But when we reflect on black history, our attention is drawn to the powerful forces that inspired African American ancestors to overcome centuries of oppression—the pursuit of freedom, esteem for education and confidence to know they deserved everything this great country had to offer.

The unavoidable question relative to esteem for education is: what’s changed? What does our month-long look into black history reveal about esteem for education then versus now?

In answering this question, I’m reminded of a study soon to be released in the journal Demography finding that, in 1972, Americans at the upper end of the income spectrum were spending five times as , much per child as low-income families. By 2007 that gap had grown to nine to one; spending by upper-income families more than doubled, while spending by low-income families grew by 20 percent.

Despite this disturbing trend, educating our children is not about how much we spend on them. It is about intensive cultivation that need not cost a great deal to produce a well-educated child. It does require a significant investment in the priceless commodity of time that, for many low-income parents, can be in short supply.

This reminds me of generations ago when, with similar constraints on their time, black people worked just as hard at multiple jobs trying to make ends meet, yet they prioritized learning to read and getting an education. A difference it seems is a philosophy of education that has gone missing.

Theresa Perry’s essay in the book, entitled “Young, Gifted, and Black,” which discusses a historical philosophy of education held among black people of freedom for literacy and literacy for freedom. This powerful philosophy informed the routines and practices of individuals and their families’ commitment to education – - from Fredrick Douglas who carried his book with him every where he went so that he could practice his reading to Ben Carson who at his mother’s insistence read every night.

Through the many narratives described in Perry’s essay, it becomes clear that the pursuit of education was not casual. It was intensely, persistently supported and fueled by an explicitly and continually communicated belief system. This belief system was part of an ethos, a culture of learning, that stood in opposition to the dominant society’s view of the intellectual capacity of black people, the role of learning in their lives, the meaning and purpose of school and the power of their intellect. This insistence about getting an education came not just from mothers and grandmothers, but also from teachers and the preacher on Sunday morning.

In this post Civil Rights society when the intellectual capacity of black people is not as widely or openly challenged, this historical philosophy of education  no longer seems to act as a source of motivation, yet it must. As globalization and technological advances continue, we are all better positioned to make choices about the quality of our lives and those of our grandchildren if we are educated, than if we are not.

While the study revealed real gaps, these do not mean that parents with fewer resources to spend cannot support and foster their children’s educational attainment. As the time parents spend with their children is as central to their success as an experience at a summer camp, let’s consider spending this time more effectively talking about people, such as Ken Chenault or Mayor Kasim Reed, who are using their educations to lead Fortune 500 companies or urban cities; visiting library branches and free museum exhibits; reading together; discussing books and movies; and generally talking to children about what interests them.

Let’s also reengage our religious leaders and teachers in the telling the stories of their own and others success through education so that more children believe they are expected to achieve, and that getting an education really matters!

Have you seen it? 

The ad challenges boys to stay in school and view education as the key to making their dreams happen; a powerfully important message that I completely buy into.

The truth is: we need many more ads in all forms of media with celebrity spokespeople espousing the importance of an education and its relationship to succeeding in school and succeeding in life.  But, I’d prefer the ads use celebrities with more authenticity to reinforce the point.

I am not “hating” on LeBron.  I’m aware that he graduated high school and has an unrivaled star power that will attract eyeballs to pay attention to the ad and recall it, a key metric of advertising success.

He’s a tremendous athlete, and for all I know, a great person. But the commercial leaves me wondering, because its messenger, while highly popular, reinforces the low bar we’ve established as a nation for educational attainment.  LeBron would be a stronger messenger if he embodied a college degree as well as a high school diploma.

In addition, Mr. James didn’t achieve his dream through education.  Black boys know this, so I can’t help but wonder whether the star power of the messenger undercuts the importance of the message.  Perhaps we think they won’t notice.

It’s a missed opportunity to reinforce how important higher education is to future success. The pool of high school graduates who earn $14 million a year or more is pretty small.

Getting educated in the 21^st century doesn’t end at high school.  Our focus on graduation from high school sets children’s sights on a bar that’s set just too low. With this marker as our guide, black boys achieve the lowest test scores and the highest drop out rates in the nation.

I wonder if the low level of educational attainment of black boys, and of America’s children generally, has contributed to an increasing reluctance to expect more and to set higher targets.  Dare we dream?

We need more public messages that engage celebrities to inspire black boys to wake up to the need to prioritize school success to the same extent as they prioritize athletic and other pursuits.  There is a game to compete in, and it’s in the classroom.  It’s the game that matters most. Wake Up!

A new report gives parents some hope and encouragement in their ability to help coach their children to victory.  Recent findings show that simply reading and talking to your children leads to better academic performance, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA.  I hope the OECD’s report can be the catalyst we need to help parents to become more actively involved in their children’s education in 2012.

I think we all agree that parents’ engagement in their children’s education is a key ingredient for student success, but what we typically focus on is the quality of parents’ involvement in the school: participation in the PTA, in fundraising activities, attending back-to-school night or attending the school play.  There is not enough focus on the quality of parents’ involvement in the home outside of directing parents to monitor television viewing time spent and helping children with homework.

The great news about the PISA findings is that parents who talk and read to their children, regardless of socio-economic background, help prepare them to learn and it is something every parent can do.  The report underscores what I hope is well understood by now: that reading to children early and often contributes to higher scores than students whose parents read infrequently or not at all.

It identifies concrete ways in which parents can stimulate learning in the home by asking frequently about what their child is learning; discussing books, movies, and TV programs, discussing political or social issues, and generally spending time talking with their children, hopefully over a meal.  It also helps us understand that students are never too old to benefit from their parent’s interest in and concern for them.

Ok parents, game on!  What are you gonna do to inspire your kids to excel when they return to school?  If you need some help, visit our web site (webduboissociety.org) and download the Parent-Student Contract.  It’s a tool you can review and complete with your child to set clear and specific expectations for their academic success in the next semester.

Talk is usually cheap, but in the case of talking to your children, doing so can yield academic performance rewards that will pay dividends later.  Let’s inspire our kids and give them the tools they need to compete in the classroom!

In an essay King wrote for the Maroon Tiger in 1947 titled, “The Purpose of Education” he said, “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically…intelligence plus character—that is the goal of education.”

King’s inclusion of character as a dimension of the educational process is consistent with his strong belief that one day African-American children would be judged by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin. I think he’d be disappointed that character development has overtime become unhinged from the attainment of education.

Report cards, for instance, no longer report on conduct, which let you know how much trouble you’d been causing in school. Conduct communicated volumes about the relationship between character and getting a good education: self-control, respect, citizenship and fairness, among others.

Recent research by Angela Duckworth finds that exceptional character strengths, like persistence, tenacity and persuasion may be indispensible to making it to graduation day.  We can take what are perceived largely as reasons to expect academic failure – poverty, absent fathers, undereducated parents – and deliberately focus children in these circumstances on transforming the lessons of these challenges into the characteristics of strength they and all of us need to be successful.

To do so we must first, believe no matter the background or circumstance of any child, that he or she is capable of learning and achieving and second, intentionally focus on developing character strengths using both classroom lessons and students’ unique experiences to draw connections to the character strengths they can develop and hone.

King understood that character and academic achievement were inextricably tied. Tolerance, fairness, respect and diligence were needed not just for people to get along, but to create an environment conducive to learning.

Earlier this month, the King memorial was unveiled at the National Mall in Washington D.C. Much will be said about King’s legacy as a civil rights leader and how he took the fight for freedom and justice to the streets; how he longed for the day when we’d be judged not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character.

At the memorial to King at our alma mater, I saw doves flying free and was reminded that we build character at home and in the classroom. That’s where the fight for justice and equality really begins.

As thought leaders, administrators and educators explore a myriad of solutions for what we all agree is a looming state of crisis in American education, the subject of parental engagement has made the short list of proposed strategies.

In a NY Times editorial last week, author Peg Tyre elevated this dialogue to another level when she raised then option of the “parent trigger”–a concept that is being proposed in more than 20 states to recognize and increase the impact of engaged parents and, I would argue, possibly bring another layer of complication.

According to Tyre, California was the first to adopt this trigger. Here’s how it works there: “parents whose children attend a failing school can band together. If 51 percent of them sign a petition, they can demand, and the district must provide, a new set of administrators to run the school. Alternately, the disgruntled parents can ask that a charter school operator be brought in to take over.”

On the subject of parental engagement in a child’s education, the research is clear: parents matter…a lot! Research consistently shows that parent involvement—in the home and at the school—has a significant influence on student achievement. Literature shows that students whose parents are involved in their children’s schooling have increased academic performance and overall cognitive development. For most people, that’s somewhat of a no brainer.

And while the notion of institutionalizing and operationalizing parental engagement has some appeal, how would it work in communities and districts where parents are systemically disengaged, uninformed and, themselves, undereducated?

Several research studies highlight the differences in the parental involvement of African American and Hispanic parents as compared to their white and Asian peers. This topic has also been reflected in discourse among educators and administrators. This phenomenon was reinforced for me recently when I encountered African-American parent who had no clue that her child had been truant for three weeks.

There are several reasons and barriers that inform this reality, but in many school districts, it is a reality nonetheless. If parental engagement is to elevate as the next big “it strategy” for reforming public schools, then attention must be paid to this racial/ethnic gap in parental engagement, and to getting more black parents up to speed to ensure this does not become yet another area where glaring disparity is perpetuated. If ever there was a case of “be careful what you ask for,” this is it.

I don’t propose to have a silver bullet either. In all honesty, it is a phenomenon that has left me at times dispirited in my work with African-American students over the past decade. But, I do think it has to start with this conversation. With juggling the various barriers and limitations in everyday life, many parents simply don’t have time or know how to support their child’s academic success…simply don’t know where to start.

We are trying to help with our parent-student contract that enables parents and children to talk about expectations for success in school and the behaviors that lead to it, and to hold themselves and their children more accountable to communicating and staying actively engaged during the school year. It’s a good start at helping parents express their commitment to their children, incorporate incentives along with consequences, and to set specific milestones for monitoring their child’s progress.

If you are a parent who is not fully engaged, or if you know one, let the discussion and the move to change start with you. How can you commit to ensure that, as parental engagement becomes a part of our public policy to reform education, minority parents are not left behind?

It should come as no surprise that under these conditions black and Latino boys are failing to thrive. They account for 90 percent of young murder victims and perpetrators, and have a 50 percent higher poverty rate than their white and Asian male counterparts. They are two times more likely not to graduate high school – - almost guaranteeing the cycle of poverty in which they are born will not be reversed.

According to “A Call For Change”, a 2010 study released by Council of Great City Schools,  only 12 percent of black male students are proficient at reading by 4^th grade compared to 38 percent of white males. By eighth grade, proficiency rates fall to 9 percent for black males and 33 percent for whites – which isn’t great either. Black males are almost twice as likely as white males to drop out of school.  While they make up only 5 percent of college enrollment nationally, they represent 36 percent of the prison population.

We have to stop this train wreck and now. These negative trends result in unmet human potential and an economic and social drain on our national productivity.  High school dropouts cost taxpayers more than $8 billion annually in public assistance programs like food stamps. While it costs about $14,000 a year to attend community college, we are spending on average $25,000 annually to incarcerate too many young black men who could become our future teachers, doctors, scientists, labor and business leaders.

Recently, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a new program in partnership with philanthropist George Soros aimed at tackling the widespread disparities of black and Latino males. The “Young Men’s Initiative” looks to bridge gaps in education, health, employment and the justice system. The ambitious new program would seemingly overhaul how the city’s government interacts with 315,000 disenfranchised black and Latino males, who are disproportionately undereducated, incarcerated and unemployed.  Hats off to Mayor Bloomberg, philanthropist George Soros and others for stepping up to plate and spearheading efforts to change the lives of boys in New York City.

Like Mayor Bloomberg, I am deeply concerned that too many boys are increasingly without the knowledge and mindset they need to succeed and are too isolated from our mainstream economic system and society. That’s why the W.E.B. Du Bois Society will soon launch Livefor30—a free, monthly webcast series aimed at connecting black middle and high school boys with athletes, business leaders, entertainers and other prominent figures who will share their stories firsthand of academic ambition and persistence through life obstacles. Students will be allowed to submit questions and garner advice. These ongoing, inspirational conversations will help motivate young men to prioritize academic ambition—whatever their life circumstances —and to realize the value of an education for any kind of life success.

We are expecting hundreds of successful, respected African-American men will step up to invest their time by participating in these Livefor30 webcasts—volunteering an easy 30 minutes to engage with, influence, and inspire young, impressionable black boys all over the nation. Additionally, we welcome partnerships with other organizations that are interested in building upon these webcasts to further change boys’ perceptions about who has the ability to learn and succeed and who has not.

Malcolm X said, “education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” There is a great deal to be done and all of us have a role we can play to ensure America’s boys secure their passports and are not left behind.

LZ Granderson, a CNN contributor with CNN.com wrote recently that he is raising his son to be a nerd.  My question is why are more parents following his lead?

I know both names are horribly unflattering and I’m the first to agree that we need more positive, affirming, and “cooler” names to describe people who are intellectually curious. But, let’s not lose sight of the goal and allow our culture’s negative attitude about the name dissuade us from rearing our children so that they become the inventors of new technologies and not simply consumers of it.

As parents our top priority is to develop children with intellectually curious minds who are eager to learn and who perceive learning as exciting and important. But, let’s be honest and ask ourselves how excited are we when they earn good grades or aspire to become a presidential scholar? There are no cheers, little applause and even less fanfare for successful classroom pursuits.  We save these behaviors for their participation in competition on various fields or courts.

Rearing your child to be a “nerd” is hard to pull off in a culture that says it values education then eliminates federal funding for Reading is Fundamental and disinvests in early childhood learning.  I agree with Granderson when he says, “we just like to say we do (value education) because as citizens of an industrialized nation, we’re supposed to.”

But, children aren’t stupid and talk is cheap. They see and hear the duplicity in our actions and need their parents to take the lead, especially now. When we begin to celebrate our children’s successful results on science and Spanish tests as we do the outcomes of their successful football and basketball games, when we are as affirming of our children studying for a test as we are of them practicing a 360 degree dunk – we’ll take a few needed steps toward signaling to our children that we value education and think it critical to their future success.

Let’s face it, being perceived as cool doesn’t assure you’ll be successful, and it’s only important in the short-term.  Parents are responsible for looking out for their children’s long-term interests.  If that means making choices between their child’s “cool factor” and their intellectual development, the choice is pretty clear.  More importantly, show them how it means they shouldn’t have to make a choice at all–that being cool doesn’t have to contradict being seriously educated.

Check out LZ Granderson’s story below:

Who were these rock stars, and why weren’t their accomplishments covered by every television program, radio station or print publication in the region?  Perhaps it’s because they are rock stars in the classroom and in their communities, and not in the athletic arena or on the entertainment stage.  They are:

• Camara Carter, a Sandy Creek High School graduate who will attend Harvard University
• Danielle Daley a graduate of The Westminster Schools who will attend the Georgetown University
• Julia Davis, a graduate of Carver Health Sciences & Research who will attend Spelman College
• Camera Elliott, a Pike County High School graduate who will attend the University of Georgia
• Asha Harris, Parkview High School graduate who will attend Georgia Institute of Technology
• Kevin Smith, a Redan High School graduate who will attend Boston University

Theirs’ may not be household names, yet, but I predict it’s only a matter of time before that changes.  These six African-American metro Atlanta high school students have displayed academic excellence at their respective schools and tremendous tenacity in the face of various obstacles—from battling dyslexia and overcoming shyness to losing a parent at a young age.

They were honored as the 2011 Class of W.E.B. Du Bois Scholars program, in the first year that the initiative was revamped into an invitation-only program to recognize and honor some of our most distinguished African-American high school students, and to motivate and inspire other students toward the academic ambition that can also earn them the same recognition and success in life.

The W.E.B. Du Bois Scholars program, with a n emphasis on African-American students, is modeled after the U.S. Presidential Scholars program. Local and national thought leaders, politicians and educators joined the week-long celebration of academic excellence. During Recognition week, students received a W.E.B. Du Bois medallion commemorating their selection as a Du Bois Scholar, dined with members of the Atlanta City Council, enjoyed VIP encounters with arts leaders, and participated in intimate conversations with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and journalist Charlyne Hunter-Gault.

Nationally, recognition from the U.S. Scholars program is the highest honor a high school student can receive. Since its creation in 1964, less than four percent (a staggering statistic) of those students have been African American.

Why don’t we celebrate academic excellence in African-American students? Our scholars program is the only one of its kind recognizing excellence in black students. Yet, we celebrate, applaud and even televise events such as National Signing Day every February. Young athletes are brought on the national stage to announce their school of choice to play sports. Why don’t do we do the same thing for college kids announcing their academic school of choice?

I can’t help but recall a stirring comment from Akil Dan-Fodio during our “Academics & Athletics” media panel discussion in May.  Akil, an all-star high school scholar athlete who gets it done on and off the football field, said to us: “If you make honor roll, your name is put on a list that goes up in the hall.  But if you are athlete of the week, it’s in the newspaper. There are cameras. Your game might be on ESPN. Everybody knows about it.  The only way people know about academic scholarships is if you tell them.  Every kid wants to be recognized for what they did.  You get that more with sports than you do with academics.”

As we celebrate high school athletes crossing the threshold to upper level athletics, we should celebrate nationally and locally students who have persisted to achieve at the highest level in the classroom.  When you consider the odds of achieving and realizing life success in a career in medicine, law, academics, education or in math or science, versus in an athletic or entertainment career, isn’t it clear where we should aim our spotlights?  It is important to spotlight students who compete aggressively in the classroom to the same extent that we spotlight those in other areas such as sports. It is my hope that, in recognizing students for their hard work in this arena, we can inspire more of them to work harder. We believe student achievement and behavior can be improved through frequent monitoring of student progress and positive feedback and recognition for gains made.

Students that do well and strive hard for academic success are the new rock stars…we should acknowledge them as such!  And, we are committed to staying our course—challenging parents, educators, community leaders and the media to treat these students as such.

Check out this very inspirational video to learn more about the personal experiences and aspirations of these six W.E.B. Du Bois Scholars:

In the series, Soledad follows Maria Castro, Brian Whited and Shaan Patel as they prepare for the finals in St. Louis, Missouri.  Not only do the three students represent different geographic regions, but they also represent significantly different cultural and academic paths.

• Junior Maria Castro attends an inner city high school in Phoenix (with a 95 percent Latino student population), where the average family makes less than $30,000 a year. More than half of the students at Maria’s school have failed the statewide test in reading and math.
• Senior and self proclaimed “nerd” Brian Whited lives in a middle class suburb of in Tennessee. He is enrolled in all honors classes and is a member of the National Honor Society. Yet, his school offers no AP classes, which threatens his dreams of entering a top engineering school.
• Sophomore Shaan Patel lives in Montgomery, New Jersey—an upper middle class neighborhood where the average income is more than $200,000 a year. The town could be considered a hub for large tech and pharmaceutical companies, and Shaan is already taking AP courses and has a host of after school activities.

Maria’s Story

“Why isn’t anyone challenging me?!” That was the heart’s cry of Maria Castro.  Of the three students, her experience most closely mirrors the challenges that many African-American children are facing within their own school systems, and who also epitomizes academic ambition.  At Maria’s school, half the students don’t pass Arizona’s proficiency exams, which means they don’t meet the bar for basic knowledge in math, reading and science.

At home, Maria is the sixth of seven children.  Throughout the course of their academic experiences, all of her siblings eventually descended from honor roll students to high school dropouts. Her entire family expected the same outcome for Maria as well.  Her parents are like those of most of her peers: working-class immigrants who have survived by working in food service or landscaping, who have made a living without higher education and who believe their children can get along that way as well.

In fact, through tears, Maria told Soledad a heart-wrenching story about overhearing her father speaking with one of her favorite teachers at her quinceanera — her 15th birthday celebration. The teacher was raving about Maria’s dreams and strong academics.  Her father’s reply: “It’s just a matter of time before she fails.  It doesn’t really matter what she does now, she will eventually give up.”

Hurt and shocked, Maria used that statement as motivation.  She quickly determined that she wasn’t on track to take the classes necessary to be as competitive as other applicants before the end of her senior year.  She took initiative, engaging 31 other students and petitioning for months for an accelerated math class combining Algebra and Pre-Calculus. Eventually, she found funding and an instructor for the class.

Singlehandedly, Maria plotted her path to get the courses she needed to attend the college of her dreams…without the help of her parents.  Now, that’s academic ambition!

How many parents and students are similarly mapping out the course for their futures?  How many are thinking ahead to identify potential obstacles in their path to college?  How many are even thinking intentionally about college?  According to the documentary, not many.  Minority dropout rates hover around 40-50 percent and, by 2050, minority students will be half of U.S. school children.

These facts should matter to all of us!  Academic ambition matters for our students and for our country!  Of 34 countries, America ranks 17^th in science and 25^th in math. Last year, with unemployment rates soaring across the country, more than two million high-paying, high-skill tech positions went unfilled because of the lack of skilled American talent.

Maria, Brian and Shaan should be applauded for their academic ambition. At a time when being intelligent is considered “uncool,“ these students went against the grain. In my eyes, they are the potential for America. Gone are the days where post-secondary education is optional and working at the local plant can offer stability.

So what can we do? As parents, it is our duty to expect our children to be successful and to inspire higher academic ambitions.  It is our responsibility to help them map out their futures, and to understand the importance of doing so – values plus expectations equals motivation.  While Maria’s story is an inspiring one, it’s also a sad one.  Just imagine how different things might have been if the environment in which she navigated at home, school, and in her community expected more of her, offered more guidance and more support.

Start by setting high expectations and asking questions, early and often, such as “Where do you want to be after you graduate from high school?,” “How do we get there?”   How can our children prepare for greatness and success if we are not expecting, challenging and inspiring them all along the way?

Check out the full documentary, “Don’t Fail Me: Education in America” on YouTube:

Amir Early, couresy of Oakland Tribune

It certainly wasn’t the case when eight-year-old Amir Early of Oakland, Calif., became one of a handful of African-American boys to score a perfect math score on the 2010 California Standards Test.  In other words, that young brother answered all 65 questions perfectly.

You’d think he’d have immediately made the syndicated black radio circuit, would have had his photo plastered all over his state media, or, at least, have made a blurb in the African-American press.  But, he wasn’t.  In fact, when word first got out about Amir and his peers’ achievements, what did he and his family hear: crickets, crickets.  Sending a clear and disappointing message that someone just doesn’t care about the academic accomplishments of our children.

The question is: who are those someones?  Are they the group of media decision-makers and agenda-setters determining who and what we should know and care about.  Or, are we the culprits?  Are we sending the subtle (and not so subtle) signals that we just don’t care to create a culture that celebrates and recognizes our students’ academic achievements?

Now, I realize young Amir is no Lindsay Lohan.  However, he is an incredibly bright, motivated child who arrives at school each day ready to learn.  His teacher reports that his academic persistence causes everyone around him to work just as hard. He’s a testimony to the power of positive peer influence.

Thankfully, his mother persisted in bringing his accomplishment and that of the other 22 African-American boys to the attention of the school district and the media. But, I think we have to ask ourselves what is wrong with our educational and media institutions that this accomplishment is not deemed newsworthy, without the prodding of his parents.

Amir’s story is not the first or only example of such a missed opportunity. Our failure to acknowledge such accomplishments reflects a deficit-oriented mindset that is driving our steep climb out of the current educational crisis.  Let’s all persist as Amir’s mother did to communicate that we believe the academic success of our children is as newsworthy as the successes we celebrate and acknowledge in other arenas. Amir’s academic persistence is producing success for him and inspiring and influencing his peers to do likewise.  This is great news that we should all want to know about.

Check out some of the news coverage that Young Amir and his peers did manage to garner after his mother’s efforts.

• 23 Perfect Test Scores! Wow!!! [Video]
• For Oakland’s African-American boys, a hopeful statistic