Done to Us, Not with Us: African American Parent Perceptions of K-12 Education

Despite the importance of postsecondary education to the economic and social vitality of the U.S. and the individuals who pursue this academic goal, the educational pipeline to and through college is broken for communities of color, the fastest-growing segment of the population. This report offers a revealing glimpse of the American system of public education from the perspective of those with the biggest stake in better schools: the parents of the African American children who are least well served by the system. This report is a meta-analysis of a two-part research program that involved both a quantitative survey and qualitative focus groups. The study was conducted in February and March 2012 in five target cities: Atlanta, Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. These cities were chosen because they have large African American populations, robust education reform efforts are under way or are part of a planning process to address the cities' challenges, and United Negro College Fund (UNCF) has a strong institutional presence there. These cities in particular face many of the educational challenges that prevent too many African American children from fulfilling their potential, and they therefore serve as excellent testing grounds. The key findings from this study reinforce and add greater details to the body of knowledge about African American parents and their involvement in the education of their children. Most important, a substantial percentage of low-income African American parents and caregivers who participated in the study (87 percent) have high aspirations for their children and overwhelmingly want them to graduate from college. An appendix contains the following: (1) Data Collection Methods; and (2) Topics on Which Low-Income Parents Would Like More Information to Support Their Child's Academic Progress.