The Crisis of Low Expectations for College-Bound Black Students

[delph998]

Originally Posted by RBL

I was dealing with a very similar story a few years back. Literally had the berate the parent for not being more involved and caring more that her son could barely do simple Math and he wasn't reading that well either. It took months before I could get her to really discipline him and get him to focus (while I wasn't around). The only time she would raise an issue with him at school was when he would lose eligibility to play basketball. I was so tempted to just give up ..but I persevered and monitored/tutored him from 8th grade to 12th grade. Around 10th grade he started to come around academically he ended up graduating with a 2.6 GPA in high school and will be completing his freshman year at NC A&T this Spring. The first semester he earned a 2.8 GPA and he thinks he will get above a 3.0 when this semester ends.

That's a beautiful success story! It feels so great to hear discouraging situations turn into encouraging testimonials; which is why I know that our African American students can be more than prepared for college, but there's something lacking.

[RBL]

Originally Posted by delph998

That's a beautiful success story! It feels so great to hear discouraging situations turn into encouraging testimonials; which is why I know that our African American students can be more than prepared for college, but there's something lacking.

For me I think parental involvement is whats lacking. I don't care if its one or two parent home..some parental figure needs to be involved and teach the child that education is important and parents need to stay on top of the childs teachers,principals, etc.. even guidance counselors. Like with the young man who I spoke of earlier. His guidance counselor encouraged him NOT to apply for college based off his academic record(the young man finished with a 2.6..I know students who have gotten into college on a lot less). He was buying into the hype until I encouraged his mother to give that guidance counselor a call. Parents have to stop just believing teachers/counselors and impart an "I can do all things" mentality into their children.

[delph998]

Originally Posted by RBL

For me I think parental involvement is whats lacking. I don't care if its one or two parent home..some parental figure needs to be involved and teach the child that education is important and parents need to stay on top of the childs teachers,principals, etc.. even guidance counselors. Like with the young man who I spoke of earlier. His guidance counselor encouraged him NOT to apply for college based off his academic record(the young man finished with a 2.6..I know students who have gotten into college on a lot less). He was buying into the hype until I encouraged his mother to give that guidance counselor a call. Parents have to stop just believing teachers/counselors and impart an "I can do all things" mentality into their children.

I agree with you RBL. Parents definitely need to be more involved. Start coming to parent involvement day, parent/teacher conferences, studying with your students, etc.

[Ten/Four]

I'm 24 years old, and grew up in a family of educators from elementary school through college. I think part of the problem is that school districts nationwide want to get "cute" (for lack of a better word) with the curriculum. Like 7th said, there needs to be a return to the foundations. That means schools need to stop teaching to the tests. Kids wouldn't have a problem passing these state tests if they had the fundamentals.

When I was in elementary school my english book concertrated on sentence structure and proper grammar. The book was basically the same through out the grades it just become more complex as you advanced in grade level. And everyday the teacher would give us a topic to write about in our journal. It was expected for us to complete our class and homework. And there was no using a calculator in math. All work had to be written out to show how you arrived at your answer. There were no rewards for doing it because that was the norm. However, there were consequences if your work wasn't done.

And the teacher had complete control of his/her classroom. Now it seems like the kids run the classroom. That would never have happen when I was in school and the kids knew it. It was rare for a child to be sent out of the classroom. Teachers need to have full authority in their classrooms, and when a child needs to be disciplined the school's administration should back the teacher.

[Still BLUTANG]

i know a big influence in my life was not only my family, church and community but television. My parents and grandparents were college-educated. Everyone THEY associated with had some type of schooling. At church, they pushed the FACT that you will go to college. They even had rites of passage and other youth programs for us to prepare us for life beyond high school and mama/daddy's house.

But it wasn't until A Different World made "going down south" to college seem like so much fun that i really internalized that college was for me! Movies like Higher Learning and something else with black people in college came out around the same time. This helped me out, although i was already on a college prep track academically. With my little crew, even if you didn't have the best grades, even if you didn't know what you wanted to major in, we just KNEW that we were going to Central, Spelman, FAMU, or wherever... and this was as far back as middle school.

Now I have a co-worker who has young children and i am ALWAYS talking about college with them. I don't know what they're getting in shool and Lord knows i don't know what they're getting at home, but they need to know that they CAN go to school and they SHOULD go to school, even if "being fun" is the hook that gets them there.

[RBL]

Originally Posted by Ten/Four

Teachers need to have full authority in their classrooms, and when a child needs to be disciplined the school's administration should back the teacher.

Cosigning completely on this.. I have several friends who are teachers(at all grade levels) and many of them have stated on nuimerous occasions that administration BARELY support them.

[AKA_Monet]

Out of the folks I know who are teachers, when is the last time you all taught anything to a group of unruly kids? (Soror AKA2D91, you have to stay outta this one... )

Because blaming teachers is not the only factor that goes along with this issue. Yes, some teachers are to blame. But YES, teachers have to be prepared for the "crop" of kids they have during the year. And each year, there is a new "crop" with a different set of cirumstances. There is no "rubric" or "generalization", a teacher just has to know his or her kids and teach to what they are ready to learn or develop. And guess what? Not all kids want to learn or develop and YES, they make this decision at 8 years old!!! (Don't ask me how that works in my parent's household!)

My experience, I had "Henri" who decided that he would not bring his pen/pencil and a notebook to the "field trip in a large park". Instead he decided to bring a "Red Punch" drink in a soda can with a small needle like hole AND the drink was not even cold!!! Moreover, he proceeded to throw this can in the air... Now don't ask me why he was allowed to go to the field trip. But, he was there playing. Then when the kids needed to write all the things they could see in the park, he demanded to have a pencil and paper from his fellow classmates... And that is when it started for me: "Henri" yelled "DANG" to his classmate trying to help him and I got on him so fast... I took his broken can put in on the trash can and said go back to his group!

"Henri" was hurt. But the other kids were asking me to stay... Go figure.

[AKA2D '91]

Uhhh Soror, 23.5 school days remaining.....