Success for Black Boys

Violence is an all too common occurrence in the United States and children and adolescent boys and men of color in California are exposed to this violence at a higher rate than girls and their white counterparts.

In a study released in June 2010 by The Charles Hamilton Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School in collaboration with The School of Public Health at Drexel University; The RAND Corporation; Policy Link and The California Endowment, it was reported that from 1993 to 2003, boys, ages 12 to 17, were 50% more likely than girls to be victims of nonfatal violent crimes.

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You can sense the frustration on a regular basis from the teachers who are fed up with certain students because they don’t listen, don’t work, and don’t respect authority. You can walk through the hallways of a high school during class time and see students roaming around seemingly with no place to go. You can talk to these students and see they have no direction or goals in life. Of course these “symptoms” can be attached to any student, but they are disproportionately seen in the behavior of black male students.

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Some of society's biggest problems can be traced to the breakdown of families. And though this affects all races and economic classes, it is especially acute among African-Americans.

That's why the Real Men, Real Heroes program is so valuable. And why it deserves support and greater participation.


Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/07/09/1396678/heroes-helping-boys-become-men.html#ixzz0tC69Phm3

The Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color (COSEBOC) in partnership with the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education has developed the Standards and Promising Practices for Schools Educating Boys of Color tool as a set of guidelines that will assist school districts and educational leaders that seek to enhance programs serving boys of color. View the document here.

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.  

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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.