As parents, we all want the best for our children, and we strive for them to be successful in every aspect of their lives, including their education. However, navigating the education system can be intimidating, and systemic racism and anti-black bias has created significant hurdles for African American students and their academic achievement.
I witnessed this first hand as the son of a single mother growing up in the inner city of Milwaukee in the 80's. The schools I attended were underfunded, and our text books and equipment were often old and worn out. Many of the teachers were apathetic and had low expectations for students. Academic performance was abysmal; the average GPA for African American high school students was a 1.3 (a D average) and the dropout rate for African American students was two times the state average.
I was fortunate to have a mother and family who set high expectations and prioritized education. I grew up in a culture of reading. Our house was full of books and my mother placed me in academic camps and summer programs to augment my learning and nurture my curiosity. I was one of the fortunate few in my neighborhood who had the support necessary to successfully navigate the education system and escape the cycle of poverty that traps so many of our children.
Over the last 10 years, I've worked to improve academic opportunities for African American children, with most of my time spent in some of the toughest neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles and East LA. During this time, I've had the opportunity to work with education leaders across the country and research and study the African American student achievement gap extensively.
The state of education for our children is alarming, and the achievement gap is evident at a very young age. Nation wide, African American fourth graders scored on average 26 points lower than their white counterparts in mathematics on the 2007 National Assessment of Education Progress (Vanneman et al., 2009). This issue isn't just a challenge for low-income families.
According to research by McKinsey & Company:
"Whites, meanwhile, significantly outperform blacks and Latinos at
each income level. In fact, white students from the second income quartile perform about the same as rich black students."(McKinsey & Company, 2009)
Obviously, there is much work to be done . Our ability to build strong autonomous African American communities in the future will be dependent on whether we can improve the educational success of our children. But there is hope; across the country, there are bright spots where African American children are performing at exceptionally-high levels. We also know that parents who are engaged and purposeful about their children's education have a significant impact on their child's academic success.
According to research by SEDL:
"Many studies found that students with involved parents, no matter what their income or background, were more likely to:
- Earn higher grades and test scores and enroll in higher-level programs
- Be promoted, pass their classes, and earn credits
- Attend school regularly
- Have better social skills, show improved behavior, and adapt well to school
- Graduate and go on to post-secondary education."(SEDL, 2002)
While African American parents are faced with many challenges when it comes to educating their children; we know that their involvement can breakthrough these barriers and will make a significant impact on how well their children perform academically. If our parents and community are able to effectively take leadership over our children's education, and invest our time and financial resources towards this cause, then there will be no limit to what our children and our community as a whole can accomplish.
References
McKinsey & Company. (2009). The economic impact of the achievement gap in America's schools, https://dropoutprevention.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ACHIEVEMENT_GAP_REPORT_20090512.pdf
SEDL. (2002). A new wave of evidence: The impact of school, family, and community connections on student achievement, https://sedl.org/connections/resources/evidence.pdf
Vanneman, A., Hamilton, L., Baldwin Anderson, J., and Rahman, T. (2009). Achievement gaps: How Black and White students in public schools perform in mathematics and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, (NCES 2009-455). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC. https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/studies/2009455.pdf
Leave a comment