Thursday, August 30, 2012

The African-American Education Office Part 2


            In part two of the African-American Education Office, suggestions will be given to decrease the achievement gap among middle and high school youth.  In an effort to build a continuum of services from birth to adulthood, the office should focus on the preparing these youth for careers that will make them competitive in the global economy and achieve the American Dream.

            One area the office should focus on is eliminating the technology gap.  In order to compete in the global economy, African American youth must become proficient users of technology and understand how it can be applied in the global economy and advance the marketplace.  African-American youth must learn the science behind writing code to create video games, how an algorithm captures and sorts data for target marketing, or for investing/trading in the stock market.  African-American youth must also learn how technology is used to advance society.  Advancements in the fields of medicine and medical research, automobile and manufacturing industry, and improvements to agriculture are fields which has been greatly impacted technology.  These are also fields that lack a significant African-American presence.

            Another area the office should focus on is teaching career development and workforce preparation skills.  Skills such as critical thinking, the ability to multitask projects, the ability to summarize larger amounts of information into a report, the ability to work individually and in groups, the ability to effectively communicate, and the ability to be resourceful are skills that should be taught in conjunction with resume writing, interviewing, punctuality, reliability, and appropriate grooming and attire.  These are skills that are not being taught in a majority of middle and high schools and are not taught by many parents.  As a result of this lack of knowledge, African-American youth are uniformed about the skills needed to be competitive in the global economy.

A final area the office should focus on is helping African-American youth understand how to match their strengths and interest to a career.  By failing to teach African-American youth proper career development, they have mistakenly believed a job to be a career.  Therefore, when they see their parent, relative, or neighbor talking negatively about the poor pay, long hours, or how they hate their job, the uniformed youth internalizes these experiences as a definition of a career.  This belief is further cemented as the youth witnesses their parent, relative, or neighbor moving from job to job for minimal salary increases.  The message African-American youth are receiving is that a job and career are synonymous.  Another message they receive is that a job is about making money.  They are not receiving a balance where they see people who love their job because it their career.  They are not hearing as much as they should about the passion, joy, and satisfaction one has for their career.  They are also not learning how a career can lead to the American Dream.

In order for African-American middle and high school youth to become competitive in the global economy, the Office of African-American Education must provide access to knowledge about the business applications of technology.  The office must also provide access to career development and workforce preparation.  Providing access to these crucial areas of need, will eliminate the technology gap, provide them with the tools to competitive and increase the presence of African-Americans in areas of the global economy where our presence is lacking.  It is up to the office to help African-American youth not get left behind in the global economy.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

The African-American Education Office


            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.



[i] www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/26/african-american-educatio_n_1704406

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Suspending Students With Disabilities


            A recent study conducted by the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) found that students with disabilities are twice as likely to be suspended from school as their non-disabled peers.  Using data from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the study found that during the 2009-2010 school year, 13 percent of disabled students in grades K-12 were suspended compared to 7 percent of non-disabled students[i].  The study also found that African-American students with disabilities had the highest rates of suspension than their disabled peers and non-disabled peers of other races.  According to the study, 1 out of 4 African-American students was suspended at least once.  A majority of these suspended students were diagnosed with a learning disability[ii]

The high rate of suspension among students with disabilities concerns policymakers and civil rights advocates.  Their claimed that school districts with high rates of suspensions also had a higher dropout rate and lower student achievement and test scores, which increased the risk of delinquency and incarceration, especially among African-American students.  According to the study’s author, Daniel J. Losen:

                        “Kids with disabilities make up a very large portion of
                        the kids who are in the juvenile justice system...That’s
                        a very disturbing pattern because kids with disabilities
                        are supposed to be getting additional supports and
                        counseling[iii].”

To support this statement, the study found there were states where African-American students with disabilities were suspended at a rate above 60 percent, with one state having a rate of 92 percent.  Additionally, report also found that the Civil Rights Office of the Department of Education had opened 19 investigations in 15 states to examine school districts where African-American students were disproportionately disciplined[iv]

            The UCLA study has brought to the forefront a problem that has been ignored for a long time.  Unfortunately, the study failed to consider the disproportionate suspension of African-American students with disabilities as a flawed systemic ideology, instead the study claims the problem is a matter of policy. 

            The ideology of school discipline in a majority of school districts across the country is embedded in a belief that all students should be held accountable for violations of district policies.  This believe is evident in district zero tolerance policies that provide the same consequences to disabled and non-disabled students.  Even though students with disabilities are provided certain protections, such as they cannot be suspended more than 10 consecutive days in a school year for each violation or when a serious violation occurs, a school must convene a Manifestation Determination team meeting to determine if the violation is a result of the student’s disability under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).  This information was surprisingly absent in the UCLA study when discussing the disproportionality of suspensions of African-American students with disabilities.  With such high rates of suspensions, the study should have addressed how many suspended students were afforded their rights under IDEA law?  How many students were suspended more than 10 days during the school year?  How many students were provided with a Manifestation Determination team meeting prior to suspension?  With high rates of suspensions in some districts, there is seems to be enough evidence that schools are not following IDEA rules prior to suspension.

            Lastly, the ideology of school discipline appears to be biased against students with disabilities that are not physically present.  For a long time, the faces of students with disabilities were considered those with physical manifestations such as downs syndrome, cerebral palsy, and students in wheelchairs.  Students with no physical manifestations such as learning or emotional disabilities may appear by some to “know” what they are doing and should be punished as their non-disabled peers.  The UCLA study confirms this in their findings that a majority of suspensions were students who were diagnosed with a learning disability.  Although the UCLA study did not discuss the racial bias against African-American students with disabilities one cannot deny the systemic entrenchment of racial biased in the ideology of school discipline.  It is time to change the archaic ideology of school discipline.