President Obama recently announced
the creation of the African-American Education Office. The purpose of the office is to improve the
education of African-American youth by better preparing them for high school,
college and career[i].
The creation of the African-American
Education Office is a significant event in African-American history. For the first time since the War on Poverty,
the Office of the President of The United States has taken steps at the federal
level to specifically address the educational plight of African-American
youth. Understanding the importance the
education of African-American youth impacts the economy, social equality and
access to the American Dream, President Obama appears to see the educational
plight of African-American youth as a national crisis. Although President Obama did not elaborate on
how the office would tackle the complex and unique multi-layered enigma that
affects the educational aspirations and achievement of African-American youth,
I would like to offer a few suggestions.
First, the office must focus on
school readiness. This can be achieved
by mandating and funding a full day Head Start program for all families. Head
Start programs have made minimal, but sustainable academic gains over several
decades. Proponents of Head Start have
been calling for the expansion of Head Start to a full day to increase these
gains, but the previous administrations did not fully support the expansion. Head Start is one of the few programs that
mandated parent involvement, which is the second area of focus, parent
engagement.
Parent engagement is crucial to the
educational aspirations and achievement of African-American youth. As their child’s first teacher, a child will
learn to love, dislike or become indifferent to learning based on the
involvement and encouragement of the parent.
Therefore, the office should develop a strategy on how to provide
parents with the tools to create an environment conducive to the enjoyment of
learning and creating a culture of high expectation of educational aspirations. One way this could be accomplished is to
emphasize to parents the importance of reading to their children at an early
age. Reading to children at an early age
will give them the confidence in their ability to master the concepts of
reading and comprehension. Additionally,
parents who read to their children at an early age provide good social and
educational capital that aids in school readiness and success in school.
A final way this could be accomplished
is for the office to assists parents with developing a school readiness
plan. There are a number of guides that
discuss school readiness. However, the
information is not consistent and in many instances the content may not address
the needs of the diversity of the African-American community. Needs such as how to prepare an
African-American male child for school is a topic that is desperately needed
since most African-American males struggle in school. Additional topics such as the difference between
home rules and school rules, the differences between aggression and
self-defense and appropriate usage of standard language and language used with
friends are areas where the office could develop a manual to aid
African-American parents with school readiness.
If the office cannot improve school
readiness and parent engagement, very little will be accomplished to change the
current educational plight of African-American youth.
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