A Call for Change: Providing Solutions for Black Male Achievement

In October 2010, the Council of the Great City Schools released a major report on the academic status of African American males, "A Call for Change: The Social and Educational Factors Contributing to the Outcomes of Black Males in Urban Schools." The report was the first phase of the Council's efforts to recommit the energies of the nation's urban public school systems to improving the quality of education for African American males nationwide. In the second phase of the Council's work, it commissioned a series of solution briefs from some of the nation's leading scholars and experts to help us think through an effective set of strategies to address the academic needs of African American males. This e-book is a compilation of those papers. The solutions outlined in each paper focus on both educational and noneducational strategies, such as expectations and self-esteem, early-childhood programs, college and career readiness, gifted and talented education, mathematics instruction, English language arts instruction, partnerships and mentoring, successful learning communities, out-of-school-time learning, health and safety, and the school-to-prison pipeline. This publication contains the following papers: (1) Reading, Writing, and Intellectual Development of African American Male Children and Youth (Alfred W. Tatum); (2) Accelerating the Learning of Underperforming Students in High School Mathematics (Robert P. Moses and Omowale J. Moses); (3) Increasing the Representation of African American Males in Gifted and Talented Programs (James L. Moore III and Lamont A. Flowers); (4) College and Career Readiness: Closing Gaps in Educational and Occupational Achievement for African American Males (Michael Nettles, Robert C. Schwartz, and Haijiang Wang); (5) Early-Childhood Education and Young Black Boys: A National Crisis and Proven Strategies to Address It (Aisha Ray); (6) The Expectations Factor in Black Male Achievement: Creating a Foundation for Educational Equity (Robert L. Green, George White, and Kevin K. Green); (7) Responding to the Challenges Confronting Black and Latino Males: The Role of Public Policy in Countering the "Crisis" and Promoting Success (Pedro A. Noguera); (8) Providing Solutions for Black Male Achievement: Partnerships and Mentoring (George L. Garrow Jr. and Esther B. Kaggwa); (9) Great Schools Are Not an Accident: Standards and Promising Practices for Educating Boys of Color (Ronald Walker, Edward Fergus, and Rhonda Tsoi-AFatt Bryant); (10) Community-Based and Equity-Centered Approaches to African American Male Development (Hal Smith); (11) Mentally Healthy and Safe Schools (Oscar Barbarin); (12) Ensuring Equality in School Discipline Practices and Policies and Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline (Leticia Smith-Evans); and (13) Improving the Academic Achievement of African American Males: A Path Forward for America's Great City Schools (Michael Casserly). Individual papers contain tables, figures, references, notes, footnotes and appendices.