Georgia To Increase Black Male Collegians
 

GEORGIA TO INCREASE BLACK MALE COLLEGIANS: Regents adopt a resolution to increase enrollment.

(May. 23, 2003) *The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Georgia state Board of Regents adopted a proposal designed to keep black men in high school and to steer them into college. The regents have appropriated $300,000 to implement the proposal which include recruiting more black male teachers and providing more support services. The Georgia university regents were prompted to act because of the dropping percentage of black males in the state’s high schools and colleges.

According to the Journal-Constitution, in 2001 only 20.8 percent of black male high school graduates went on to college.

“This is a problem that is not just an African-American problem, it’s a societal problem,” said Regent Elridge McMillan.

“It’s something that has a much broader impact on society,” Regent Hilton Howell, Jr. added noting that a high number of black males without high school diplomas increases the unemployment rate and poverty rate.

I'd be curious to see the budget allocations for that $300,000. Is that simply salaries for about 10 teachers? If that? I mean, because how many black male teachers are they looking to recruit? And what does the rest of the proposal entail? Are they looking at the curricula? Is it a college prep curricula? Are they only targeting certain high schools? I mean, where are the details??? :mad:

Lots of questions
 

Especially when you consider what's going on at the Supreme Court level.
:confused:

This was from EURWEB so it was just a blurb that caught my eye.

I was hoping one of the GC ATLiens would find the AJC article and post it, I guess not. :( ;)

ask & ye shall receive
 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 5/22/03

Regents adopt ideas to increase black male enrollment

By KELLY SIMMONS
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

Black males are all but disappearing from Georgia's high schools and colleges, and state officials said Wednesday they intend to reverse the disturbing trend.

While college-age African-American males constitute 16 percent of the state's population, they make up only 7.2 percent of the students enrolled in Georgia's public colleges and universities. Black females are 15 percent of the student population.

In 1997, 23.5 percent of the African-American males who graduated from Georgia high schools went on to college in the state. By 2001, that percentage had dropped to 20.8.

The state Board of Regents took a step toward addressing the problem Wednesday, approving a wide-ranging proposal designed to keep African-American males in high school and steer them to college.

The recommendations by a University System of Georgia task force include recruiting more African-American males into teacher education programs, encouraging colleges to provide support services and developing mentoring opportunities between colleges and high schools.

The regents signed off on all 15 task force recommendations and appropriated $300,000 to begin implementing them.

They also endorsed a University System plan to use a $4.5 million U.S. Department of Education grant to recruit black male teachers for middle and high school students.

"This is a problem that is not just an African-American problem, it's a societal problem," said Regent Elridge McMillan, who was first appointed to the board in 1975.

Expectations low

Statistics compiled by the task force show that of the African-American males who enroll in college, a far lower percentage graduate than do white students and black females. The graduation rate for black males is 21 percent, compared with 35 percent for black females, 47 percent for white females and 42 percent for white males.

The task force is made up of 52 people representing colleges and universities, k-12 schools in Georgia and businesses. Their research indicates that in many cases a black male's educational future is charted even before he completes middle school. Only 37 percent of African-American males who were enrolled as ninth-graders in Georgia public schools in 1993 earned a high school diploma. The overall graduation rate for that year's class was 59 percent.

The task force identified several reasons: low expectations of black males by educators and the community; low aspirations among young black males who have no male role models; disparities in funding between majority-white and majority-black schools; a teaching force underrepresented by black men; underprepared teachers in high-minority areas; and few college planning and support programs for black students.

The task force chairwoman, Arlethia Perry-Johnson, who is the University System's associate vice chancellor for media and publications, said interviews with students, parents and educators indicate black males are less likely to pursue higher education if they have parents who did not go to college or if they are expected to earn money to contribute to their family.

The report also found that many black males are labeled as behavioral problems as young children and steered to special education classes as they get older. Students who graduate with a special education diploma are not eligible for college and aren't as marketable in the work force.

Regent Hilton Howell Jr. noted that the high number of black males in Georgia without a high school diploma contributes to high unemployment and a high rate of poverty in many areas of the state.

"It's something that has a much broader impact on society," Howell said.

Deryl Bailey sees the impact firsthand in Athens, where he runs a mentoring program for young African-American males.

About 40 black middle and high school students participate in Gentlemen on the Move, which was initiated by Bailey, an assistant professor of education at the University of Georgia. Every Saturday, the boys and their parents meet on the UGA campus to study and to work on social skills. Teachers from UGA and Athens/Clarke County schools volunteer as tutors.

Role models rare

As part of the African-American Male Initiative, regents last month awarded Bailey a $10,000 grant to continue the program. Five other programs designed to motivate African-American males also received grants.

Many boys in the program have had no male role models before joining Gentlemen on the Move. Many are from single-parent homes. The program tries to fill a void left by the schools, which have very few African-American men as teachers.

"Students who have a positive relationship with teachers do well academically," Bailey said. "For black male students, that doesn't exist."

Students sometimes come into the program grudgingly, ridiculed by their friends for spending Saturday in school and wearing white button-down shirts and ties to class every Tuesday to show respect for themselves and their teachers.

Ben Stevens, 17, almost got kicked out of the program last year, after failing three of four of his high school classes, missing Gentlemen on the Move meetings and failing to wear the required shirt and tie to school on Tuesdays. Bailey gave Stevens an ultimatum: Shape up or ship out -- to a bleak future without an education.

Stevens, who is being raised by a single mother, said it was a wake-up call.

"It wasn't a question of if I could do it, it was a question of whether I was going to do it," said Stevens, who should be a junior at Cedar Shoals High School this fall, but only has the credits of a sophomore. He said he realized he could succeed with the help he was getting from Bailey and the support he had from his high school wrestling coach.

He is passing all his courses this semester and plans to attend night school this fall to catch up with his classmates.

Susan Harper, a single mother with two sons in Bailey's program, says having male role models for her sons has helped improve their attitudes at home.

"It gives you a sense of relief," said Harper, who has called Bailey at home to ask for advice in dealing with her teenage boys. "You know you've got help. It's not just schooling, it goes beyond that."