Noted: A New Report on the Black Male Student Experience in Public Schools

Black male students . . . are more than twice as likely to be classified as Mentally Retarded as White male students, in spite of research demonstrating that the percentages of students from all groups are approximately the same at each intelligence level. . . More than twice as many Black male students as White male students receive out of school suspensions and three times as many Black male students as White male students are expelled.

That's according to a new study, NPR reported on today, showing an alarming racial disparity in high school graduation rates and treatment of Black male students in secondary schools around the country.

The study, entitled “Yes We Can: The 2010 Schott 50 State Report on Black Males in Public Education,” also found that the overall 2007/8 graduation rate for Black males in the U.S. was only 47 percent, compared to a 78 rate for white males.

"Out of the 48 states reporting," states the Schott Foundation for Public Education report, "Black males are the least likely to graduate from high school in 33 states."

"To add insult to injury," the report finds, "Black male students are punished more severely for similar infractions than their White peers. They are not given the same opportunities to participate in classes with enriched educational offerings."

As a high school teacher with many students who are Black males, I am concerned about these findings, and consider it my responsibility to do everything in my power to try to reverse the negative trends described in the study.

According to the report summary:

Good schools are fully resourced, with talented, caring teachers, well-trained and numerous support staff, and protective and supportive administrators — and poorly performing schools are not. Good schools have challenging curricula, high expectations for all students, and an expectation of success. Poor schools do not. Good schools have libraries, an adequate supply of textbooks and computers, art and music programs, and science labs. Most schools with majority Black enrollments do not.

Of course, I am most interested in what constitutes the conditions for success. The report lists them as these:

• Equitable resources to support students to master rigorous, content standards-based education
• Universal, well-planned, and high quality preschool education for all three- and four- year-olds
• Programs to address student and school needs attributable to high-poverty, including intensive early literacy, small class size, after-school and summer programming, and social and health services
• New and rehabilitated facilities to adequately house all programs, relieve overcrowding, and eliminate health and safety violations
• State accountability to ensure progress in improving student achievement

It is also worthwhile to examine the conditions for failure. Especially of importance to me as a classroom teacher are these performance hindering circumstances to avoid:

• Watered-down curriculum for disadvantaged students in schools inadequately supported by funding far below that in successful suburban schools
• Little intensive early literacy instruction, large class sizes, short school days, no weekend and summer programs, and few social and health services
• Inexperienced and ill-trained teachers
• Lack of educationally sound living and learning environments
• Lack of parent and community engagement in the reform process

I start teaching tomorrow, a week into the school year, because I was just hired a few days ago after teaching in a different district last year. I have vowed to uphold high expectations for my students, to provide an engaging, creative and rigorous curriculum, to make my process transparent and to keep an open line of communication with the students' families, involving them as much as possible in what our learning community does.

With all these responsibilities comes advocating for my students as I pay attention to policy making, on the regional and national level, because political decisions obviously affect what goes on in the classroom and beyond.

It is crucial, as the report proclaims, for me as a teacher, to help "ensure that all students have a right to an opportunity to learn, not as a matter of competition or location, but as a civil and human right."

Fortunately, I have an excellent mentor and a whole community of brilliant educators and social justice activists to help keep me in check and to collaborate with. As my mentor and veteran high school teacher, Linda Christensen, writes:

Teaching for joy and justice isn't an individual endeavor. We can't do this work alone. . . I attempt to keep my vision--and hope--alive by continuing to participate in critical teaching groups. . . To use Toni Morrison's words, these 'friends of my mind' help me think more carefully about social justice issues inside as well as outside of the classroom, from literacy practices to top-down curricular policies. . . I carry these voices . . . like a Greek chorus in my mind. They remind me to question and sometimes to defy those in authority when I'm told to participate in practices that harm children. . . They help me choose the more courageous path because I know I'm not alone.