Success for Black Boys

TV TURNOFF WEEK is a national movement supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).  It encourages families to take a pledge to turn off TV and video game and other screen use for the last week in April.

This gives them more time to do a variety of other activities together including reading and being more active.  Elementary schools all over America have helped families participate in NATIONAL TV TURNOFF WEEK for over 10 years.  

Read more here.

Closing the African American achievement gap is the life’s work of Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu. Founder of a company focused on helping parents and educators address the educational crisis facing black children, he’s written 32 books including Black Students/ Middle Class Teachers, Keeping Black Boys Out of Special Education and Reducing the Black Male Drop Out Rate. In this article Dr. Kunjufu discusses why he believes the KIPP model (an innovative national network of charter schools), Afrocentric schools, and single gender schools are the keys to a high quality educational experience for African American children.

To read the entire article click here.

Six-year-old Angelo Rorie plucked a "g" from among several rows of letters.

"We always leave gaps in our line," he said to classmate Nikolas Thornton, tucking the letter into a plastic pocket ahead of a card marked "ap."

With state testing six weeks away, Virginia Beach and other school divisions are struggling to reduce widespread gaps in reading performance between African American males and other students.

Boys like Angelo and Nikolas will be on the front lines of that effort. The two, kindergartners at Diamond Springs Elementary, read above grade level. But citywide, more than one in four African American boys reads below grade level when he reaches third grade.

To read the entire article click here.

Have you signed up for Summer Institute yet? If you’re looking for an update on AVID’s African American Male Initiative (AAMI), then Dallas 2 is the place to go.

A pre-session on June 28, 2010 will feature a panel presentation of six AAMI schools from five states. Come and learn as they share how they have successfully used AVID’s system to raise African American male achievement.
AVID representatives will discuss data and updates on what we’ve done and how we’re moving forward in our effort to ensure more African American males enroll and succeed in college. We will also explain how we are using Culturally Relevant Teaching (CRT) strategies in schools and in methodologies for professional development to raise high school graduation rates/college going rates.

For more information click here.

Tigrett Middle School eighth-grader Bobby Bond credits his fifth-grade teacher as the first to encourage him as a student. "He was the first black man that I've had for a teacher," said Bond, 13, who is also black. "He always told me to do my best. He would sit and talk to me, and he mentored me."

Read the entire article here.

The program’s primary goal is to help educate, motivate, cultivate, encourage, inspire, and change the perspectives of our young black men. We are encouraging you to invite your black male students to this groundbreaking program with intentions of it changing their lives forever. This program is FREE to all male students who are willing to commit to making a difference.

To review the program agenda click here.

The dearth of black men in the teaching profession could be one of the most important opportunities available to the black community. It is time for school systems, communities and organizations such as the NAACP to address the issue by creating programs to encourage black males to enter the teaching profession.
In Jackson-Madison County, black men make up only about 5 percent of the school system's 1,140 teachers. Nationally, black male teachers make up only about 1 percent of the nation's 3 million K-12 teachers.

Read the entire article here.