Invest now to change boys’ path to the future

Black boys are flailing and we must do more than continue to treat them like defective girls if we are to change the trajectory on which so many of their lives are headed. We need to act quickly on information we already possess about the differences in the ways boys and girls learn and develop.  We need to consider more fully the uniqueness of boy’s development and the implications for parenting and teaching them, especially given that so many are being reared and taught by women, live in poverty in homes with absent fathers, and in communities with too few positive male images.

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.

Tags: African Americans, African-American youth, black boys, black males, education, Latino boys, LiveFor30, Young Men's Initiative

Nerds and Geeks

Ever ask yourself whether you’re rearing your child to be a “geek or a nerd”? Or is this the furthest thing from your mind?  If your immediate thought is no way, you might want to reconsider.

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:

My Week With Rock Stars!

Recently, I had the privilege of enjoying an entire week in the presence of six rock stars…up close and personal!  I stood alongside them as they engaged with some of Atlanta’s most esteemed political, business and community leaders.  And, I applauded them as they were honored with a host of accolades and public commendations.  This whirlwind week left me on quite an inspirational high, and the hundreds of others who had the foresight to join in this time of celebration felt the same.  Still, the week came and went with little fanfare, and having made relatively few waves throughout our city.

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:

Don’t Fail Me: Are We Failing Our Children?

Kudos to CNN and Soledad O’Brien for enhancing their “In America” series with an “Education In America” focus.  This month’s series, “Don’t Fail Me,” follows three high school students in different parts of the country—Arizona, New Jersey and Tennessee—as they prepared for the FIRST Robotics Competition.  FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” and this nationwide contest combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology.

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:

Any black students worth celebrating? Crickets. Crickets.

We live in a 24/7 news cycle in which news permeates our space at any moment, all the time.  What gets reported as newsworthy is a reflection of what is deemed important, valuable, worth knowing. Or so we’re told.  You’d think that when something is a first, is impressive, counters the status quo or sets a significant, positive milestone, that something would most be deemed “newsworthy.”  That’s what you’d think!  But, sadly, that’s rarely the case.

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

Students need sticks, but they need carrots more

Imagine how fed up you must be if you’re willing to risk your child’s humility to save him.  That’s what a Tampa mother recently did when she stuck him on a street corner with a sign around his neck saying among other things “GPA 1.22. … Honk if you think I need education.”

Being a fan of tough love myself, I immediately thought “hooray for her!” According to this recent AP story, Ronda Holder says she and the boy’s father have tried everything to get their 15-year-old to shape up academically. They’ve offered help, asked to see homework, grounded, lectured him and confiscated his cell phone. Sound familiar?  Apparently, James Mond III’s indifference at a school meeting was the final straw. The following day, Holder made the sign and made her son wear it for nearly four hours.

Yes, she was reported to the Department of Family and Children’s Services and of course experts were highly critical of the move.  Holder insists she’s fighting for her child’s education.  She’s right of course. The real truth is: she’s fighting for his life.  With so much at stake in this fight, the undeniable question is: how can Holder and other engaged parents motivate their young students as a complement to reprimanding them?

There’s much we don’t know about this situation.  I’d like to presume James was performing in school at some level before he fell to his current 1.22 status and that he had a level of motivation; however fleeting.  I’m curious to know whether his parents understand what motivates him – - what, if anything he’s invested in.  I don’t know the basis on which his cell phone was returned.  Given his grades ultimately fell to a 1.22, I’d say it was returned prematurely.

We don’t know if “carrots” were offered to James when he climbed himself out of his previous academic performance holes.  He had to have, right? After all, he got his phone back.  Was he rewarded by word or deed for the increased effort, given an additional carrot on top of the returned phone?  We need to expect academic success and then recognize and reward students’ effort, progress and achievement at every juncture along the way.

We all need to be motivated to engage – to be emotionally concerned and invested – in what we want to achieve: do well in school, lose 10 pounds, eat more healthfully, clean out the garage, or learn a new language.

As we all continue to “fight for children’s education” as Rhonda Holder says she is doing, let’s add some carrots to jump-start the intrinsic motivation students need to get in done in the classroom.

After James’ recent experience, perhaps he has newfound sources of motivation to draw on when the work seems uninteresting or he’s just not motivated to work hard.  I pray the drastic step his mother felt compelled to take got his attention.  I also pray that we add some carrots to the sticks and support our children need to achieve in school and in life.

Click here to view the news story and to hear about James’ story firsthand from his mom’s perspective.

Tags: African-American, African-American boys, African-American students, African-American youth, black boys, black students, discipline, education, James Mond, Ronda Holder, tough love

So, we got “The Game” back. What’s next?

With much fanfare and record-breaking ratings, the television show The Game made its much-anticipated return to television several weeks ago, after a two-year hiatus. It features the life and times of the members of a fictional National Football League team, The Sabers, and their families. The show originally ran on the CW Network, but was canceled after its third season because of low ratings. Its fans launched a social media firestorm and, as a result, BET picked up the series.

First, let me say, I applaud the fans for fighting for what they wanted and not letting Hollywood strip away, prematurely, another prominent African-American show. But, where is that outrage and demand for the kinds of shows that portray African Americans as everyday professionals and academics—in other words, as something besides entertainers, athletes or single parents. Where are the shows like The Cosby Show and A Different World that provided some counter-balance with more positive images of African-American life?

In the early ‘80s and ‘90s, network television ran a string of African-American sitcoms which depicted a slice of life in middle class communities.  The Cosby Show, one of the most iconic, always stressed the importance of education and family.  In the pilot episode Cliff (Bill Cosby), nearly kicked Theo (Malcolm Jamal Warner) out of the house when he decided he wasn’t going to college.  Sometimes, the messages were even more subtle: Cliff was a gynecologist and Claire was a successful attorney. Also, in several episodes, Cliff wore sweatshirts from different Historically Black Colleges and Universities.  The messages were clear, college is important and hard work in the classroom is to be encouraged and celebrated.

Television is not the medium through which we can or should expect role models for our children, but it seems reasonable to expect some balance in the images of African-American characters it depicts for our consumption.   Georgia State University professor Layli Philips points out that this message that academic success is somehow incompatible with a health black identity is perpetuated by a mass media that emphasizes and glorifies low-income African-American peer culture, making it attractive even to middle-class African-American youth.

Today there are very few, if any, African-American sitcoms on television, which have strong positive message that reflect the fullness of experiences available today.  Just as in real life, television has taken to reinforcing the belief that the only people who are interesting and worthy of our reverence are athletes and entertainers.  Mind-numbing reality TV is taking over and, in the process, dumbing down the viewing audience; our children.  In whom can my daughter see herself or her future possibilities even as she is entertained? Where have the Claire Huxtables, Whitley Gilberts and (the real) Vivian Banks gone?

Though I am happy that we were engaged and powerful enough to usher in The Game’s return, I hope we will fight just as hard for the return of balanced and positive images on TV as well as in everyday life.