E B O N Y R E P O R

The Miseducation

F YOU SET OUT TO PURPOSELY DESIGN Asystem to ensure the gradual destruction of Blackboys, you couldn't do much better than the Americanpublic school system.

For years, education experts have been studyingthe struggles that boys of all races are having withschool structures seemingly designed to exploit theirweaknesses and downplay their strengths. But on vir-tually every measure where statistics are compiled by

schools, Black boys are at the top for the bad stuff (suspensions,special education referrals, expulsions, dropout rates, arrests)and at the bottom for the good stuff (standardized test scores,gifted and talented referrals, college matriculation).

In many large U.S. urban school districts, the number of Blackboys unable to read at grade level exceeds 90 percent.

While it's tempting to feel hopeless and crushed by the data,many of the educators in the trenches say that would be abso-lutely the wrong response.

"You can make some decisions driven by data, but I don't

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think you should become hopeless because of the data," saysTim King, founder of the Urban Prep Academies in Chicago, anetwork of all-boys schools producing astounding results withBlack boys. "If we were to take that position as a society, frankly,you would never invest in the future of Blaok boys because allof the data points to negative outcomes. We have to create acounter narrative for people to be encouraged, to understandthat it's possible to find success with this population. It's not toolate. We can't just let them go. We can't afford to do that as acommunity, as a society or as a country."

In fact, though the plight of Black boys in sohool feels cata-strophic, EBONY'S investigation has found educators acrossthe nation who have come up with effective solutions to justabout every problem that boys face. The answers are out therejust waiting to be shared, broadened and institutionalized.

"We don't have an innovation challenge, we have an execu-tion challenge and a challenge of public will," says John Jack-son, president and CEO of the influential Schott Foundation forPublic Education, based in Cambridge, Mass.

of Black BoysIN PART THREE OF EBONY'S 'SAVING OUR SONS' SERIES, ^NICK CHILES SPEAKS TO EDUCATORS AND RESEARCHERSABOUT HOW PARENTS CAN PRIME THEIR BOYS FORSUCCESS IN THE CLASSROOM

Students assembleinside Urban PrepCharter Academy

for young menIn Chicago.

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E B O N Y S P E C I A L R E P O R T : S A V I N G O U R S O N S

EarlyYears

FROM THE MOMENT THEYemerge from the womb. Blackboys face more challenges thantheir female and White malecounterparts, particularly inlow-income environments.As they move through thepreschool years and then intothe school system, those chal-lenges continue to mount asacademic failure creates a self-fulfilling cycle of insecurity,low expectations, frustrationand an estrangement from theeducation process.

When researchers BettyHart, Ph.D., and Todd Ris-ley, Ph.D., in 1995 released ashocking study revealing thatpoor children hear 30 millionfewer words by their thii-dbirthday than middle-classchildren, creating a word defi-cit that has a devastating effecton their school success, formany educators working with

low-income Black children itwas like they had been handedthe Holy Grail. So much ofwhat they saw happening toyoung Black children in schoolcould now be explained. ForBlack boys, this word deficitwas exponentially worse—whatDana Suskind, a cochlear im-plant surgeon who started theThirty Million Words Projectin Chicago, calls the "triplewhammy."

Boys talk less and talk laterthan girls as babies, accordingto researchers. In addition,studies have shown motherstalk more to their girl babiesthan their boys, likely influ-

Harold Neal and Lakeisha Jones, holding son Caiden Neal, are participantsin the Thirty Million Words Project.

enced by the fact that girl ba-bies typically give them moreverbal feedback than boys.And in low-income communi-ties in general, mothers talkmuch less to their children, asshown by Hart and Risley.

"So here you are, born a boy,and you're already a slowertalker," says Suskind, also aprofessor of surgery and pe-diatrics at the University ofChicago. "What helps you talkis maternal input. Moms talkmore to their girls. Then youoverlay that with this austerelanguage environment in poorcommunities. It's like trying togrow a flower in a dark base-ment: Nobody is going to flour-ish. I've been realizing we needto focus much more on thispopulation of boys. We can'tstart at preschool—that's toolate. Kids from lower-incomecommunities are already be-hind when they start schooland trying to play a game ofcatch-up but every year fallingfurther behind."

To tackle the problem, Sus-kind began working with low-income families to get themto talk more to their babiesthrough her Thirty MillionWords Project.

"I hope we can build a socialmovement around this idea of

talking more to yoxu- baby,"she says. "We can move thisneedle. Talk grows your baby'sbrain. All we have to do is talkto our kids, give them lots oflove and bathe them in lan-guage. And the great thing is,talk is free."

Susldnd's work is part ofan increasing focus amongpolicymakers on the youngestchildren and building on theenormous positive impactseducators have found overthe years that preschool pro-grams, such as Head Start,can have, especially on poorchildren. While the publicmoney hasn't yet caught upto Suskind's work. PresidentObama has focused bothrhetoric and money on pre-school, saying in his State ofthe Union address in Febru-ary, "Study after study showsthat the sooner a child beginslearning, the better he or shedoes down the road."

David Johns, PresidentObama's executive director ofthe White House Initiative onEducational Excellence for Af-rican Americans, pointed outthat Obama backed up his talkin his 2014 budget proposalwith a call for a $75 billion na-tional investment in preschoolover the next decade.

1 2 4 ) V I S I T E B O N Y . C O M / J U L Y 2 0 1 3 Photographs by DUDLEY M. BROOKS

Grade SchoolYears

IF ANYBODY UNDERSTANDSthe efforts needed to find edu-cational success with Blackboys, it's Geoffrey Canada,president and CEO of the Har-lem Children's Zone (HCZ),the $96 million-a-year effort toimpact the lives of 12,000 chil-dren and 11,000 adults across a100-block area of Harlem. Pos-sibly the most closely watchededucation reform programon the planet—with two K-12charter schools, a "baby" col-lege for new parents, a CollegeSuccess Office to work withcurrent college students and apanoply of afterschool sports,arts and music programs—HCZ has for more than twodecades operated as a giantexperiment in the education ofAfrican-American children.

Canada says the problemsthat start in early child-hood for Black boys begin tomanifest themselves in second,third and fourth grades, whenboys are frequently diagnosedwith attention deficit and hy-peractivitj' disorder.

"This issue of ADHD is re-ally an epidemic among Blackboys," says Canada, who roseto national prominence asone of the stars of the award-winning documentary. Waitingfor "Superman. " "It's defined askids who seem unable to focus,to sit, to attend, to pay atten-tion; they're easily distracted,fall behind quickly. But I thinkan awful lot of this is that wehaven't really figured out howto engage these boys in ways

that allow them to have a phys-ical release and teach themhow to concentrate."

As more schools do awaywith recess and cut physicaleducation, Canada describesit as torture for many youngboys trapped in their chairs forhours at a time, expected to sitstill and focus all their energieson a teacher at a chalkboard.

"We know huge numbersof kids struggle with this,yet we don't do anything dif-ferently as professionals,"he says. "As a result of theirfailures, boys wind up notvaluing education, not seeingthemselves as smart, feelingthat they don't understand.So they look for other waysto express their individuality,their self-worth, their self-esteem, and that comes out[in the form of] acts of beingtough, being bold, being dar-ing. All kids have a deep needto have a sense of self-worth. If

THINGS PARENTS CANDO FOR THEIR SONS

Don't put a television in hisroom. Researchers havefound a television in theroom oan impede a child'sintellectual and academicdevelopment.

Closely monitor his us-age of the computer, cellphone and the music he islistening to. iVIake sure allmedia content is age ap-propriate.

Talk to him as much as pos-sible, beginning in the womb.

Involve him in music andarts programs, in additionto sports.

Feed him a healthy break-fast every morning.

iVIake sure he gets a goodnight's sleep every night.

As much as you can, signhim up for outside academ-

ic programs and tutoring,such as Kumon and KhanAcademy online.

• Particularly as he movesinto adolescence, helphim find an outside activ-ity he ioves that will helphim iearn discipline andhow to self-regulate hisbehavior.

• Do as much as you canto instill a love of reading.Read aloud to him and, ashe gets older, read the samebooks so that you can dis-cuss them with him.

• Keep him engaged andstimulated during thesummer, signing him upfor camps and fun pro-grams. If you can't affordthem, design a fun sum-mer curriculum for himyourself.

THERE'S STRENGTH AND PRIDE IN KNOWINGWHO YOU ARE. LIVING IN THIS COUNTRY. OURCHILDREN NEED TO KNOW THEY ARE JUSTAS COMPETENT AND SMART AS ANYONE ELSE,

you don't find it in the schoolrealm, you'll try to find it inother realms."

While educators have beendiscussing for years the ten-dency of school systems totiu-n the natiu-al inclinationsof boys into problems thatneed to be fixed, few effortshave been made to alter thebasic structure of schools andclassrooms.

But schools such as those inHCZ have come up with theirown solution: relying heavilyon music, arts and sports tokeep kids active, involved andgive them a chance to burn offexcess energy and find otherrealms where they have valueand can experience success.

As a result, the number ofstudents at the HCZ schoolsperforming at grade levelgenerally exceeds 90 percent

every year and nearly 100 per-cent of them go on to college.

President Obama has in-vested millions in trying toreplicate the HCZ model indozens of communities acrossthe country, such as Bufiàlo,N.Y.; San Antonio; Minneapo-lis; Detroit; and Nashville.

In McComb, Miss., a smalltown in the southern part ofthe state, school superinten-dent Thérèse Palmertree, aWhite woman who has hadgreat success in improving theacademic performance of theyoungsters in her overwhelm-ingly Black and extremelypoor school district, foundthat she was able to transformthe self-worth of her studentsby using the rich civil rightshistory of the town wherethey lived.

"When I got here, I tried

to figure out how I was goingto use a strength in this com-munity to move forward," saysPalmertree, 64, a Mississippinative herself who grew upwith a yearning for social jus-tice. "It turns out, this commu-nity was the begirming of theCivil Rights Movement in Mis-sissippi, though nobody talkedabout it. I was astounded. Wecreated a whole curriculumaround this [history]. Ourchildren went out and did oralhistories; they gave tours; theymade documentaries. Our chil-dren won almost every award atHistory Day at the Universityof Southern Mississippi for oneof their documentaries. Afterthey won, their body languagewas different. The way theytalked was different. They said,'We thought we were from littlePodunk McComb, Mississippi,

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and we were nobody. Now weknow that we're somebody.'"

In Somerset, N.J., Sandi'aRobinson Binns was so in-spired to supplement the top-notch education her 13-year-old son Jahnai is getting atthe prestigious Pingry Schoolthat she joined with anothermother, Almetra Lundy, tostart a program called UjimaAcademy that inculcates Blackchildren with the majesty oftheir history.

"I think there's strength andpride in knowing who you are,"says Binns, who also has 8- and

6-year-old sons at Pingry andis a successful engineer, as isher husband, Rohan. "Livingin this country, our childrenneed to know they are just ascompetent and smart as any-one else."

Successful educators havefound that just as importantas a strong sense of racialidentity, which researchershave found can actuallyimprove academic perfor-mance. Black boys also needto forge meaningful relation-ships with people who clearlycare about them.

High School Years

HIGH SCHOOL AND ADOLES-cence is when the disaffectionand alienation set in. Boysstart pulling away at home andat school, making it that muchharder for the adults aroundthem to understand what's go-ing on in their heads. This isa dangerous, precarious timefor adolescent boys and theirfamilies when their growingindifference to school and thelow expectations of everyonearound them often send themspiraling—into the streets andout of control. Eventually, theprimary concern of adultsbecomes their survival, nottheir performance on the lastmath test.

Christopher Chatmon,MA.Ed., executive director ofthe Office for African-Amer-ican Male Achievement, partofthe Oakland (Calif.) UnifiedSchool District, said he and hisstaff discovered that the teach-

ers who were having themost success with adolescentBlack boys were those whowere very aggressive aboutreaching out to them andkeeping the encounters aspositive as possible.

"They didn't get caught upwith worrying about themhaving on a hat or wearingsagging pants," says Chatmon."They smiled at them all thetime, assumed the boys hadpositive intents and went outin the hall to greet them be-fore class."

Successful educators havediscovered it is so much easierto reach Black boys when youestablish an emotional con-nection with them.

At HCZ schools, Canadauses sports, arts, after-schoolprograms, after-school jobs—any lure that he can find—to keep the boys interestedand focused.

"You have to help boysdevelop other loves, some-thing they can be passionateabout, so they will disciplinethemselves," he says. "In mygraduating class of boys thisyear, probably 15 percent aregoing to graduate and go tocollege because they lovedplaying sports. They knewthey had to keep a B averageto play, so guess what? Theykept a B average—not becausethey wanted to do well in

urban Prep SELF CHECK

• " 1 .

not right TIGHT

TOP: Hallway signs remind students ofthe Urban Prep Academy dresscode. BELOW: Tim King, CEO and founder of Urban Prep, greets students.

chemistry and biology, whichwe hope for, but because theywanted to be on teams. Themore music, the more arts, themore chess, the more sports,the more employment oppor-tunities you have, the more[reasons] these young peoplehave to self-regulate. Theyknow they can't drink, theycan't smoke marijuana, theycan't fight, they can't get a girlpregnant, because they willlose this thing they love."

And while educators suchas King and Canada are quickto acknowledge that a good

teacher of any race can do aneffective job teaching Blackboys, they still make sure theboys have plenty of positiveBlack men around them.

"I think the fact that we haveso many Black males in oui-schools communicates some-thing special to our students,"says King. "It communicatesto them that Black men canrun stuff; Black men who arevery different can get along;Black men can love otherBlack men, and I mean that inthe most platonic, nonsexualway; Black males care about

126 V I S I T E B O N Y . C O M / J U L Y 2 0 1 3 Photographs by CARLOS JAVIER ORTIZ

what's happening with youngBlack males—and should careabout it."

"We think it's important forthem to learn that Black mentake care of their communityand their children," says Cana-da. "They're respectful, they'restrong, they're athletic—allthese things—and they're alsointellectuals, they're artists,they're poets."

In the eyes of many educa-tors, their efforts inside theschool building can sometimesbe overwhelmed by a destruc-tive force just outside theschool walls: hip-hop culture.

Canada says he recently as-signed his staff at HCZ the taskof decoding the meaning be-hind the lyrics of the top-threerap songs—and then comparingthem to racist tracts and min-strel lyrics from 100 years ago.The similarities were shocking.

"The words are devastat-ing, just devastating," saysCanada. "What happens whenBlack boys grow up hearingeveryone around them talkingabout them—Black boys—be-ing thugs, pimps, gangsters,murderers, drug sellers? Andyour mother is singing it, yoursister is singing it, your brotheris singing it. And everybodyjust loves the people who aresaying these terrible things? Ifyou don't have any other placewhere you can demonstratemastery, but you could poten-tially demonstrate mastery bybeing what everybody says youare. You say, 'Yes, I can actu-ally live that out. I can be thatperson. I can learn that set ofskills and be acknowledged asa real Black kid.'"

Canada says the influenceof hip-hop culture has over-whelmed middle-class Blackboys, too. On a regular basis,he has successful, professionalBlack parents coming to himand confessing that they arelosing their sons.

"What I've been trying to getpeople to understand is thereis not a genetic condition that'sdestroying these Black boys,"he says. "We're doing it to our-selves, and it's so debilitating."

From bathing Black boysin language to counteract theword deficit in the early years.

OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BLAOK BOYS"People laugh at

you if you get a badgrade. Some Blackboys haven't heardencouragement in a

long time. "

ANTHONYTRAVIS, 12

IS A STUDENT ATTHE EAOLE ACADEMY

FOR YOUNQ MEN, APUBLIC SCHCCL IN

NEWARK, N.J.

I think Black boyshave problems inschoolbeoause

people don't encour-age them after theyfail. People laugh atyouifyougetabadgrade. Some Blackboys haven't heardencouragement ina longtime. At the

sohool I used to go to,people would botherme when I was trying

to do my work. AtEagle, they don't do

that. There are a lot ofdistractions at other

schools, like girls.Girls are a distractionbecause boys try toimpress them. Thatdoesn't happen at

Eagle because thereare no girls. It makesboys stay focused on

their work.

"Ifelt at times whenIwas young that itdidn't matter howI behaved because

people didn't expectme to be anything. "

KAHLILDUKES, 18

WAS A STUDENTAT CAPITAL PREP

MAQNET SCHOOL INHARTFORD, CONN.IN THE FALL, H E ' L L

ATTEND UNIVERSITYOF SOUTHERN

CALIFORNIA ONA BASKETBALLSCHCLARSHIP.

I'm aware of whatpeople perceive

young Black teens tobe. I feel like I have toaot a certain way inpublic—to aot withclass, to be mature,

make good deci-sions—to show thatI'm not in this groupthe world perceives

as bad.t knew my mom wasa single parent, so

once I figured out howto believe in myself,

discipline myself andpray all the time, I waseventually able to beconfident in myself

and say, "If I believe inmyself, I can get what-ever I want done andbe what t want to be."

to making meaningful connec-tions with them once they moveinto the grade school years, tooffering them a wide varietyof eng'aging activities that canhold their interest when theyenter high school, it's clearthat the power to transformthe plight of our sons is in ourhands: parents, educators,mentors, community leaders.

Now we just have to find thewill to make it happen. B

SEE PART FOUR OF OURFIVE-PART SERIES

on Black boys, in the August2013 issue of EBONY. To jointhis Important conversation,visit Ebony.com and follow us

on Twitter for live chats.

"I've always wantedto be a basketballplayer or footballplayer, but I also

thought I could be agood artist and sell

my work. "

CLINTONCOOK, 13

A EIGHTH GRADERAT THE ACADEMY

OF COLLEGE AND CA-REER EXPLORATIONIN BALTIMORE, ISA

NATIONALLY RANKEDSQUASH PLAYER.

I think girls do bet-ter in school becausethey're not worrying

about as many things.They just learn and

concentrate in school.Boys are worryingabout trying to get

girls, showing off andrunning around do-ing bad things, I've

always wanted to bea basketball player orfootball player, but I

also thought I could bea good artist and sellmy work. I like to do

drawings and sketch-es and cartoons. Mybrother, uncle andfather all draw and

are interested in art.When I see their draw-ings, it inspires me to

do more.

"My mom and mydad always tell me tobe strong, don't backdorwn from anyoneand don't take crapfrom anyone. Be

yourself."

MILESEZEILOJ4

RECENTLY FINISHEDEIGHTH GRADE AT

THE PAIDEIA SCHOOL,A PRIVATE SCHOOL

IN ATLANTA.I'm pretty smart andpeople know that, soI haven't gotten the"not-smart" thing.The drawback is,

people expect a lotmore from you; theyput you on this ped-

estal and, if you messup, they might be

shocked. At school, imake sure I'm not theone talking the most,

because it seemslike immediately,

the Black boys getin trouble. My momand my dad alwaystell me to be strong,

don't back down fromanyone and don't take

crap from anyone.Be yourself.

"Igo to outsideprograms because Iget to know about myhistory andxvhere Icamefrom. It gives

me a purpose. "

JAHNAIBINNS,13

NINTH GRADERATTHE PINGRY SCHOOL,A PRIVATE SOHOOL INBASKING RIDGE, N.J.At Pingry, it's alwaysa contest to see whocan be the smartest.My favorite subjects

are math and science.I want to be an engi-

neer [like my parents].This summer, I'm

going to a program atthe New Jersey Insti-tute of Technology forbiomédical engineer-

ing. I want to go toMIT. I think my Black

friends should bepushing themselvesmore academically.Last summer, t wenttotheW.E.B.DuBoisScholars Institute atPrinceton University

and learned aboutMalcolm X and readbooks by bell hocks.I goto outside pro-

grams because I getto know about myhistory and where I

came from. It gives mea purpose.

THINGS TEACHERS CANDO FOR BLACK BOYS

Instead of waiting for them tocome into your ciassroom, gointo the hali and greet themwith a smile and a big "Hello!"

Don't focus on fixing sag-ging pants or hats. Instead,compliment them and usepositivity to engage themas much as possible.

Get to know their parentsand teii the parents asmany positive things as you

oan about their boys, Tiiani<them for getting their sonsto sohool every day.

Find something the boyslove, and use it to make apositive and long-lastingconnection with them.

Lift upBiaokmaieacademic achievementby celebrating Black boyswith high scores onstandardized tests.

Source: ChristoptierChatmon, executive directoiAmerican Male Aohievement. Oakland, Calif., Unit

Cffioe ForAFrioan-3d School District

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