementary in southeast Cleveland has received the most applications with 78.

Open houses are scheduled for this week at the schools, and Sanders said recruitment would continue until classes begin. The district's recruitment campaign has included distributing magnets, posters and fliers at community events around the city.

The district also bought ad space and ad time from various community newspapers and radio stations to promote the schools. Grants from the Cleveland and Gund foundations covered those expenses.

Sanders said he did not know an exact total of applications received for Ginn Academy, the new high school designed for boys who need extra academic and support services. About 80 students had applied a few days before the original application deadline of July 30. There are 150 slots open to freshmen and sophomores.

Cleveland Teachers Union President JoAnne DeMarco said the low numbers should not be taken as a reflection on the academies.

"I think [parents] will come once the word gets out," she said.

While it may take a while for the schools to catch on with students and their parents, they're certainly popular with teachers. The district fielded more than 200 applications for the two girls' schools and 152 applications for the boys' schools.

Once parents become familiar with the schools' benefits -- including a longer school day to accommodate tutoring time -- they will join the ranks of those who have already signed up, Sanders said.

"We're asking for patience as we begin to attempt to revolutionize our schools," he said.

How to apply

Parents must apply for single-gender schools in person at Jane Addams, 2373 E. 30th St., Martin Luther King, 1651 E. 71st St, or the main administration building, 1380 E. Sixth St.

For information on the girls' academies, call 216-361-8128; for boys, 216-574-8941.

An application form for the Ginn Academy is available online.

2007-08-06T13:50:00.000-04:00

From Catherine Gewertz

Pupils eager to excel at single-sex charter
Cogito ergo sum at Boys’ Latin

BYLINE: By Martha Woodall; Inquirer Staff Writer

The Philadelphia Inquirer
August 6, 2007 Monday
CITY-D Edition

Instructor Joe Dunn discusses John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" with a group of incoming freshmen at Boys' Latin. Officials of the charter school were pleased with how many students chose to attend summer study sessions.

The hot, hazy sun was baking the sidewalks along Market Street in West Philadelphia.
And the 25 teens who gathered late last week in an office building meeting room could have been whiling away their time with myriad summer activities.

Instead, the incoming ninth graders at Boys' Latin of Philadelphia Charter School were so determined to get a head start at their new college-prep school that they had volunteered to spend the morning poring over John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and the thick novel Troy, about the Trojan War.

Many had been showing up twice a week for the sessions since the start of July to read, discuss and write about the books they were assigned to read this summer.

"You could read at home, or you could come here and read it as a group," said Jesse Oyola, 13, whose parents had driven him to and from their home in North Philadelphia for every session.

"This will give you a boost," added Khalif Khan, 15, another session regular.
Although charter officials encouraged students to attend, they didn't entice them with candy, snacks or prizes and were amazed by the turnout. They had to scramble to rent the room at First District Plaza because the charter's temporary offices eight blocks away had space for only half the crowd.

"I didn't think everybody was going to show up," said David Hardy, the charter's founder and chief executive officer.
In all, he said, 80 percent of the 150 members of the inaugural ninth grade have participated in some or all of the voluntary sessions. Students work in groups with teachers and are assisted by a few student tutors from top local public and private schools.

"These guys," Hardy said as he looked around the room at the students bent over their paperbacks, "are going to have a leg up."

Boys' Latin is a first on many fronts: It's the first single-sex charter approved in Pennsylvania. It's the first publicly funded school in Philadelphia that requires students to take Latin. And it's the first charter in the region modeled after the rigorous Boston Latin School.

The Philadelphia School Reform Commission initially rejected the charter application in January 2006 after the Education Law Center, the Women's Law Project, and the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia complained that a single-sex charter school would violate state and federal laws. The commission reversed itself six months later.

In the fall, the U.S. Department of Education approved changes to federal Title IX regulations to give school districts greater flexibility to offer single-sex schooling, including publicly funded charter schools.

Boys' Latin was originally known as Southwest Philadelphia Academy for Boys, but the name was changed to avoid confusion with Southwest Leadership Academy, another charter opening in September, Hardy said.

Although Hardy, who is African American, had hoped to launch Boys' Latin with a racial mix of students, all 150 ninth graders are African American. (The school has a waiting list.)

"I will do a better job of recruiting next year, because I do want the school to be a little more diverse," he said. "But these guys all wanted to come."

Students came from a variety of public and private schools and other charters, Hardy said. He said they and their families were attracted by the promise of academic rigor, the sports and after-school programs, and the boys-only setting.

Janice Oyola said she and her husband, both school district educators, were impressed by Hardy, the academic program, and the charter's strong network of parents. But she said it was her son, Jesse, who wanted to try a boys' school.

"He said he wanted the focus," she said. "He said he didn't need any of the distractions of girls."
The school requires Latin because it boosts vocabulary and English skills, makes learning other languages easier, and can help open doors.

Latin teacher Sara Flounders, who completed her student teaching at Boston Latin while in graduate school at Harvard's Divinity School, contacted Hardy as soon as she heard about the proposed charter. She said Boys' Latin offered a rare chance to combine her love of Latin with her dream of teaching in an inner-city school.

"I am a certified Latin teacher, and there aren't that many places," she said. "It's not fair [inner-city students] don't have the same educational opportunities. I want to try to level the playing field. Latin is one way to do it because it gives them access to the language of academia, and it lets them say, 'I know Latin,' which isn't something that the average person on the street can say."

In addition to the head start on summer reading, Boys' Latin students will get an early start to the school year. They must attend an eight-day orientation that will cover rules and regulations, the dress code, and study and organization skills, and will introduce them to their classes.

And in groups of 30, the ninth graders will spend a day tackling the ropes course at the Philadelphia Outward Bound Center in Fairmount Park.

"The whole faculty did it last week, and it was great," said Hardy, who has been involved for years with Outward Bound programs, which are designed to build skills and boost confidence.

The charter will be in the former Transfiguration of Our Lord parish school at 5501 Cedar Ave. Hardy said the school would start out in trailers until renovations are completed.

"It's going to be really different," said Richard Cherry, 14. "They are going to teach us, but it's going to be weird. There's only going to be boys."

Oyola said he knew about boys' schools from seeing reruns of the TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which Will Smith's character attended a boys' school.

He added: "But I never would have believed that I would go to a high school with all boys."
Contact staff writer Martha Woodall at 215-854-2789 or martha.woodall@phillynews.com.

2007-07-29T16:10:00.000-04:00

Here's the new logo for The Coalition.

2007-07-17T13:34:00.000-04:00

Face up to hard truth at schools
Detroit Free Press Editorial
July 9, 2007

If you could take a class photo of the 1.2 million young people who drop out of high school in this country each year, one detail would be obvious -- and troubling.

Students of color, usually poor, dominate. It's true in Detroit, where one recent report estimates that city schools graduate only 24.9 % of students who start 9th grade, and shows up in every major study of the dropout population. Failure to complete high school is an epidemic problem among poor minorities, the population that's most in need of education to escape poverty.

So it's encouraging to see many of the nation's leading civil rights groups band together -- belatedly, given how long this has been a problem -- to make educational inequity a more urgent agenda item for state and federal policymakers. The groups behind the Campaign for High School Equity include giants such as the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, the National Indian Education Association and the National Urban League, each with solid track records of improving opportunities for minorities.

Working in conjunction with the Alliance for Excellent Education, this new super group should have clout and data to command the attention of the political leaders and the community groups, parents and children who have first-hand knowledge of the costs of this crisis.

Nationally, minority students are four times as likely to be enrolled in one of the 2,000 high schools that have been identified as producing approximately half of the nation's dropouts, according to the Campaign's report, "A Plan for Success."

Anyone daring to dismiss this fact as just another minority problem isn't paying enough attention to the population trends. The minority students who are either dropping out of school or getting a grossly inequitable education are also the growing segments of the U.S. population.

Finding ways to keep them in school now and ensuring they get proper skills is a sounder solution than paying for their education deficits later.

Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.

2007-07-13T22:48:00.001-04:00

You may remember that many participants at The Gathering felt a Democratic administration would look more negatively on same sex schools. Is this the beginning?
Same-sex schools opposed by ACLU
Group urges Cleveland to scrap its plans
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Joseph L. Wagner
Plain Dealer Reporter
The American Civil Liberties Union wants the Cleveland school district to scrap five new single-gender schools scheduled to open in August, saying they are discriminatory and the approach could backfire on students.

"Americans have long since learned that separate is not equal when it comes to educating our young people," said Jeffrey Gamso, legal director of the Ohio ACLU. "This is a throw-it-up-at-the-wall-and-see-if-it-will-stick situation."

The ACLU's move appears to be part of a nationwide effort by the civil rights agency to stop the proliferation of same-sex schools. Three districts in the nation had single-gender schools in 1995, but by this year the number had climbed to 262, according to the National Association For Single Sex Public Education.

In Louisiana, the ACLU threatened legal action to force a school district to abandon the same-sex concept. The ACLU is also opposing a similar attempt in a Wisconsin district.

"We have received a public records request from the Ohio ACLU and are in the process of responding to that request," said Cleveland district spokesman Ron Kisner in a written statement.

He added that the district is "committed to the single-gender school option which reflects the will of the people whom we extensively polled during a series of community meetings coupled with on-line surveys and focus groups."

Kisner said he did not know how many students had applied to the single-gender schools so far.

The ACLU's public records request seeks details on what data the district used to decide on single-gender schools, how students and teachers are being selected and whether the curriculum will be the same as in co-ed schools.

Gamso said the ACLU has not decided yet if it will sue the Cleveland district.

He praised the district for looking at other educational options but said officials overlooked more proven methods to improve student performance. They include recruiting "culturally competent" teachers, increasing teacher pay, improving school administration and making the curriculum more challenging.

Cleveland schools CEO Eugene Sanders launched some single-sex schools when he was superintendent in Toledo. He has said they can help retain students in Cleveland, a district that has lost 20,000 students in five years.

Douglas MacArthur Elementary will be the girls school and Valley View the boys school on the West Side.

On the East Side, Kenneth W. Clement will be the boys school and Warner the girls school.

Initially, they will be for kindergarten through second grade, with a grade to be added each year.

In addition, the Ginn Academy - for boys who need extra academic and support services - will be in the former Health Careers Center.

A leader of a group that wants Warner to remain co-ed heralded the ACLU's move as a "victory."

"We want an integrated community-based school," said Elizabeth Coles.

Sanders made changes in the sites for the single-gender schools after some parents and City Council members criticized him for failing to seek their views.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jwagner@plaind.com, 216-999-4906

2007-07-01T13:12:00.000-04:00

I would like to hear your opinions on the Supreme
Court's most recent decision regarding desegregation
practices in Seattle and Louisville. I've read
Justice Thomas' comments and I must say that I am not
surprised with what I read. "...Without a history of
state enforced racial separation a school district has
no affirmative legal obligation to take race-based
remedial measures to eliminate segregation and its
vestiges." Justice Thomas continues to state that,
"Racial paternalism and its unintended consequences
can be as poisonous and pernicious as any other form
of discrimination. As these programs demonstrate,
every time the government uses racial criteria to
'bring the races together,' someone gets excluded, and
the person excluded suffers an injury solely because
of his or her race."

In your opinion, how will this decision affect school
districts with diverse populations of students?

How will this decision affect single gender schools
designed for predominately African American males?

Philip Van Hooks

2007-06-20T11:54:00.000-04:00

EdWeek article on the Gathering of Leaders.

Black Boys’ Educational Plight Spurs Single-Gender Schools
New Federal Rules Seen as Chance for Innovation
By Catherine Gewertz

Brookline, Mass.
In the face of mounting evidence that schools are losing alarming numbers of young black men, a small band of educators gathered here recently to bolster one response to the crisis: creating public schools designed to serve African-American males.
Haunted by the specter of a bleak future for millions of young men—and aware that single-gender programs can face legal and political opposition—the two dozen principals were nonetheless united in their conviction that it is high time to build education programs that meet the academic and emotional needs of black boys.
“[People] ask us why we are doing single-gender education, as though what the kids are currently involved in is working,” David C. Banks, the founding principal of the Eagle Academy for Young Men, a 3-year-old public school that serves predominantly low-income black and Latino boys in New York City, told a roomful of educators, scholars, and policymakers. “When you recognize that you are in crisis, you have to do more.”
Mr. Banks and other school leaders formed the core of a June 3-5 conference billed as “a contemplation on the education of black male students.” It was co-sponsored by Wheelock College, the Panasonic Foundation, Eagle Academy, and the Delores Walker Johnson Center for Thoughtful Leadership, a training institute that is part of the Cambridge, Mass.-based ATLAS Learning Communities, which helps schools implement its comprehensive reform model.
The conference enabled principals to share promising practices for boys who have likely had to learn in crowded schools with inexperienced teachers, cope without fathers at home, and contend with pop culture’s negative images of them. Woven through the conversations about academic strategy were signs of the urgency and passion the school leaders see as necessary to the work.
“This isn’t a job, it’s a ministry,” Jerome Harrell, the principal of the Alpha School for Excellence, in Youngstown, Ohio, told his colleagues.
Shawn Hardnett, the founder of the KIPP Polaris Academy in Houston, a boys’ charter middle school that is set to open in the fall as part of the Knowledge Is Power Program network of schools, urged his fellow educators to press one another to determine the very best practices for their students.
“Every black boy I fail could end up in jail. We need to push each other hard to get better at the craft of school leadership. Push me,” Mr. Hardnett said, his voice rising. “Push me down until I get this, because I can’t fail one more.”
The conference participants burst into applause.
A Renewed Focus
Concern about black boys’ high dropout and expulsion rates, and their low grades, test scores, and college-going rates, is not new. Neither are attempts to create programs tailored to their needs. A 1991 Ebony magazine article, headlined “Do Black Males Need Special Schools?,” highlighted several, in fact.
But a recent pileup of reports by scholars and activists on the educational plight of African-American boys has drawn new attention and energy to the problem, and prompted some to suggest single-gender schools as part of the solution.
Concern also has coincided with opportunity: Last fall, the U.S. Department of Education announced final regulations easing the way for single-sex education. The new rules permit public schools to group students by gender, as long as the education for students of both sexes is “substantially equal.” The single-sex program must be related to improving the achievement of students, providing diverse educational opportunities, or meeting the needs of particular students. ("New U.S. Rules Boost Single-Sex Schooling," Nov. 1, 2006.)
A Group in Trouble
Black boys lag behind black girls and their non-African-American male peers on key indicators of educational success.
GRADUATION:
Percent of male students who graduate from high school with a standard diploma in four years:

Source: Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, 2007
TEST SCORES:
Percent of male students who scored at the basic level or better on the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress 4th grade reading exam:

In that same year, the percent who scored at the basic level or better on the NAEP 8th grade reading test:

SIGNS OF DISTRESS:
Of black males, who accounted for 8.7 percent of U.S. school enrollment in 2002...
• 23.8 percent had received out-of-school suspension
• 12.8 percent had been classified as learning-disabled
• 21.6 percent were labeled as emotionally disturbed
• 20.6 percent were classified as mentally retarded
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education office for civil rights survey, 2002, as reported in “Public Education and Black Male Students,” Schott Foundation for Public Education, 2006
According to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, a Poolesville, Md.-based advocacy group, there are 262 public schools in the United States that are entirely single-gender or offer some single-sex classrooms, compared with 16 four years ago.
With the expansion has come opposition, however. The New York Civil Rights Coalition has asked U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to look into a program in Ossining, N.Y., that provides extra academic support to black male students. Federal education officials declined to comment on the request.
The American Civil Liberties Union plans to file suit within a year over one or more of the newer single-gender public school programs, said Emily J. Martin, the deputy director of the organization’s women’s-rights project. “Whenever gender is used as a primary or only way to teach a student, it inevitably plays to overbroad stereotypes,” Ms. Martin said.
Theodore M. Shaw, the director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which spearheaded the legal attack that led to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning racial segregation in public schools, said single-gender programs for black boys could be on “thin ice legally” if they exclude students based on their race or gender, but most don’t do so.
Branding schools or programs racially discriminatory solely because they seek to help black boys, he said, is “intellectually dishonest” when the school system already segregates poor minority children in educationally inferior settings.
“The courts have said that any race-conscious program has to be justified by a compelling state interest,” Mr. Shaw said. “This crisis among young black boys and men is something that rises to the level of a compelling state interest, and justifies carefully crafted and limited programs. To confuse attempts to address that crisis with racial discrimination is rather shallow-minded.”
‘Don’t Know Enough’
Pedro Noguera, a professor of teaching and learning at New York University, said designing scores of single-gender programs for black boys could prove misguided without a more complex understanding of the multiple factors that undermine their school performance. He hopes to gain more insight into those dynamics through a three-year research project, begun last fall, that will compare seven single-gender programs for low-income minority boys with seven programs serving demographically similar, but coeducational, student enrollments.
Mr. Noguera and other scholars note that much of the research on single-gender education focuses on parochial schools, or on private schools that serve predominantly white, middle-class populations.
“It’s all about the theory of good intentions, but that’s not good enough,” said Mr. Noguera. “What constitutes best practice in those schools? We just really don’t know enough to go around creating a lot of these right now. It could be that just creating a great school is the answer. And then you have to wonder, is [the problem] really about race or gender?”
Enthusiasm for single-gender schools, combined with the easing of federal regulations, has resulted in many hastily assembled single-sex programs, said Leonard Sax, the executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education. He advised educators to take at least a year to research and train their staffs in gender-based brain development and instructional strategies.
“If all you do is put girls in one room and boys in another, you don’t accomplish anything good,” he said. “You end up with math being taught to boys by talking about sports and to girls by talking about shopping.”
Proficiency Rates Rise
The principals at the conference—some veteran leaders of boys’ schools, others rookies—spent much of their time in small discussion groups, sharing experiences and strategies. They explored ways to shape curriculum and pedagogy, and ways they and their teachers can serve as disciplinarians, role models, and cheerleaders for their students.
In one such group, Curt R. Green told colleagues about his experience as the principal of Capitol Pre-College Academy for Boys in Baton Rouge, La. When the school was coeducational, 30 percent to 40 percent of its students scored at the proficient level on state tests, he said. But after two years as a single-gender program, he said, boys’ proficiency rates increased by 20 percentage points or more, and there were fewer behavior-related suspensions and expulsions.
Mr. Green, who will be the principal of a new public boys’ school in Atlanta this fall, credited the Baton Rouge improvements largely to instructional strategies that research suggests might work well for boys.
For example, Capitol teachers were trained to understand boys’ “tactile-kinesthetic” strengths, allowing them to move around in class more and designing more projects requiring hands-on work, he said. They tried to play to competitive spirit among boys by letting them use “clickers” to signal their answers to a question.
“A lot of boys jump out of their seats to answer, or blurt out answers, and that behavior is punished [in traditional classrooms],” Mr. Green said. “This way, it’s channeled into something positive. … It’s about looking at the way [boys] learn and focusing on those strategies.”
Tim King, the founder of Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men, which opened with 9th graders last fall as Chicago’s only all-male public school, said he put a premium on fostering a positive culture. One of its building blocks is “community,” a daily morning gathering of all 160 students and the staff. In jackets and ties, students celebrate their accomplishments, but they are also called to account for transgressions such as being late for school, Mr. King said. Then they recite their “creed,” a chant about believing in themselves, one another, and their future success.
Principals’ brainstorming sessions produced a range of suggestions for ways to better engage boys in school, from building more “action-oriented” story lines and real-world applications into the curriculum to creating schools with strong discipline and decorum that take advantage of the role-modeling and mentoring potential of men in their communities.
The Rev. Joseph M. Doyle, the president of St. Augustine High School, a 48-year-old Roman Catholic boys’ school that serves a predominantly low-income African-American population in New Orleans, said strong academic preparation combined with the close bonds between students and staff members can produce outstanding results.
“Ninety to 95 percent of our kids go to college, and they come back to the community as fire chiefs and [district attorneys],” he said. “This is the kind of men we produce.”
Coverage of leadership is supported in part by a grant from The Wallace Foundation, at www.wallacefoundation.org.

2007-06-18T12:38:00.000-04:00

Here's an article from the San francisco Chronicle on single gender education. This highlights boys' programs but is not exclusive; and it also discusses all boys without focus on Black and/or low income males. In fact, an opposing view says it's not boys in general but that "race and class play a bigger role than gender."

Some hightlights:

...Gurian Institute of Colorado. The firm has trained 30,000 teachers in gender differences and learning since it was founded in 2002 by Michael Gurian, a Spokane, Wash., family therapist and author who helped kick off the boys movement in 1996 with his book "The Wonder of Boys."

Among the neurological differences Gurian and others highlight, based on brain scans and other research:

-- Males use more cortical areas of the brain for spatial and mechanical functioning, while females use more for words and emotions -- meaning boys tend to benefit from hands-on learning, while girls are better auditory learners who write and use more words.

-- Boys have less of the "calming chemical" serotonin and more testosterone, making them more fidgety, impulsive and competition-driven.

-- Boys' brains go more frequently into a "rest state," leading to "zoning out" or moving around to try to stay focused.

A report last year by Education Sector, a Washington think tank, found that boys' reading and math scores on the national assessment test had improved since the 1970s. It said black and Hispanic boys may be failing but that race and class play a bigger a role than gender.

There were three public schools nationwide offering single-gender instruction in 1995 and 262 today, still a small fraction of the country's more than 90,000 public schools, according to Leonard Sax, executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education. Many more are in the pipeline with changes last fall to Title IX -- which banned sex discrimination in schools in 1972 -- that make it easier for schools to create voluntary single-gender classes and schools.

"The brain develops in a different sequence," said Sax, author of "Why Gender Matters" and "Boys Adrift," which will be published in August. "If you teach the same subject in the same way, you have girls who think geometry is tough and boys who think poetry is stupid.

2007-06-13T11:17:00.000-04:00

Here's a posting from Curt Green in Atlanta on possible next steps:

Suggestions:
1. Frequent communication between participants. Perhaps a teleconference in the
fall (Oct or Nov).
2. Continue to provide a forum(gathering) for leaders to share "promising
practices" within the network and abroad. Atlanta willing to serve host to the
2nd Annual Gathering of Leaders.
3. Create a name/signature/identity for the network with an organizational
structure, governing board and criteria for membership.
4. Establish a contact list accessible to all participants and others interested
in our work.
5. Establish a National partnerships with other foundations interested in
serving our needs i.e., financial resources, professional development etc..
6. Encourage teacher participation for professional development purposes with
the opportunity to earn graduate credits or service learning credits.
7. Create a website dedicated to our network and showcase the success stories.

Curt R. Green, Principal
The B.E.S.T. Academy at Benjamin S. Carson

2007-06-07T14:15:00.001-04:00

Make These Young Men Visible

The Pittsburg Post Gazette is doing a series on the plight of young black males entitled Invisible Men
The first article recites the negative statistics on black men nationwide then focuses on Pittsburgh.

* Black male achievement begins to decline as early as the fourth grade. By high school, black males are more likely to drop out; in 2001, only 42.8 percent graduated from high school, compared to 70.8 percent for their white counterparts.

Like their white and Hispanic counterparts, young black males are not born as criminals, prisoners or dropouts.
Once they leave the cradle, though, something happens to push a large percentage of black men toward such negative consequences, sociologists say. The factors most cited as causes are fatherlessness, a pervasive negative entertainment culture, racism and multi-generational poverty that leaves families without the tools to make structural change.

University of Pittsburgh studies show that black Americans in this city are worse off than in 70 comparable cities across the nation

The series is an effort to put names and faces to these young men and let them tell their own story.

A group of Post-Gazette reporters conceived of the Invisible Men series as a way to let the subjects of so many studies and articles and hand-wringing speak for themselves.

Even though no Pittsburgh schools were represented at The Gathering of Leaders, the schools that were there are a great source of stories of young black men who are making it, and their story should be heard.

We need your help. Please call at 412-263-1410 or email us at invisiblemen@post-gazette.com with your stories of young black men who struggle with being a school dropout, unemployed or disconnected from family. Let us also know about the young black male who has succeeded against the odds to enter college, start a business, maintain a positive presence as a young father or who was mentored by an individual or program you'd like to brag about.Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)

2007-06-06T10:29:00.000-04:00

Reflections on the Gathering

It felt like an historic event. The Gathering of Leaders of Single Gender Schools at Wheelock College June 3, 4, & 5, 2007 was remarkable in the determination of the participants. I have never been in the presence of such a positive group of educators in all my years of education. The usual griping of administrators over lack of support from central administration , or the failings of their teachers seemd totally absent from this group. Also, as was mentioned by many there was no recitation of the negative statistics on young Black males, with the accompanying outcry. This group didn’t have time for that. They knew the stats but were moving beyond them, and intent on doing something about them. They needed to support and help one another by sharing their successes as well their needs.
There seemd to be few in the group that felt certain that all male schools was the answer to the problem, but given the options this was a good one, and could provide oppportunities for their students. They wanted to give it their best shot.

There were questions about how can we do this better rather than complaints about what’s not working.

Here are some of the issue that emerged in the two days:

There was a clarification that some of these schools are the result of individuals who wanted to found a single gender school for young men in the belief that they could create an institution that would attract young men and providde them with a high quality education; and those schools that emerged as an effort to improve failing co-ed schools by creating two single gender schools. The former could generate an image from scratch, while the latter needed to escape the old image before getting a new one.

Interestingly, it was recognized that the current, more conservative national administration was more resonsive to single gender schools, than a possibly more liberal 2008 administration that might see the issue of gender equity as more important , and hence not support such efforts.

2007-06-06T09:04:00.000-04:00

June 5, 2007 Wheelock College Brookline Campus

Tuesday's session of the Gathering of Leaders included a community session at which additonal registrants heard a panel discussion on Single Gender Schools moderated by Milton J. Little Jr. CEO of United Way of Massachusetts, and Dr. Rosa Smith, former head of the Schott Foundation for Public Education. The panel included David Banks, Eagle Academy for Young Men, Bronx New York, Tim King, Urban Prep, Chicago, IL, Reverend Joseph Doyle, St. Augustine High School, New Orleans, LA, Curt Green, Atlant Public Schools, Atlanta, GA, and Jerome Harrell, Alpha School for Excellence, Youngstown, OH
Dr. Rosa Smith
Single Gender Schools Panel

Dr. Smith and Ken Reeves, mayor of Cambridge, MA talking with panel

Milton Little and Dr. Kunjufu

A second presentation by Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu provided a rousing finish to the Gathering. He first demonstrated the problem was not poverty, single parents, genetics, or low funding of the schools. The issue is educating young Black males, and quality teachers can do that by knowing their subject, being skilled in pedagogy, and connecting with the students.
"The future of our Race depends on white female teachers and single moms."
"We need to raise our daughters and love our sons."

2007-06-04T21:36:00.000-04:00

The Boston Foundation 5-8 pm

Renaissance Charter School Chorus under the direction of Evelyn Lee Jones entertains before the program

A panel discussion on the issue of single gender schools, particularly for Black boys, was the program at the Boston Foundation on Arlington Street in Boston. The issue boiled down to whether there can be clear research supporting single gender schools, and with that, foundation support, or whether they're worth a try since we have no better alternative, or because we understand Black boys and how to teach them. All these positions were represented.

Panelists were Diane Wilkerson, Massachusetts State Senator, Sonni Holland, Program Officer, The Charles Hayden foundation, Benjamin Wright, Regional Director Victory Schools, PA and Dr. Ronald Mincy, Maurice V. Russell Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice at Columbia University

Dr. Edmund Gordon, Richard March Hoe Professor of Psychology and Education emeritus and Director of the Institute of Urban and Minority Education, (IUME) at Teachers College, Columbia University, presented a cogent 30 minute talk on education in general. He is,as Moderator Larry Leverett said, a million dollar professor.

2007-06-04T15:13:00.000-04:00

Confabulation

Brenda Artwell and Ron Rochon

Level of Engagement

Ron, Ron, Brenda and Larry Leverett Executive Director,Panosonmic Foundation
Ron, Larry and Buddy Johnson, Head of Board of Eagle Academy Foundation

2007-06-04T12:27:00.000-04:00

Gathering of Leaders

The Gathering of Leaders is underway. Today's participants are leaders of single sex schools, who are learning about each other, each other's work, and their successes. The program is being facilitated by Brenda Artwell of ATLAS and Ron Rochon of University of Buffalo, a presenter in last fall's Wheelock/Atlas series.
The specifity of the topic has clearly created a group of passionate, dedicated and focused individuals.
The program continues this evening at the Boston Foundation and community session at Wheelock tomorrow. Registratiion for both events is closed.

2007-05-31T08:30:00.000-04:00

Partial Listing of Schools represented at next week's Gathering of Leaders in Boston.

1. Excellence Charter School of Bedford Stuyvesant
225 Patchen Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11233
Principal, Jawal Sawiki

2. Urban Assembly Academy for History
and Citizenship for Young Men
240 East 172nd Street
Bronx, NY 10457
Principal, Jonathan Foy

3. The Charles R Drew Elementary School
2065 Mississippi Street
Gary, IN 46407
219-886-6569
Principal, Mrs. Helen Richardson
Assistant to the Principal, Todd McCain

4. Hales Franciscan High School
4930 Cottage Grove
Chicago, IL 60615
773-285-8400
Principal, Marilyn Garrison

5. St Augustine High School
2600 A.P. Tureaud
New Orleans, LA 70119
504-944-2424
President, Reverend Joseph M. Doyle

6. St Augustine High School
2600 A.P. Tureaud
New Orleans, LA 70119
504-944-2424
Father John Raphael

7. Capitol Pre-College Academy for Boys
1000 N 23rd Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
225-343-0745
Cell: 225-252-5485
Principal, Curt Green

8. Benjamin E Mays Male Academy
Home Address:
35825 Dearing Dr
Sterling Heights, MI 48312
Cell: 269-598-3489
School: 313-924-0014
Principal, Philip Vanhooks

9. Benjamin E Mays Male Academy
Founder, Reverend James Perkins

10. Thurgood Marshall Elementary School
2401 S Irving Street
Seattle, WA 98144
206-252-2800
Principal, Winifred Todd

11. The Young Men’s Leadership School
at Fitzsioms High School
2601 West Cumberland Street
Philadelphia, PA 19132
215-277-4431
Principal, Mr. Richard Jenkins

12. Lincoln Academy for Boys
1801 N Detroit Ave
Toledo, OH 43606
419-244-5823
Acting Principal, Oatis Amick

13. Dayton Academy for Boys
2400 Hoover Ave
Dayton, OH 45402
937-542-5340
Principal, Horace Lovelace

14. Alpha School for Excellence
2546 Hillman Ave
Youngstown, OH 44507
330-744-7535
Principal, Jerome Harrell

15. Eagle Academy for Young Men
244 East 163rd Street
Bronx, NY 10451
718-410-3791
Principal, David Banks

16. Eagles Nest Learning Center
7 School Street Place
Boston, MA 02119
617-983-9181
Principal/ CEO, George A Duncan

17. Urban Prep
Tim King, CEO/Founder
Urban Prep Academies
420 N. Wabash, Suite 203
Chicago, IL 60611
312-276-0259

18. Nativity School, Worcester
Matthew Brunell
10 Irvin Street
Worcester, MA 01609
508-799-0100

19. Academy of Business and Community Development
141 Macon Street
Brooklyn, NY 11216
718-783-4842
Principal, Clyde Cole

20. Edison School
Principal, Antoinette Adkins
228 N. Broadway Street
Dayton, OH 45402
937-542-4541

2007-05-30T10:28:00.000-04:00

Holzman's answer below is the key issue in all educational reform.
Here are some resources from ASCD on the issue of Academic Achievement for African-American Males.
May 23, 2007

#1 Factor in Raising Achievement of African-American Boys

Recently, a participant in an Edweek.org chat asked:

What is the single most influencial factor in increasing academic acheivement for African-American boys?

"Teachers," says Michael Holzman, consultant to the Schott Foundation for Public Education and author of the Foundation’s Public Education and Black Male Students: A State Report Card series.

Holzman adds, "Schools that are successful in increasing academic achievement for African-American boys hire and keep teachers who are committed to the success of their students, who have high expectations for them and who are knowledgeable about their subjects and skillful in their craft."

ASCD's online achives feature several articles on the achievement of boys in school, and in particular, the achievement gap between African-American boys and their white peers. (Members log on for access to all archived articles.)

Closing the Gap: An Overview

Bridging the Widest Gap

Joseph and the Achievement Gap

Engaging African American Males in Reading (02/06 EL)

With Boys in Mind / Teaching to the Minds of Boys

With Boys in Mind / Media Literacy: What's Good?

With Boys in Mind / My Literary Lunches with Boys (09/06 EL)

With Boys in Mind / Bridges to Literacy for Boys (09/06 EL)

Special Report: Do We Really Have a "Boy Crisis"?

Reluctant Readers

2007-05-17T10:26:00.000-04:00

Here are two articles about the failure of our schools and communities to educate Black Male Youth. The upcoming Gathering of Black School Leaders (June 3, 4, & 5) in Boston will be addressing these very issues.

Finding Ways to Better School African American Boys
Group Proposes Mentors, Single-Sex Classrooms

By Lori Aratani
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 17, 2007; Page T03
A new report by a statewide task force that paints a grim picture of how African American male students are faring in Maryland's public schools and universities recommends strengthening mentor programs, encouraging more black men to be teachers and providing more academic support for those who need it.

Black boys' culture works against school, study says

Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Robert L. Smith
Cleveland Plain Dealer Reporter
The achievement gap separating black boys from just about everyone else springs from a powerful, anti-education culture rising in the black community, a local black think tank argues in a new report.

2007-05-08T17:15:00.001-04:00

Gathering of Leaders in the Education of Black Youth
Wheelock College and the Delores Walker Johnson Center for School Leadership of Atlas Communities presents a unique gathering of educational leaders of all Black male institutions. First they will share their experiences and questions with each other, and then share their knowledge with others interested in their approach.
June 3, 2007
Registration/ Welcome reception
5pm - All participants and invited guests attend the welcome reception at the home of the President of Wheelock College
Reception and Dinner – 5:30- 8:30
Welcome remarks - Jackie Jenkins-Scott
Context and setting - Larry Leverett and Ron Walker
The Charge to the Participants - David Banks

June 4, 2007
Retreat Day Agenda

Participants with supportive guidance from the facilitator will engage in a reflective, thoughtful and energizing retreat session. Participants will have time to think and talk about their work, contemplate their next steps and ponder new questions and issues that they will face in the future. This will also afford them a chance to meet new colleagues and begin to build their network.

Refreshment Breaks will be included within this designated space.

7:30 – 8:30

Breakfast
8: 30 – 12:00

Welcome and Introduction of the Facilitator
Ron Walker – Director, Delores Walker Johnson Center for Thoughtful Leadership
Opening Experiences – The Retreat Begins

Introductions – (Participants)
Who are we?
Why we do what we do?
12:30 – 1:30

Lunch (Buffet)

1:30 - 3:00

The Retreat Resumes
5: 00 - 8:00

Reception and Discussion with the Foundation representatives
Hosted by the Boston Foundation
Welcome - Paul Grogan, President of The Boston Foundation
Panel discussion – Why is single gender schooling a viable option for educating black male youth?
Moderator – Dr. Larry Leverett
Dianne Wilkerson, State Senator
Benjamin Wright, Regional Director of Victory Schools
Dr. Ronald Mincy, Maurice V. Russell Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice at Columbia University
Sonni Holland, Program Coordinator, The Charles Hayden Foundation

June 5, 2007
Consultation Day Agenda
This day is devoted to sharing and consultation. The school leaders will share learning’s about their work in a single gender school. They will respond to questions, insights and comments from an invited audience. Invited guests will come from higher education, government, business, community based organizations, k-12 education, faith community, research community and the philanthropic community. Individuals or organizations interested in starting single gender schools will also be encouraged to attend.

7:30 – 8:30

Breakfast

8: 30 – 10:00

Retreat Resumes

10:00 – 11:30

(Break will be included)

The Gathering of Leaders: A Contemplation on the Education of Black Male Students
Moderators, Dr. Rosa A Smith, President of The Schott Foundation and Milton J. Little Jr., President of the United Way of Massachusetts

A Community Discussion -

Principals of schools for black male youth (k-12) and experts on the topic. Principals share their stories with the community.

Questions and reaction from the audience.

11:30 – 12:30
Lunch

12:30 – 2:00
Introduction of the Keynote speaker –

Keynote speaker –Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, President/Educational Consultant, African American Images

2:00 – 2:30

Closing Gathering

PAGE

PAGE 1-2
© 2007 ATLAS Communities, Inc.

2007-04-16T13:32:00.000-04:00

Today's Baltimore Sun highlights another effective program aimed specifically at young Black males. The 100 strong male role model at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County has male high school students involved in highly positive school and community service.

Woodlawn's "100 Strong Male Role Models" program is so successful that it has begun attracting national interest, as schools from the Northeast and the Midwest seek advice on how to build a student group that gives young men in struggling schools the tools to thrive.

Sharing and serving seem to be their specialties. At the beginning of the school year, they sponsored a "Teacher Appreciation" banquet. During Thanksgiving and Christmas, they fed hundreds of families and distributed donated gifts to area children. They mentor students at Windsor Mill Middle School to help them prepare for the transition to high school. They tutor each other and others who need help at school.

During a six-week leadership camp last summer, they painted bathroom stalls at the school, planted a garden at the building's entrance, plastered encouraging posters along the hallways and invested in combination locks for every locker so students could use them for storage.

"We asked ourselves, what can we do to make this look like a school again," said Jermaine Isaac, who is the group's first junior to be chosen president. "We thought people might ruin the garden. But they didn't mess with it. They respected it and didn't touch it."
As a sign of solidarity, the group's members don matching black T-shirts emblazoned with their logo every Tuesday, and they wear suits and ties on Thursdays. They stand out in hallways filled with chattering teens, and that's the point.

"Being around these guys with high GPAs and high standards helps put me in the position to want to do better for myself," said Christopher Roary Jr., 17, the group's coordinator. "I'm preparing for more of a college life."

Waith said the group has given him a network of peers who have his best interest at heart. "They give me that extra push I need," he said. "It's more like a brotherhood."

2007-04-09T10:39:00.000-04:00

An article in today's New York Times describes the efforts of Ossing New York to focus on Black Boys to help improve their academic success beginning at early grades.
The special efforts for Ossining’s black male students began in 2005 with a college-preparatory program for high schoolers and, starting last month, now stretch all the way to kindergarten, with 5-year-olds going on field trips to the American Museum of Natural History and Knicks and Mets games to practice counting.
Black Boys are singled out because their scores in high school are the lowest of any group, and the district feels that early intervention can change that. The boys have black teachers as mentors.

But some minority students, the black boys at Brookside, are set apart, in a way, by a special mentoring program that pairs them with black teachers for one-on-one guidance outside class, extra homework help, and cultural activities during the school day. “All the black boys used to end up in the office, so we had to do something,” said Lorraine Richardson, a second-grade teacher and mentor. “We wanted to teach them to help each other” instead of fight each other.

While this approach is reminiscent of the Eagle Academy for Young Men and other efforts fostered by the Conspiracy of Care it differs in that it is happening in an integrated district. While all the parents inetrviewed supported the program, others from outside the district questioned whether having a special program for Black boys would have long term negative effects on the boys.

The Times cites other efforts with the same focus:
In New York and other large cities, such concerns have spurred the creation of all-male schools aimed at drawing black students. Now, with debate over the achievement gap spreading beyond city borders, efforts like Ossining’s — though few as comprehensive — are sprouting up in suburbs nationwide.

In Teaneck, N.J., school officials formed an after-school club for black boys in 2005, with local black businessmen serving as role models. In the Cleveland suburbs, the South Euclid-Lyndhurst district has spent more than $20,000 a year on clubs that reward black male students for good grades with sleepovers and guest speakers.

And in the neighboring community of Shaker Heights, one of the nation’s best-known honors programs for black male students, the Minority Achievement Committee Scholars, has since 2004 received calls from more than 40 school districts that want to copy its efforts.

2007-03-29T11:48:00.000-04:00

The Next Step in the Conspiracy of Care:

Following up on the successful seminar series on Educating Black Male Youth by Atlas and Wheelock College, here's unofficial notification of a special two day session in June. Day one is for leaders of existing single sex schools for young men of color; day two will be open to others interested in learning more about the concept and its implementation.

The Delores Walker Johnson Center
for Thoughtful Leadership
At Atlas Learning Communities

The Gathering of Leaders:
A Contemplation on the Education of Black Male Students
June 3-5, 2007

On June 3-5, 2007 the Delores Walker Johnson Center for Thoughtful Leadership in collaboration with Wheelock College, located in Boston, MA, will host a retreat and consultation session for the leaders of the schools referenced in the December 2006 EBONY article on single sex schools for boys of color..

On June 3rd participants will gather for a welcome reception at the home of Jackie Jenkins Scott, President of Wheelock College. The retreat will officially begin on June 4th. Attendees will have time to share best practice, struggles, hopes and dreams while forming new relationships. Above all it will grant attendees the space to think, reflect, renew and rejuvenate their spirit. The second full day, June 5th will be dedicated to sharing and consultation with those interested in understanding more about single sex schools for boys of color. The invited audience is expected to include practitioners, policy makers, researchers and members of the philanthropic community.

Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, noted expert on the education of black males, will give the luncheon keynote on June 5th.

2007-03-20T10:21:00.000-04:00

2007 Winter Policy Talks -Wheelock College
Imagine a world where all children succeed/Preparing children to thrive

World Renowned Yale University Child Psychiatrist
Dr. James Comer
Winter Policy Talks
Wednesday March 21, 2007 - 4:00pm
at Wheelock Hawes Street Campus/43 Hawes Street, Brookline

2007-03-02T21:53:00.000-05:00

The Conspiracy of Care continues.

Apparently the first presentation of the Wheelock-Atlas program, on the Eagle Academy for Young Men in New York City has had a lasting effect on many of the attendees.
Atlas and Ron Walker will soon be sharing news about a special program in June involving the heads of several all male schools.
In the meantime, George Duncan, an attendee at the series, is planning to start an all boys after school program in Dorchester this September. It will be for boys in grades 1st through 5th.
George’s background is diverse; he has been in law enforcement and education, and is an ordained minister. He sees all these experiences leading to opening of the Eagle’s Nest Learning Center.
In particular it was Geoge’s middle school boys who seemed to want to hang around his room at the end of the day that encouraged him to formalize things. This led to the creation of an all boys, after school program, called Boys On a Mission at the Mary Curley Middle School in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, aimed at supporting the academic, social, and moral development of adolescent males. It was a great success and turned George to full time efforts at designing and finding the resources for an after school all male program.

Besides teaching in Boston, George has worked at three different after school programs and feels he knows what needs to be offered.
The Eagle’s Nest Learning Center (ENLC) will work on academics focusing on reading and math, but will also have a character building component.
Personally I’ve always considered education a lay ministry and George is pulling it all together.
I’ll try to update you on his progress.

2007-02-07T11:08:00.000-05:00

High Expectations and Quality Teaching!

School superintendent criticizes expectations based on race

Raising questions about racial bias in California's public schools, state schools superintendent Jack O'Connell on Tuesday said low expectations for black and Hispanic students contribute to their persistent achievement gap with whites and Asians.
O'Connell said teachers and administrators need “a renewed sense of urgency” to close that gap and must evaluate whether they hold all students to the same standards.
“Let's approach the job as if our own child were attending a low-performing school,” O'Connell said in his annual state of education address. “We wouldn't be patient with our own children lagging behind. We must not be patient when any child does.”

This response echoes my feelings:

The biggest obstacle for poor and minority students is a lack of quality teachers, said John Affeldt, managing attorney for Public Advocates, a nonprofit San Francisco law firm that has sued the state over several education equality issues.
“What the superintendent should be calling for is a Marshall Plan for improving teacher quality in these lowest-performing schools in the state,” he said.

Here's some ore bad news:

Black students not sharing in AP course gain
By James M. O'Neill
Bloomberg News
Black high school students are missing out on an enrollment surge in Advanced Placement courses that help determine who will make it into college.

Nationwide, black students were 14 percent of the student population and only 6.9 percent of those in the college-prep courses, a gain of less than a percentage point in six years.
"An aching gap still exists in terms of average scores and achievement for minority students," said Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, in a telephone interview Feb. 2. "We still have a lot of work to do."

In New Jersey, where 14.8 percent of the students are African American, only 5.5 percent of students who took AP exams in the state last spring were African American.
African American students account for 11.8 percent of the student population in Pennsylvania, but only 4.7 percent of those taking AP last spring were black.

The results among blacks and Hispanics indicate that their teachers, like the students, "are not receiving adequate preparation for the rigors of an AP course," the report said.

2007-01-18T11:03:00.000-05:00

Here are some thoughts on MLK, Jr. and the third hits on our theme of The Education of Black Males.

Try clicking on the picture to increase its size.

Curtis by Ray Billingsley

2007-01-16T12:11:00.000-05:00

Atlas-Wheelock Seminars on Black Male Youth/October 2006- January 2007

Five 2 hour sessions and four all day sessions on the Education of Black Male Youth. Powerful, right on, theoretical, practical, academic, research based, extremely well delivered and engaging.
It would have been hard to anticipate such a thorough program based on a series of monthly lectures and day long workshops. They were both satisfying in themselves and addressed one of the most serious questions our country faces:"How can we educate Black male youth?"

The question alone provided the thread to the series and while individual presenters had not met one another about their presentations, they were all on the same page though they gave their message from their own discipline.

David Banks is the founding headmaster of the all male The Eagle Academy for Young Men in New York City. He spoke of the school’s beginning under the sponsorship of One Hundred Black Men to help Black Male Youth understand the world they face, and how to navigate it.

People left that presentation impressed by the fact that every student at Eagle Academy has a one on one mentor. Many of the attendees at the all day session pledged to find mentors for the Black boys in their school or class, or to begin single sex groups either during or after school where issues that are particuar to them can be addressed.

Margaret Beale Spencer is a professor in the Department of Human Development at the University of Pennsylvani in Philadelphia. Her presentation was both scholarly and warm, emphasizing her work on resilience in young people, particularly young Blacks.

She focused on the perception our society has of young Black males, and the result that perception has on them. Being seen in a negative light and being faced with demeaning interactions often lead young black males to take on maladaptive strategies that protect them, but put them deeper into non-productive experiences. They take on a bravado that suggest they take risks, hate women , and don’t care very much about anythging.
Margaret Beale Spencer sees this as defensiveness in a basically hostile environment.

Her recommendation is that we understand the students and look beyond the external to connect with them. Their experiences need to be validated through discussions in class.
This will let them see that adults i.e. teachers understand what’s actually going on in their lives.

Beale-Spencer feels that Race is still the elephant in the room that is rarely discussecd. Adults need to be honest in their discussions with each other and with students about race and racism.

Afred Tatum’s specialty is teaching reading. He is a professor of reading at Northern Illinois University and has published a book Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males. His main point is that books, poems and other writings that Black adolescents are asked to read should relate to them and their experience. These writings need to engage them and provide some sense of where they might go in the future. Tatum speaks of a textual lineage which is books that most influence individuals in their middle and high school years.
Kids learn to read by reading and there is a large list of books that are available and important for young black children.

Drs. Gwendolyn Webb-Johnson and Ron Rochon echoed much of the three previous presentions by emphasizing that schools need to meet students where they are, and take them where they need to be. They were discussing the disproposrtionate representation of Black males in Special Education. Instead of assigning students to categories in special education we need to respond with cultural relevant teaching and undertand that certain behaviors may be different but not aberrant. If teachers really understand who the children are, strengths and weaknesses, and fit the curriculum and pedagogy to these children, these children will learn.
Schools need strong principals who can lead faculties through this change process.

Gwen and Ron are great believers in affirmations and have developed a number of chants that help children believe in themselves.

I took away some common threads from the presentations. Clearly we are expected to educate our entire population, and this demands teachers who have a reportoire of skills and considerable knowledge about people and pedagogy. We need to begin to train aspiring teachers for this, and help move currrent teachers to it.
We have not been successful in educating Black Male Youth. We need to be real with Black youth and let them know we understand what their experience is, and are willing to talk about it and read about it. This is not an excuse for low expectation but rather a preliminary piece while holding our students responsible for the hard work of learning.
Secondly we will best acoomplish this by looking carefully at the data about our students and use it to direct our teaching.
We need to combine a culturally responsive subjective piece with the clear cut hard data piece.

Hopefully a number of individual efforts will emerge from this series, and principals will begin the difficult process of engaging faculty in educating Black Male Youth.

2007-01-15T15:54:00.000-05:00

Thank you Dr. King

2007-01-12T09:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's all day session with
Drs. Gwendolyn Webb Johnson and Ron Rochon on the

Disproportionate Representation of African-Americans in Special Education

gave me an awful lot to think about.
I'll share my thoughts in a somewhat random way because that's how they've been striking me for the past 15 hours.

Ron began the session describing his trips to Ghana for the past six years. He showed photos of a slave castle and described the early history of the slave trade. It got me thinking about how humans could decide to enslave other humans. I found some information on the following web pages. Beginnings of Slavery and How Slavery Became Raced Based. It's just a first step in this disgraceful period of human history.
Rom emphasized the importance of history and the theme of letting young Blacks know thier history was constant throughout the presentation.
Here's a perspective. After the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation in schools two programs increased significantly; Special Eduaction and Gifted. In the former Blacks are over represented, and under represented in the latter. Coincidence?

The presenttation again did not overly focus on how young Black children get assigned to Special Education. Gwen referred to the 9 charcteristics of African American Culture and suggested that teachers see behaviors of Black children as aberrant because they represent an alternative form of socializing, and don't know how to respond.
She also mentioned that it's in the soft categories of Learning Disabilities rather than in areas of physical disabilities that Black children are over represented. Even with the new guidelines from IDEA 2004 the problem continues.

Underlying much that was said is the need for school faculties to address the issue, recognize it, and then do something about it.

EQUITY
Examine the data
Question the cause of the situation the data describes
Utilize the data in forming a plan
Investigate why
Treatment to change the situation.
Yield to the data.

Gwen and Ron have been working in the Aldine School District near Dallas and presented the disagregated data for that district. It was powerful in its simplicity.
The key is teacher change in pedagogy and curriculum in teaching Black children. Both need to be culturally relevant. Showing data like that can remove some of the subjectiveness and defensiveness that often accompanies discussions around race. It has to be the responsibility of school leaders to make sure these discussions take place.
(Ron mentioned an issue Margaret Beale Spencer raised, that many teachers fear Young Black Males but the subject of fear is taboo, and never discussed.

Gwen recommended
We Can't Teach What We Don't Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools
Gary Howard as a resource for European American teachers who work with Black childen. (Ron spoke about the power of language and it was powerful to have both presenters use the term European American for Caucasians. It was on an equal footing with African Americans.)
Ron and Gwen acknowledge the power of teachers in students' lives and recommend that teachers be at the forefront of conversations on policy.
Affirmation of Black children continued to be the main theme of the day and the repetition of positive statements can serve to get kids believing in themselves and working hard.
Both presenters recognized there were issues that needed to be addressed by schools in regards to Black males, but they asserted "the core" of these kids is special and needs to be cherished.

Here are some other thoughts:
"Critical thinking with a cultural eye."
"Realness of the World in the Classroom"
"Libraries of Books that Reflect Their Lives."
"Alternative Persdpectives on Black Children."

This income data often catches resistant students interest:
No High School Diploma Annual Salary $18,734
High School Diploma $27,915
College Degree $51,206
Advanced Degree $74,602
Professional Degree $101,000

Gwen responded to a complaint by a principal about her staff with:"Do nice things for your staff; not because you think they deserve them, but because you believe they will desrve them." That's affirmation!

2007-01-10T20:06:00.000-05:00

Affirmation is the message

The last of the Wheelock two hour seminars on Black Male Youth felt a lot different from the other four. While prensenters Dr. Gwendolyn Webb-Johnson and Dr. Ron Rochon brought the same high level of academic credentials, their presentation was aimed at the heart as much as the mind.
Starting with Nina Simone's "To Be Young Gifted and Black" accompanying photos of great African Americans along with African American children Drs. Webb-Johnson and Rochon worked off of each other beautifully. While they presented the unacceptable figures of African American, and particularly African American Male, students in Special Education, they emphasized the importance of affirming these children and providing an educational environment that matches their past socializing experiences and needs.
While Dr. Smith acknowledged they may be preaching to the choir, she admonished, "The choir needs to practice."
Other messages were:
"Meet them where they are,take them where they need to go."

Dr. Rochon emphasized the importance of language. He felt students needed to have a clear understanding of the history and meaning of words that they use.
Change by hugging not scolding

Echoing Margaret Beale Spencer they said we must acknowledge their experiences and not ignore or deny them.
Also following Alfred Tatum they saw the need for the curriculum to reflect student experiences and engage them in school.
“Get in their faces with love”

Dr.Webb-Johnson showed thec 9 Dimensions of African American Culture of which teachers need to be aware as they teach Black children

spirituality
harmony
movement
verve
affect
communialism
expressive individualism
oral tradition
social time persperctive

Two ways to deal with this:
A young female is speaking loudly
“You are a loud Black girl” or “You are a powerful young woman who needs to be less
powerful right now.”

Drs. Webb-Johnson and Rocher recommended two strategies:

Culturally Responsive Teaching

Affirmations

“I’ll never give up,” "I’ll do my best”
and other expressions of pride and determination.

They themselves were affirming and easy to listen to.

2007-01-08T12:09:00.000-05:00

MPS pushing one-sex schools

Panel likely to urge one all-boys, one all-girls, for the fall

An all-boys schools and an all-girls school could open as part of the Milwaukee Public Schools system by September.

In documents made available in advance of a School Board committee meeting Tuesday, MPS administrators said, "MPS strongly believes that parents should be given the opportunity to choose single-sex schools for their children if they believe that these schools will help their children."

Specific schools are not spelled out in the resolution to be considered Tuesday - in fact, it doesn't pinpoint whether the focus should be on high schools, middle schools or even elementary grades.

But the MPS administration, led by Superintendent William Andrekopoulos, recommended giving the idea a green light and allowing administrators to seek proposals for two single-sex schools, with the goal of opening them for the coming school year. That plan is expected to be recommended by the board's Innovation and School Reform Committee on Tuesday and be approved by the full board Jan. 25.

Creating single-sex schools and classes remains controversial, but the idea has gained momentum and popularity around the nation in recent years.
more

2007-01-07T22:39:00.000-05:00

Preempted Again

I hope we've increased Urban Update's viewing audience trying to catch Ron Walker and Jacki Jenkin Scott on the show. They've been preempted the last two weeks. Governor Deval Patrick had the entire half hour this week. Try again next week.
Urban Update Sunday 11:30 Channel 7

2007-01-06T12:29:00.002-05:00

Two new Delaware Charter Schools propose single sex programs.

Prestige

Prestige Academy, an all-boys middle school in the Red Clay Consolidated School District, would model some of the principles of KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, a national network of free college-preparatory public schools in under-resourced communities.
KIPP officials, who had a school approved to open this year in Red Clay, have delayed its opening by at least a year as they continue their search for a school leader.

Prestige would have a longer school day and year and double periods of math, reading and writing to help children who are behind in those areas.

With a concentration on remediation, the school also would offer after-school tutoring and homework support, Saturday learning opportunities and a "strict culture of accountability," said Jack Perry, who would serve as executive director.

The school would open with 100 fifth-graders and add a 100-student grade each year until reaching the eighth grade with 400 students.

"We want to remain small. We want to remain an intimate environment where every teacher knows every student," Perry said.

A location hasn't been chosen. Perry said leaders hope to find a building in Wilmington.

REACH

REACH Academy for Boys and Girls is proposed for the Glasgow area. Boys and girls would learn in separate parts of the school but come together for some social functions.

Like Prestige's, REACH leaders point to some studies showing children learn better in single-gender classes, where they may not feel distracted or intimidated by the opposite sex.

The school would open as a K-3 school with 346 students but grow to eighth grade by its fourth year, with a final enrollment of 600, evenly split among boys and girls.

REACH students will create a personal goal chart each year focusing on five areas: life skills, such as leadership, image and self-esteem; physical well-being; aspirations and interests; family and community; and academics.

2007-01-06T08:15:00.000-05:00

Update on Urban Update

The Ron Walker and Jackie Jenkins Scott segment on Urban Uodate was preempted last week. We anticipate it will appear tomorrow January 7, 2007 at 11:30 on channel 7.
Reset your TIVO's or alarms to hear Ron and Jackie describe how the seminars on Black Male Youth moved from thought to reality.

2007-01-02T14:31:00.001-05:00

Final Session

The Education of Black Male Youth Lecture Series

Wednesday January 10, 4:00-6:00 p.m. Lucy Wheelock Auditorium 201 The Riverway
Leadership Perspectives in Confronting the Disproportionate Representation of Black Males in Special Education, by Dr. Gwendolyn Webb Johnson, College of Education, Texas A & M University, and Dr. Ronald Rochon, School of Education, Buffalo State College

Atlas Leadership Seminars

Leadership Perspectives in Confronting the Disproportionate Representation of Black Males in Special Education

Thursday January 11, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. 43 Hawes Street Brookline-Wheelock Brookline Campus
Speaker: Dr. Gwendolyn Webb-Johnson

Dr. Webb-Johnson is assistant professor for the Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development at the College of Education at Texas A&M University.

Register Online

2006-12-26T13:01:00.000-05:00

Set your Tivo's or alarm clocks for
Sunday December 31, 2006
Channel 7 at 11:30 am

Ron Walker & Jackie Jenkins Scott discussing Black Male Youth.

2006-12-19T17:45:00.000-05:00

Here's an email Shawn Welcome sent out after hearing Margaret Beale Spencer November 16, 2006
.

Good day all,

It took me a minute to get this email out but I finally managed to squeeze in the time. At the last Atlas conference on Nov 16th where Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer conducted what I considered to be an extremely essential workshop that provided deep views into the issues facing us today regarding education the Black male, some of us decided to do something. This is the beginning of that something.

Before I begin, let me say that I included some folks on this distribution list that I may not have spoken to as of yet, but I recognize that they have the skills or resources or vision necessary to help us develop something revolutionary.

As a reminder, I am Shawn Welcome-Director of Arturo Schomburg Satellite Academy H.S, and my ultimate goal is to design an inter-state consortium between schools and arts/cultures professionals to meet the following objectives:

Expose young Black ( African-American and Latino ) males to different cultures, environments, social experiences and realities
Initiate an E-pal program with possible video conferencing capabilities that would enable us to start relationships with young men and schools, both international and national, in order close the divide between our men, their environments, and the rest of the world. Vision here: Enlighten, deconstruct differences, build connections, initiate metacognition on societal roles/realities, affects of it on us and us on it
Incorporate the arts: choirs, theatre, restaurants, social etiquette, instrumental arts, vocal arts, performance arts, etc
Trips that connect Ny to Boston, Boston to Ny, Both to international regions unknown to our young men ( Damon Smith is already well ahead of us with this one--I'm sure he will share his process and progress )
I have included Dr. Spencer and Mr. Walker on this distribution list because I think it essential that they are aware of wherever we go from this point forward. I recognize them as extreme resources and mentors.

I included Kim Park because she has connections with performance artists that are interested in working within urban schools.

There was a woman at the meeting who runs a boy's choir, ( I forget her name) but I remember that she was interested in joining in on this idea. If anyone has her email/contact information, please forward it to me or forward this email to her. She was in our work-group.

Finally, I added some other African American educators whom I believe have an interest in this work.

This is the beginning of conversations, it is a collaboration. Feel free to add to the list of objectives or share thoughts on adjustments needed to be considered. I figure that we may need an essential question to start this conversation. I offer this one; How can I and my school help in the creation of this consortium?

I am excited at the future that this may create for our young men.....let's start the conversation...

2006-12-18T16:18:00.000-05:00

More from Dr. Tatum:
Principals have to have a school that enables students to read at grade level

Role of Literacy Development

You need to find an entry point in the text that connects to the reader.

Some specifics of reading strategy:
Word Development-
The word needs to be central to the text being used and transferable to other texts and situations. Students need to be able to identify what it is; what it isn't, and give an example of it.

Cueing System

Change conditions and break down conditions that thwart struggling readers

The most difficult questions are those whose answers are in more than one line of the text.

Tatum says we have to hold African American Youth accountable but we have find ways to help him. We need to have a commitment to helping and never lessen that commitment. They need to find resilience to stand on their own two feet.

Instead of an achievement gap we should see it as a "Life Outcome Gap"

Dr. Tatum used the accountability model and turned it slightly:
Besides AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) we need to focus on YP (Young People) and stay away from OYP (Overlooking Young People).

The ACORN Community School is using Dr. Tatum's book "Teaching Black Adolesecents to Read. Anyone else using this book?

2006-12-14T12:44:00.000-05:00

What Did Alfred Tatum Tell the Principals?

I.Tatum described three school scenarios that he called borderline criminal and told principals it was their responsibility to ensure that this wasn’t happening in their schools.

1) As part of a word meaning lesson a teacher wrote the word "laff" on the board and asked a class of 9th grade students whether it was the correct spelling.

2)A second teacher eager to get classical literature to the her ninth graders divided them into three groups.

a)Create a travel brochure with all of Odysseus’ stops and figure the cost of going from one to the next.
b) Draw pictures of each of Odysseus’ adventures
c) Make a crossword possible with the names of the gods, goddess, and other charcters in the story.

3) A teacher listed 4 words from a story that the class was about to read, had them repat them and read the story. He then asked a number of questions about the story, most of which the class got wrong. He then told them the right answers.

Tatum repeated that the only way to learn to read is by reading and that text should relate to:
a) Other texts. Kids should initiate connecftions without being asked.
b) Self.Kids should have a better understanding of who they are from the text
c) The World. Kids should learn something about the world beyond them from their rteading

Here are some texts and/or authors tatum recommends for middle and high school students.
To Be A Slave-Julius Lester
Bud, Not Buddy-Christopher Paul Curtis Ages 9-12 No Turning Back-A novel of South Africa Beverley Naidoo Ages 8-12
Bang-Sharon Flake
47 Walter Mosely
Toothpast Millionaire-Jean Merrill Ages 4-8
Invictus-Bill Yancey
Reallionaire-Farrah Gray and Fran Harris
Our America: Life And Death On The South Side Of Chicago by Lealan Jones, Lloyd Newman, and David Isay
The Pact-Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, Rameck Hunt, Lisa Frazier Page
Handbook for Boys-Walter Dean Myers
MiracleBoys-Jacqueline Woodson

Frantz Fanon
James Baldwin
Langston Hughes
W.E.B. DuBois

Text have a twofold purpose:
They are two engage i.e., motivate and capture the reader and enable i.e. teach the reader to read and to know more.

Dr. Tatum emphasized his point about needing a more anatomically complete model for teaching reading.
We now have only the body-Research Based Teaching Reading Strategy but we need a head and feet as well.

The Head-
The Role of literacy instruction-a) Curriculum Orientations b) Approach to Literacy Teaching

The Feet-
Instructional Strands-a) Mediate text-help students comprehend b) Student Assessment Profile
Professional Development Strands- a)Professional Community b)Teacher Inquiry
Click on image to increase its size
Tatum suggested a good student assessment profile meant a careful look at student’s performance to figure what actually is the problem. Sometimes fluency can be the problem not the designation of the particular question.

II Tatum ended with the whole school needs model that principals must address.

C.O.R.E.-Professional Development

Consistency -within department and across the whole school
Organization -Core Group of Reading Strategies to be used by teachers-maybe 5
Assessment profile to find out what to work on
Reflection -Support Structures and Human/Material Resources
Evaluatio Ongoing and Multiple
Click on image to increase its size

Tatum acknowleged that this is not easy to accompplish in a school.

Message to Principals from Dr. Tatum
“Leadership is the Cornerstone of Change-You can be a barrier to or a conduit for change.”

(more next time)

2006-12-11T22:13:00.000-05:00

Dr. Alfred Tatum has two goals in every reading class he teaches. Students need to read better and be smarter.
Reading better for struggling adolescent readers means gaining a skill that allows them to better understand the passsage. Being smarter means learning something that will help the students in other experiences in their lives.
Dr. Tatum, speaking before over a hundred educators at Wheelock’s Family Theater in the fourth of five sessions on Educating Black Male Youth, emphasized that there is no special reading strategy for teaching young Black males, but there is more to teaching reading than following a single strategy.

Not only must the reading pieces be considered but also the reader, the educator, and the quality and nature of delivery of instructtion. For the reader we need to consider home life, environment, culture, language and economics.The educator needs competence, commitment, caring, and culpability. Reading instruction includes quality of instructional support, text, context and assessment.
Tatum feels the country is stuck in the reading pieces and pay little or no attention to the other three areas.
Tatum also emphasizes the importance of text with struggling readers. You don’t give fourth grade level material to an 16 year old life level. He emphasizes texts that speak to the student’s life situation. He speaks of textual lineage which is texts that contribute to who students are, and that give them directions for the future.
Too many students he questioned said there was no book that so affected them.

Dr. Tatum speaks of literary overload outside of school, and literary under load in school. Students have demands in life but school has not provided the literacy experience to match it.

He says you have to read to learn to read, and he attempts to provide meaningful passages for students to read. He encourages and teaches comprehension monitoring so students are aware of what they are reading as they are reading.

Tatum’s advice is to change conditions and break down conditions that thwart struggling readers. We have to capture the reader and engage them with text to teach them to read.

2006-12-09T09:19:00.000-05:00

Reprinted from Atlas Leadingedge

Motivating African American Teenage Boys to Read Text

Alfred Tatum's newest article clearly reviews an important piece of his presentation last week at the Principals' Institute. Tatum uses his experience with an adolescent Black male, Q, to help elicit what interests African American Teenage Boys in reading.
The article is fascinating and revealing. I have quoted Tatum's Five Proposed Solutions.

Motivating African American Teenage Boys to Read Text
by Alfred W. Tatum, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb
Five Proposed Solutions

I end with five proposed solutions for motivating African American teenage boys to read text. They are:

Select text that will afford connections. The connections can be personal, social, or cultural.
Provide choice. Identify a menu of texts and give these teenage males the opportunity to give the text a chance. They may be surprised at the power that text holds.
Take the text seriously. Q painfully illustrated that when reading is about completing chapters and taking tests, many African American young men will be robbed of rich and provocative experiences with text.
Involve the voices of African American teenage males. These young men are rich data sources. They can provide insights into the characteristics and types of texts they find motivating. After all, they are the ones who are being motivated.
Select texts that function as roadmap texts. As many African American teenage boys are mired in negative social conditions, it is incumbent upon educators to identify texts that can provide these young men with a roadmap that helps them answer the questions "Who am I?" and "What can I become?" Essentially, these young men are trying to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives. What is more motivating than having these young men read texts to help them answer that question? The Qs of the world deserve nothing less.

2006-12-06T21:27:00.000-05:00

From the latest issue of Ebony Magazine
Saving Black Boys: Is Single-Sex Education The Answer?

Here is a list of predominantly African-American, all-boys schools, compiled by the National Association of Single-Sex Schools and independent research:

The Benjamin E. Mays Male Academy, Detroit, Mich.
The Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in Seattle, Wash.
The Young Men’s Leadership School at Fitzsimons High School, Philadelphia, Pa.
The Lincoln Elementary School in Toledo, Ohio
The Bedford-Stuyvesant Preparatory Charter School for Excellence in New York, N.Y.
The Eagle Academy for Young Men in Bronx, N.Y.
The Urban Assembly Academy For History and Citizenship for Young Men in Bronx, N.Y.
Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men in Chicago
The Charles Drew Elementary School in Gary, Ind.
Hales Franciscan High School in Chicago
St. Augustine High School in New Orleans, La.
Capital High School for Boys in East Baton Rouge, La.
Dayton Academy for Boys in Dayton, Ohio

2006-12-03T17:28:00.000-05:00

We've finished two of the four sessions on Young Black Males. Below are some statistics about boys which support the all male The Eagle Academy. The statistics about Black males continue to be shocking and remind us why we need to use this series as the impetus for specific action. Click on the pages below for a larger readable image.

2006-11-27T16:48:00.000-05:00

Here are some comments from participants at Margaret Beals Spencer's full day program on November 16.

They are in response to:
What is worth making a commitment to apply in your practice related to the education of black male youth?

"It would be worth making a commitment to redefine my own definition of the word "caring."

"Support my staff in being honest with themselves.
Paying attention to the whole child and their vulnerability, and putting mechanisms into place to address those needs."

"I believe very much in the idea of care as shown through a commitment to challenging kids but providing appropriate support. That belief was underscored by the presentation today.
It's also worth examining, deeply, the support structures for relative risk faced by each student in my charge."

"Always seek to deepen my understanding of the context of student lives and avoid misperceiving their behavior and attitudes."

2006-11-20T00:48:00.000-05:00

Here is Dr. Spencer's overview statement on vulnerability and especially around race, skin color and gender.
Overview statement
Margaret Beale Spencer, Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania

Many themes impact life outcomes and demonstrations of resiliency. Our interpretation of resiliency is specific and borrowed from theorizing by James Anthony (1974) who posits that resiliency (i.e., good outcomes achieved) is possible ONLY in the face of challenge. All individuals represent a level of vulnerability (i.e., the presence of risk factors balanced against the presence of protective factors). Thus, the task is to cope productively with human vulnerability as experienced in the multiple contexts of human development with the goal in mind of achieved resiliency.

At the same time, multiple factors influence the conditions and character of context in which humans grow and develop (i.e., irrespective of the developmental stage). For some social bias contributes to psychological and physical perceptions and experiences of danger. On the other hand, for others it reinforces unequal access to opportunity and power. Race, skin color and gender are unique in that their characteristics are noticeable irrespective of protective factors available. Thus, the consequences of their meanings for others have important implications for daily experiences.

2006-11-17T09:47:00.000-05:00

Brenda Artwell and Ron Walker of Atlas Learning Communities with Dr. Margaret Spencer Beale.

All Day Session with Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer

Here's what I took away from of yesterday's session with Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer. Let me know what I missed or got wrong.
I could listen to Dr. Spencer for a week. She is the kind of person who makes you feel privileged to hear her speak. She communicates a warmth and caring about people while she clearly explains her research and resulting data. There is both a kindness and urgency in what she says.
Part of what she says is straightforward and simply put, while some involves more complicated explanations of charts, grafts and research methodology.

"It's not the what, it's the how!"We can't look at a person, particularly a young person and really understand him/her, unless we know something about his/her experience.
"Context maters. i.e. environment matters!" For all Black youth, race is always part of the context.
Dr. Spencer explained that Human Development theory has 3 domains-cognitive; biological and physical; and affective, all working at the same time and each impacts the other 2. If one is off kilter in some way so will the other two be off.

Unfortunately when Black males are looked at in term of human development things seem to be different.
1. It is deviancy based-i.e. different from the "norm:"
2. It is without context.
3. It is atheoretical-there is no theory against which to place the data
4 It is non-developmental-it is static
5. Race isn't factored in

Young Black males are the most vulnerable group in our society. They are asked to be men, often too early in their development, and when they are unable to find positive expressions of manhood, they resort to a bravado that protects them in what is perceived as a hostile place.

There are other maladaptive responses young people make as they try to understand the world around them. For Black youth this has the added burden of their perceptions of society's negative view of them.
Adults need to intervene and help young people translate their experiences.
Dr. Spencer recommends that the elephant in the room, race, gets discussed openly and that these perception young people have be acknowledged by adults who work with them.
She gives the example of a mom reading a story to her child in which women play only subservient roles, telling the child that this author must be out of touch with reality. Girls do all the things the men are doing. She also suggested coloring in dark the hair and skin of drawings in fairy tales.

Dr. Spencer is asking us to look not just at behavior but to understand where that behavior comes from. Perhaps there is something a supportive adult could do that would relieve the source of a negative behavior.
She presented a vulnerability table in which there are four quadrants; high risk, low risk, high protective factors( such as support from parents or other adults, income etc.), low protective factors. These factors can combine into four possibility indicating the level of vulnerability a person faces. All young people have a level of vulnerability but some are clearly more vulnerable than others. Dr.Spencer recommends that schools better allocate their limited resources so that those with the greatest risk get the most support, while others whose need is less might receive less costly forms of support.

Dr. Spencer emphasized that caring about kids does not mean coddling them. Kids need to be challenged but not in a negative, put down way. We need to provide scaffolding to help them get to where they need to go while giving care and support.

There's much more from the session that I'll save for another day.

Please feel free to comment by clicking on the comment button below. You don't need to sign in, and you can remain anonymous if you like.

2006-11-17T08:38:00.000-05:00

The second all day seminar session on the Education of Black Male Youth, sponsored by the Delores Walker Johnson Center for Thoughtful Leadership at Atlas Learning Communities. Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer of the University of Pennsylva presented.

2006-11-16T17:15:00.000-05:00

What a way to whet one's appetite!
Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer kept over 100 listeners at Wheelock College fascinated with her story of her own development from hospital pharmacist and would be pediatrician to a professor of human development at the University of Pennsylvania, and a researcher on resiliency in children.

She emphasized that the elephant of race is still in the room and is not acknowledged. She said Black kids face this unacknowledged barrier 24/7, and have to cope with it along with everything else kids have to manage, mainly learning in school.

Dr. Spencer emphasized that "context matters" i.e. environment matters and if you see yourself devalued by your surroundings you have an added burden. Adults who live with, work with, and teach kids need to understand this, and provide support and encouragement.

One aspect of Dr. Spencer's research is a round skin color and how perception impacts cognition. If you see others as feeling negative towards you, again it makes learning more difficult. Dr. Spencer stated that kids do perceive this.
She also asserted that Black males are the most vulnerable to this negativism, and often choose maladaptive coping strategies, particularly a bravado which says," I'm tough, I take risks, I dis women."

It is important for us to acknowledge the elephant in the room and provide coping strategies that are positive and effective.

Dr. Spencer closed the session by briefly discussing her work at the University of Pennsylvania with the Philadelphia Schools. The university worked kids, their parents, teachers, social workers, and health care providers, giving them strategies to help the kids cope with school. The graduation rate for the kids doubled.
In response to a question, Dr. Spencer recommended that schools of education make cultural competency part of their curriculum so that graduates would be better able to see what their students are experiencing, and then help them.

I'm not hungry but I anticipate a great meal at the full day's session.

2006-11-15T22:12:00.000-05:00

Delores Walker Johnson Center for Thoughtful Leadership at Atlas Learning Communities and Wheelock College

presents
Teaching and Preparing our Black Male Youth for the 21st Century:
Multi-level Opportunities and Uncomfortable Challenges

Thursday-November 16 Speaker: Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer

Dr. Spencer is the Program Director for the Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Development, the W.E.B. Du Bois Collective Research Institute, as well as for the Center for Health Achievement Neighborhoods Growth and Ethnic Studies (CHANGES) at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Jackie Jenkins Scott President of Wheelock College opening the session

Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer and Ron Walker listening to Dr. Jenkins Scott.

Ron Walker introducing Dr. Spencer

Dr. Spencer Presenting

2006-11-09T10:49:00.000-05:00

Reminder
Second Seminar - Black Male Youth

Wheelock College

Wednesday-November 15, 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.,

Challenges and Opportunities for Teaching and Preparing Our Black Male Youth for the Twenty-First Century, by Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer, Professor of Education and Psychology, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education
LOCATION: Lucy Wheelock Auditorium 180 The Riverway, Boston, MA

Delores Walker Johnson Center for Thoughtful Leadership at Atlas Learning Communities

Teaching and Preparing our Black Male Youth for the 21st Century:
Multi-level Opportunities and Uncomfortable Challenges

Thursday-November 16 Speaker: Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer

Dr. Spencer is the Program Director for the Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Development, the W.E.B. Du Bois Collective Research Institute, as well as for the Center for Health Achievement Neighborhoods Growth and Ethnic Studies (CHANGES) at the University of Pennsylvania.

Seminar Format: 
Each seminar begins at 8:00 a.m. and will conclude by 4:00 p.m.

In the morning, participants will gather for breakfast and an opening plenary with the guest presenter. Following lunch, participants will move to small, interactive work groups to discuss implications and applications.

Wheelock College
43 Hawes Street
Brookline, MA

2006-11-02T15:14:00.000-05:00

Below are excerpts from an article in today’s Los Angeles Times. The article highlights Stephen Strachan, principal of Jordan High School in Watts, a no nonsensene administrator who has an unofficial experiment going on in his school. It is his his all-male academy, which is in fact a group of young men who have taken all their classes exclusively together for the past three years. It’s only one part of Jordan High School’s program but it clearly has a special place in Strachan’s plans.

You can see many similarities to The Eagle Academy in this small program.

And when he needs to recharge his batteries, Strachan retreats to a classroom filled with boys: his all-male academy, a daring, unofficial experiment that he will not allow to fail.

We heard these statistics before.

AT Jordan, as at many urban schools, boys are more likely than girls to cut classes, fall behind, fail, drop out and wind up as adults in dead-end jobs — or, worse, prison cells.

David Banks returned to teaching when he read in the New York Times that Black Males were becoming an "endagered species."

"Our men are going to be extinct in the inner city if we don't do something," Strachan says. Prodded by his sense of desperation, he built his experiment on research that suggests boys can thrive in single-sex classes.

The Eagle Academy has the advantage of the kids wanting to be in a singler gender school.

His first year at Jordan, he picked 30 freshmen boys at random — half black, half Latino — and assigned them to take all their courses together, with no girls in their classes.

The boys were not happy. Some parents were wary, "but they were open to anything that would save their sons," Strachan says. "I got very little push-back when I explained what I was doing."

But a brewing culture of success seems to propel the group forward. Last spring, 85% of them passed the state's graduation exam, compared with 24% of Jordan's other sophomores. This year, their curriculum includes Advanced Placement courses and college-level math, science and literature.

"They're struggling, but they're beginning to see education as a tool, a ticket out of the inner city," Strachan says. "When there's a problem, they come to me. Some are thinking about college, [saying] 'Teach me how to study.' "

Eagle Academy hopes to become a 6-12 school with six to ten more like it in New York City.

Word of the boys' progress has begun to spread; the nearby King-Drew Medical Magnet began its own all-male classes this fall. And new rules, announced last week by the U.S. Department of Education, will make it easier for other schools to try single-sex classes.

"There are days when I walk this campus and I visit other classes and I don't see that level of expectation and engagement," Strachan says. "Then I get in that class and feel the energy…. We're doing things different, stepping out of the box."

He speaks bluntly to his all-boy class, not just about the challenges of junior year, but of his belief that "designed racism" threatens to keep them trapped. It's "cultural change" Strachan is going for, "trying to instill leadership values among them as men."

Sound familiar?

He gets groans when he suggests a new dress code: a collared shirt and tie one day a week, and blue Jordan High polo shirts the rest of the time.

Three years in, the boys haven't stopped complaining about the gender segregation. "I hear it all the time," Strachan says. " 'Can't we get some girls in here? Or at least a couple of cute female teachers?' They protest, and I listen. But I think adults need to make the decisions."

THIS year he's giving his all-boy class a chance to take one elective — with girls. The first week of school, he visits to talk about their schedules, asks if there are any problems with their new classes.

A hand goes up. Strachan braces for a complaint about lunch menus or polo shirts. Instead, the boy asks if he can change his elective from the computer class he had requested.

"I'm having trouble with math," he tells the principal. "Can I take another algebra class?"

Strachan swallows hard and smiles, but his voice never changes. "I think we can arrange that. An algebra class."

2006-10-31T14:16:00.000-05:00

David Banks said a lot of important and interesting things last week at the Wheelock Atlas seminars, but certain things struck me as particularly insightful.
Here's one:

"Looking at a young black male who is good in math/arithmatic, we need to see a Future Scientist not a nice little kid who we hope will get through school, get a decent job, and stay out of trouble."

That's another form of high expectations and has to do with how we look at our kids.

2006-10-30T10:06:00.000-05:00

I found this information on the Mass Mentoring Partnership and thought if you were having trouble finding mentors this might help. Here is their basic statement of purpose.

Mass Mentoring Partnership exists to ensure the availability of high-quality mentoring programs to meet the needs of youth statewide.
Our Vision: That all young people are connected to caring adult mentors who will listen to them, stand by them, and guide them.

Also here is an ad in Mass Volunteerism from the Dennis Yarmouth School District looking for Mentors and describing its program. An ad from your school community may lead to mentors.

Dennis Yarmouth Schools Mentors Needed

Work with a 4th-8th grade student after school, or in the community, an hour a week for minimum of a year. Working on class projects, homework, reading or just talking about life, career, sports, music is all o.k. Mentors and Mentees receive a lot of support from the agency. The requirements? Commitment and genuinely caring! These kids are "one hour away from success" . . the hour you can spend with them. Trainings are offered 2-3 times a year and highly encouraged. Occasional non-mandatory Mentor meetings are offered to get together to talk about issues. We have volunteers from age 16-81!!
This opportunity is sponsored by: Dennis-Yarmouth Schools Mentoring Project
We need volunteers who are free at these times

Afternoons

This volunteer opportunity is available to the following types of volunteers

Adults (26-54)

Dennis-Yarmouth Schools Mentoring Project

The mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is to make a positive difference in the lives of children and youth, primarily through a professionally supported One-To-One relationship with a caring adult. To assist them in achieving their highest potential as they grow to become confident, competent, and caring individuals, by providing committed volunteers, national leadership, and standards of excellence.
History:
The DY Mentoring Project started 9/30/04 with a USDOE grant to work in 5 schools, grades 4-8, in the Dennis Yarmouth Regional School District. Volunteers spend one hour a week after school with their Mentee during the school year. They also see them in the summer on a less regular basis. BBBSCC&I has been on the Cape for 32 years.

Last updated on October 20, 2006

2006-10-27T13:14:00.000-04:00

I ran across this independent assessment of The Eagle Academy from 2004. Insideschool.org is The Independent Guide to New York Public Schools. It complements what we heard from David Banks.

One of two all-male schools to open in New York City in 2004, the Eagle Academy for Young Men is off to a promising start. Principal David Banks, former head of the successful Bronx High School for Law, Government and Justice, played a key role in developing the idea for this school, along with One Hundred Black Men, Inc., an organization of African-American professionals, including former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, actor Danny Glover, entertainer Bill Cosby, and trial lawyer Johnnie Cochran, Jr. Together, they hope to create a school that can ready young men for college, while educating them about obstacles they may face and how to overcome them.

"The Eagle Academy is an idea whose time has come and [it fills] a great need in the community," says Banks. "Hearing statistics stating that 50 percent of African American men are unemployed or unemployable is unconceivable. We felt we needed to take a chance. Teachers have to create a curriculum based on how boys learn and they provide hands on experiences to address boys' natural competitive nature. "Far too many [African and Hispanic] young men are not making it. Single sex education may not be the answer but it is worth the try." The mayor, chancellor and the community have all shown support for this type of school.

Among the school's offerings is a one-on-one mentoring program that matches up students, based on their career interests and or social needs, with a member of One Hundred Black Men for the duration of high school.

The school takes pains to keep students on the track to college and that means a lot is demanded of them. The school day, for example, lasts until 5:30 p.m., with study groups and homework help offered after regular classes end. School is also in session on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon, when students take part in intramural sports, as well as classes on such topics as financial planning and leadership. Dinner is provided for the students due to the length of the required school day.

During our visit a double-period math class, led by a capable teacher, impressed us. He was firm, but it was clear that he cared about the boys as he went from desk to desk to make sure they understood the concepts being taught. In an English class, also lasting two periods, students read from Bad Boy, a memoir by Walter Dean Myers about growing up in Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s. Everyone in the class took turns and read aloud. "Kids are producing," said the school's literacy coach. "In after-school they ask for the help they need and the teachers have to keep things creative to keep the discussions moving. What's great is that these boys are discussing academic topics, not just sports."

The school still has some rough edges to smooth. It took quite a few minutes -- and a stern, but not belittling, reminder from the teacher -- for the students in a global history class to stop chattering and settle down. "Without the presence of young ladies to impress, the young men revert back to their natural playfulness," says Banks. The mentoring program helps keep the young men on task. If a student has a minor behavior problem, the school informs the mentor, and he, in turn, speaks to the student about it on the phone or in person during the Saturday academy.

Monday through Thursday students are required to wear a school uniform that includes a tie decorated with eagles. Friday and Saturday are dress-down days -- polo shirts and casual slacks. Extracurricular activities include a chess club and a program in which students raise money to build schools in third world countries. Students also take trips to tour colleges and universities.

Admissions: The school is as interested in parents as the kids. Both must agree in writing to support all aspects of the school, from its dress code to community service requirement. (Jacquie Wayans, October 2004)

Parent Tawana Dunham writes: "I am really happy that my son was accepted into the Eagle Academy for young men. It is about time someone noticed our young men need help, guidance, and encouragement from positive male figures." (March 2005)
As per Principal David Banks, this school will be housed in the Bronx School for Law, Government & Justice for the first year and then will move into its own building in the West Farms area of the Bronx. (June 2004)

2006-10-26T14:20:00.000-04:00

The young men at Eagle Academy always dress in uniforms. Monday through Thursday it’s a blue shirt, Eagle Tie, and dark slacks. Each class has a different color Eagle Tie. The less formal, casual dress, is an Eagle polo shirt and khaki slacks which is worn on Fridays and Saturday mornings.

That’s right the students have school on Saturday morning. The time is used for special enrichment activities which in many schools usurp regular weekday school time.
At Eagle Academy guest speakers come Saturday morning, and many community members offer workshops in their field of expertise such as “Financial Management” or “Proper Etiquette.” Founding Principal David Banks says it’s often easier to get well known speakers on Saturday morning than during the week when they maintain heavy schedules. He listed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, former New York City mayor David Dinkins, U.S. Representative Charlie Rangle as a few of the Academy’s guests.

All parent related activities are also held on Saturday morning and range from parent-teacher conferences to workshop for parents. Since these activities are not scheduled at the end of a work day, Banks says, attendance is excellent.

Many of the participants at Tuesday’s all day session felt that a Saturday program would be beneficial to a lot of their kids. They recognized, however, how the nuts and bolts of making it happened
could put up an obstacle.

As I mentioned yesterday the mentors also meet one Saturday morning a month to share best practices

Banks says boys like to be on teams but they also like the competition that can result from this . In its after school program Eagle Academy does have competitive sports teams, but also boast a Debate Team, a Chess Team and a newly formed Robotics Team, all of which compete locally, and beyond.

The after school program also provides tutoring sessions which are voluntary during the first quarter but become mandatory for students at risk after first term.

There is also a summer bridge program for students who will be entering the Academy as freshmen in the fall. It attempts to orient the students to the Academy’s culture, and also help them improve their reading, writing and math skills.

David Banks emphasized in all of his responses, that each of these activities is not an isolated piece but part of an overall culture of excellence that is built into every aspect of the school

Here are some more attendee action plans from Tuesday:

“Implementing a Saturday Academy for Middle School students”

“Try to start a summer program that targets young men and prepares them for high school.”

"Implementing a summer school for inner city males with a heavy emphasis on charcter building."

2006-10-25T18:41:00.000-04:00

The first all day session of the Wheelock/ Delores Walker Johnson Center for Thoughtful Leadership at Atlas Learning Communities - The Education of Black Male Youth -offered a great opportunity to a group of 50 educators to think about the issue, and to leave with a specific action to take to make a difference in their students lives.

Plenary speaker David Banks (see yesterday’s posting) said we’ve talked about the negative experience of Black Male Youth, written about it, held conferences about it, talked again about it, written additional books about it, and held more conferences about it. “It’s time we do something about ,” Banks asserted. He said he had been influenced to return to education by a headline in The New York Times: "Black Men-An Endangered Species?"
Banks, in more detail than Monday night, described the Eagle Academy for Young Men, a New York City Public School, which he founded three years ago. While his emphasis was the creation of an all around culture where Academic Excellence, Leadership, Character Development, Mentoring, Integrity and Community Service could thrive, he recommended that the first thing that everyone could do, was to find a one on one mentor for those particular Black Youth who give the teachers and administrators the most problems. “Not only will those boys do better but you’ll gain new cheerleaders for your school,” Banks suggested.
Eagle Academy provides a separate mentor for each of its 265 young men. The mentors come from all walks of life, and are asked to stay with their mentee for his four years of high school.
There is a full time Mentor Coordinator for the program. Each Mentor must pass a criminal back ground check, participate in a 3 hour training, and meet with other mentors one Saturday a month to share best practices.

“It’s a powerful experience to walk into a large room and see a group of men doing the right thing.” David Banks

The emphasis on mentoring hit a chord with the attendees. When asked at the end of the day to write one thing each planned to do as a result of the day’s experience, many gave variations of the following:

“I am determined to find mentors for the boys in my school.”

“Implement a mentoring program for sixth grade boys.”

“Develop a Mentoring Program for my male student.”

Hopefully many of these attendees will share through comments on this blog how their plans are materializing.

2006-10-24T06:55:00.000-04:00

David Banks, a dynamic and straight talking educator, spoke at the second of five pre seminar sessions-The Education of Black Male Youth- at Wheelock College yesterday afternoon. Banks, who is headmaster of the all boys Eagle Academy in New York City, in an almost next step from last week's program, described the support his mother and father gave to him and his two younger brothers to make sure they could be successsful. He describes his mom as 5' and nothing, but a tremendously forceful person; and his dad, a retired New York City policeman, as both old school and new school. His old school was "follow the rules or else," but his new school was an explanation of why, Banks says he tries to follow their example in his work with his students holding kids to high expectations but making it clear why it's important.
Banks has an undergraduate degree from Rutgers and a law degree from St John's University, and started the Bronx School of Law, Government and Justice before opening Eagle Academy three years ago.
Banks says the reason students name Eagle as their first choice for high school, is because they know each student gets a mentor at the school.
David Banks will delve deeper into Eagle today at the all day Atlas Wheelock Seminar-Soaring with Eagle.

2006-10-19T12:40:00.000-04:00

Personal Stories of Boston Black Males Highlight Introduction to Seminar Series

Over 150 people heard 5 successful Black Males discuss their sources of support in growing up. Four were born and raised in Boston, while the fifth grew up in Philadelphia but has been in the Boston area for the past 35 years.

Wheelock College and the Delores Walker Johnson Center for Thoughtful Leadership at the Atlas Learning Communities introduced a series of 4 all day seminars-The Education of Black Male Youth- with a two hour program Tuesday afternoon at the Wheelock Family Theatre.

After Wheelock President Jackie Jenkins Scott welcomed the attendees, Ron Walker, Director of the Johnson Center and a Philadelphia native, described his own life’s travels to becoming a teacher, principal and educational reformer. When Ron saw some of his students’ lives destroyed through violence, he comitted himself to making the education of Black Males his highest priority.
Ron moved the audience with his tale of being contacted after some 25 years by a former 7th grade students who was serving a life term for murder in a Pennsylvania state penitentiary. Ron described him as bright, engaging, and motivated as a student, but involved in some bad decisions. Ron has visited the prison twice since being contacted, and describes mostly Black and Brown faces when he addressed the inmates.

The statistics about Black Males is discouraging. High percentages of failure in school, and involvement in the penal system. What can schools and the community do to reach this group?

A panel representing three generations of Boston raised Black males and hosted by Dr. Roger Harris helped frame the questions.
Dr. Harris is current Headmaster of the Boston Renaissance Charter School, but first developed his reputation as principal of the Timilty Middle School in Roxbury.

Harry Wilson returned to Boston from a stint in Vietnam as a Marine, and devoted himself to reaching community youth by establishing the Boston Raiders, a Pop Warner football program, that has had national recognition. Coach Wilson emphasized the importance of moral development in our youth.

Dr. Richard O’Bryant is currently a professor at Northeastern University and is the son of John O’Bryant, Boston’s first elected Black. Dr. O’Bryant
credited his father with his academic success and then acknowledged many in the audience who he said by their example gave him support to move forward. Dr. Bryant is currently the Head of Concerned Black Males, a volunteer group, which runs programs for Black Male Youth in the Boston Community.

The third panelist was Darryl Edwards a youth minister in Boston who credited his mother for getting him through the rigors of Boston Latin School and St. Johns University. He emphasized the importance of family and focused on the preschool years as the most formative years in a child’s development.

The panel answered some prepared questions before the audience became involved. Many had personal stories of support systems, and it was heartening to hear from so many successful Bostonians.

Roger Harris ended the discussion with his own story of taking resistant Timilty students first to church and then the movies each Sunday and how the group grew from two to a dozen. Commitment and follow through are needed to reach all students.

There was a sense that in the hall were many members of the Boston Black community who had found their own success, and were now willing to do what they could to make it happen for the next generation.

Ron Walker called for a Conspiracy of Care from those in attendance, and asked that they all communicate through e-mail things they’re doing to make a difference for Black Males.

The four part day long series begin next Tuesday at 8 am.
Soaring With the Eagles
Date: October 24
Speaker: David Banks
Mr. Banks is the founding administrator of the Eagle Academy for Young Men, the first all-boys public high school in New York City in over 30 years.