What About the Boys? Providing Academic Support to African American Males

1. What About the Boys?Providing Academic Support to African American Males Pedro A. Noguera, Ph.D. New York University

2. Understanding the Nature of the Risks • Facts about Black males in school • More likely to be suspended or expelled • More likely to drop-out • More likely to be placed in special education • More likely to be missing from honors, gifted and advanced placement • More likely to be under-represented among school personnel (except as custodians, security guards and disciplinarians)

3. Correspondence with societal patterns • Black males are the only segment of the US population with a declining life expectancy • Adult Black males are more likely to: • Be arrested, convicted, incarcerated, and executed • Be unemployed and discriminated against in labor market • To suffer from colon cancer, heart disease, HIV/AIDS • To be murdered or to become a victim of violence • To be denied the right to vote • To be under represented in professional careers, over represented in military, sports and entertainment

4. Key Question: What is there about being Black and male in American society that causes disproportionate rates of failure?

5. Most Black males are not at risk • Successful Black men: Colin Powell, Michael Jordan, Clarence Thomas, Cornell West, Robert Johnson, Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson • Is it a race and gender issue or class issue? • Most Black men are not in prison and do not have HIV • Young Black men is the answer, but what is the question?

6. Agency Structure culture

7. Structural Factors: Circumstances beyond individual control that profoundly shape life chances • Political economy - access to jobs, housing and educational opportunities • De-industrialization • Suburbanization • globalization • Environmental conditions - health and safety • Racial segregation and concentrated poverty • Red lining, public housing, “no zones” • Political and social marginalization

8. Cultural factors: Values, norms and beliefs that shape behavior • Media images - sports, entertainment, propagating racial stereotypes • Weakening of cultural institutions • Declining influence of churches and other institutions on youth • Family influences: • Child rearing practices - treating boys and girls differently • Peer influences - to be popular or smart • Societal expectations - racial stereotypes (criminalization) • Teacher expectations • Employer bias • Internalization of labels and stereotypes

9. Agency: The power of choice and free will • Friere - Humans vs. animals, nature vs. culture • Empowerment through critical consciousness - reading the world, recognizing human capacity to intervene • Developing resilience - mentoring, expanding opportunities, recognizing assets and talents

10. Gender Socialization and identity formation Subjective: Physical - sports and violence Sexual prowess - player for life Cool pose - Majors Objectification: Bhaba: Phobia and fetish Oppositional Stances Rooted in resistance to oppression Fanon - fratricidal tendencies Peer approval Individual survivial Social Construction of Black Masculinity

11. Black Male Success • Contingent Upon: • Adoption of social skills that make whites feel at ease • Clarence Thomas’ smile • Learning to code switch • Speech, dress, demeanor • Code of the streets vs. the code of the school or board room

12. School Factors • Teacher-student relationships - • Cemetery method of instruction - Boykin: teaching with verve • Empowering or disabling - Cummins • Bryke - the importance of caring • The ways in which discipline is used • Punitive vs. educational • Tracking and academic advancement • Sorting to deny opportunity or pushing for excellence • Counseling and Mentoring • Emotional and psychological support

13. What do Black males tell us about their experiences in school? • MSAN and Pathways research: • It’s boring, they aren’t challenged and stimulated • Their teachers don’t like them, don’t encourage them, and some fear them • They are unfairly targeted for discipline • They think it is more important to be popular, cool or tough, than smart

14. What schools can do to support Black males • Provide high quality early childhood education • Develop early intervention systems • Develop partnerships with churches and community based organizations • Academic counseling for students and parents • Hire Black males in professional roles • Use extra-curricular activities to keep kids engaged

15. Interventions that work • Community support - Young Black Scholars, Omega Boys Club, • peer support • discipline based on values • emotional and spiritual development • adult role models with moral authority • broadened exposure to world and opportunity • Accelerated learning opportunities - MESA, Upward Bound, Break-the-Cycle, Arch Bishop Malloy’s Leadership Council • Schools with high expectations • Malcolm X Academy - Detroit • St. Hope Academy - Sacramento

16. Cultivating Agency:Influencing the choices that are made by Black males • Educate them about their history and culture - Paul Robeson Institute • Provide opportunities for community service, activism and leadership development - Urban Arts • Utilize community-centered problem-posing curriculum • Channel the energy, don’t crush it • Sports, music, art • Deal constructively with the anger • Emotional intelligence