Is It Time For A National Educational Agenda For The African American Community?
Dr. Mike Robinson
April 17, 2012
What is the future of education for African Americans relative to the academic achievement of African American children? If you or anyone working as a civil rights advocate, community organizer, or civic leader knows, please share it with the rest of us. Because from where most of the African American community sits the vision and pathway are not really clear.
The ongoing failure of school systems to educate an increasingly high percentage of African American young men is frightening. In some urban school districts, the dropout rate is as high as 70%. What becomes of those who leave the thousands of school systems? Where do they go? What do they do? Those are just a few of the many questions that confront the African American community.
Is it time for a massive nationwide protest for our rights for quality education. Should we march and rally on our State capitols demanding justice in education? Maybe we need to galvanize on Twitter and Facebook and any other forms of social media to get the word out; that we want quality education for our communities and we want it now!
It is likely that an approach using those methods above will generate some public responses from civic leaders and community advocates. There is even a likelihood that some forms of legislation requiring access, increase funding may come out of the outcry for educational justice. However, herein lies the issue, “been there, done that and have the T-shirt.” So at the end of the day, we eventually find ourselves right back where we started. A community with high dropout rates among African American young men; African American female students graduating at a lower rate than white and Asian females; fewer African Americans entering college; a disproportionate number of African American students entering college unprepared and needing remedial educational courses; the steady decline in the number of African American men matriculating through institutions of higher education. I could go on and on, but we get the picture and in many cases, we have lived or we are living it. With an unemployment rate hovering near 15% (probably higher) our only solid hope to turn this tide for future African American generations is to emphasis the need for an educational system that is filled with academic rigor, demanding and competitive classes and state of the art equipment which ensures our children can compete nationally and internationally.
It is time for a National Educational Agenda for the African American community? This would be an agenda that should outline the expectations of the academic achievement for African American students from a nationwide perspective. What would such an agenda look like? Well let me offer the first few components:
These are just a few of the components that should make up the National Educational Agenda for African Americans. We have to demand more academic rigors and once we have it, demand performance from our children and their friends. Respect and celebrate the academic achiever, make them the rule, not the exception.
The ongoing failure of school systems to educate an increasingly high percentage of African American young men is frightening. In some urban school districts, the dropout rate is as high as 70%. What becomes of those who leave the thousands of school systems? Where do they go? What do they do? Those are just a few of the many questions that confront the African American community.
Is it time for a massive nationwide protest for our rights for quality education. Should we march and rally on our State capitols demanding justice in education? Maybe we need to galvanize on Twitter and Facebook and any other forms of social media to get the word out; that we want quality education for our communities and we want it now!
It is likely that an approach using those methods above will generate some public responses from civic leaders and community advocates. There is even a likelihood that some forms of legislation requiring access, increase funding may come out of the outcry for educational justice. However, herein lies the issue, “been there, done that and have the T-shirt.” So at the end of the day, we eventually find ourselves right back where we started. A community with high dropout rates among African American young men; African American female students graduating at a lower rate than white and Asian females; fewer African Americans entering college; a disproportionate number of African American students entering college unprepared and needing remedial educational courses; the steady decline in the number of African American men matriculating through institutions of higher education. I could go on and on, but we get the picture and in many cases, we have lived or we are living it. With an unemployment rate hovering near 15% (probably higher) our only solid hope to turn this tide for future African American generations is to emphasis the need for an educational system that is filled with academic rigor, demanding and competitive classes and state of the art equipment which ensures our children can compete nationally and internationally.
It is time for a National Educational Agenda for the African American community? This would be an agenda that should outline the expectations of the academic achievement for African American students from a nationwide perspective. What would such an agenda look like? Well let me offer the first few components:
- Increase in the number of African American male teachers in the classroom
- A national meeting between all HBCUs, the United States Department of Education and the 50 Secretaries of Education representing each state in the Union create MOUs to hire over 100,000 male teachers by 2025
- Every African American church should adopt at least one school in their community to provide educational support not religious doctrine
- Entrepreneurial based curriculum should be included in the academic courses starting as early as 4th grade
- Extend the learning day
- Increase multicultural training for teachers and staff as a means to reduce the disproportionate number of African American students suspended or placed in special education
- Parental involvement that is supported by schools, churches, and employers
These are just a few of the components that should make up the National Educational Agenda for African Americans. We have to demand more academic rigors and once we have it, demand performance from our children and their friends. Respect and celebrate the academic achiever, make them the rule, not the exception.