Reaching black boys

May/June 2009

In Chicago, elementary schools and high schools are suspending and expelling students at alarming rates and African American male students are bearing the brunt of these punishments.

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Coaching students John Myers Paul Bunch, a 6’11” junior at North Lawndale College Prep Charter School, blocks a lot of shots for the city’s top basketball team. The trouble is, he’s rarely on the court. “Paul is our main guy that struggles academically,” says his coach, Lewis Thorpe, who considers it part of the job to keep Paul on track whether he’s playing or not. Thorpe once found his starting center lounging at home just before a game—Paul had failed to get his school work in order that week and, knowing he would be benched because of the school’s strict guidelines on athletic eligibility, had decided to... discipline, race and class > Read More
A place of their own Sarah Karp When Lorenzo Russell walked into West Garfield Park’s Ryerson Elementary School in 2007, the impeccably dressed, soft-spoken man got a sinking feeling. The walls were pale beige and had no bulletin boards. The hallways were noisy and chaotic. Stretched across one wall were old class pictures in wood frames, many showing boys with bowl cuts and girls with blond ponytails. The pictures were an obvious disconnect from the students—most of them black, save for one or two Latinos. Those were the surface impressions. When he sat down to look at the data, Russell was struck by deeper... discipline, elementary and K-8 schools, race and class > Read More
Searching for role models John Myers One in four CPS students is an African-American boy, but just one in 16 teachers is an African-American man. And the percentage of black male teachers is on a downward spiral, creating a teaching gap despite evidence that African-American boys benefit from the presence of male role models with similar backgrounds. “We know that to really teach black kids, we need some black teachers,” says Marvin Lynn, an expert on minority teachers and an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Some research, he adds, has established a clear link between higher test scores and... race and class > Read More
Three friends Sarah Karp Four years ago, Dyett High School’s principal suspended more than two-thirds of the black male students at least once—far more than most schools in the district. Micah Williams, Cassius Rodriguez and Kenny Rainey were freshmen that year, and they were right in the mix. They fought with other students and got sent home for days at a time. They failed nearly every class. They were on the fast track to dropping out. But instead, they beat the odds. Micah and Cassius walked across Dyett’s stage in June to get their diplomas, and are both heading for college. Kenny... high schools, race and class > Read More
Black male conundrum Sarah Karp Nearly one in four black male students in Chicago Public Schools was suspended at least once last year, a rate that is twice as high as the district average. This finding is also part of an upward trend that has resulted in a near doubling of the number of suspended students over the past five years, according to a Catalyst Chicago analysis. While districts across the country report student discipline data in slightly different ways, the analysis of 2008 data shows that CPS has one of the... high schools, race and class > Read More
WebExtra: Mentoring to a new beat John Myers A newly unveiled 5,000-square-foot space inside Harold Washington Library is Ground Zero for a program that teaches new-media skills to teens from Chicago Public Schools. The Digital Youth Network, launched by the Urban Education Institute at the University of Chicago in 2005, aims to develop budding composers, filmmakers, record producers, game designers and other workers in tech-heavy, creative industries. The program primarily serves students in the university’s charter schools, where digital learning is part of the daily curriculum. But students from other schools attend the... race and class, technology > Read More
WebExtra: Teaching leadership skills Cassandra West Michael Stinson had one last lesson for the 13 young men he had spent months mentoring. It was the last meeting of the school year for Julian Middle School’s Leadership Academy for African-American Young Men, and Stinson wanted to send them on summer break with a vivid exercise that would provide them with a lesson for the future. Taking to the blackboard, Stinson made three columns and labeled them—Red Apple, Green Apple and Rotten Apple. Then he asked the young men to name characteristics typically associated with each type of apple. Quickly it became clear where Stinson... race and class > Read More
WebExtra: A disconnect in reading Phuong Ly As a teacher, LaVerne Coke has no trouble finding books that might appeal to girls. But when it comes to books for boys, especially black boys—including her own 8-year-old son—she has to search harder. Sometimes, she’s allowed kids to choose comic books, “as long as it gets them to read.” “I have thought about writing a book myself because it’s so important for our students to get engaged,” says Coke, whose 14-year career as a Chicago Public Schools teacher includes 3rd and 4th grades and middle-school science. In libraries and bookstores, African-American boys are missing,... race and class > Read More

Guest Column

Suspended because I 'didn't know when to keep [my] mouth shut'

By: David Stovall

[Editor's note: During August, Catalyst Chicago is featuring op-eds from our archives that relate to current news in the education world. This column on one young black man's experience with school discipline disparity is from our 2009 Catalyst In Depth, "Reaching Black Boys."] From kindergarten to 4th grade, I had serious problems in school. It started the day I came home and told my father that Columbus had discovered America, something that I had just learned in school. Instead of being excited about my “good news,” he had a reality check for me.

[Editor's note: During August, Catalyst Chicago is featuring op-eds from our archives that relate to current news in the education world. This column on one young black man's experience with...

Letter From the Editor

Lopsided discipline takes toll on black male students

By: Veronica Anderson

African-American boys face a peculiar dilemma in Chicago’s public schools: how to get a solid education when, more than any other group of students, they are singled out for harsh punishments and sent packing for days, weeks, sometimes months at a time. Some are expelled—even in elementary school—for a year or longer. Many folks assume that these punishments are deserved. Isn’t it true, they ask, that black male students are more likely to behave in ways that warrant such sanctions?

Sidebar

WebExtra: Starting young to manage misbehavior

By: Sarah Karp

One by one, the three young boys walk into the cozy office and sit around a small round table. It’s mid-morning on a school day, but rather than learn about reading and math, these boys will spend some time learning about self-control.

Sidebar

Reaching boys with books

By: Phuong Ly

Good books featuring black characters are hard to find, but they’re out there. Here’s where to start:

Coretta Scott King Book Award winners
Established in 1969, the award honors African American authors and illustrators whose works embody the themes of peace and brotherhood.

Good books featuring black characters are hard to find, but they’re out there. Here’s where to start: ...

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