Mending the Broken Wings: Seven Strategies for Improving the Academic Achievement of Males of Color

By H. MiUndrae Prince

This book is written based on personal experience and the application of research-driven strategies that are not only designed to address the needs of males of color, but can also-if strategically applied-prove to be extremely valuable to schools and districts desiring to improve the success of all students. It is written in such as format that encourages reflective thinking. Strategies are arranged in an order that begins with those that are more tactical in nature to those that move more towar

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781684565009

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Mending the Broken Wings

Seven Strategies for Improving the Academic Achievement of Males of Color

H. MiUndrae Prince, PhD

Copyright © 2019 H. MiUndrae Prince, PhD

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2019

ISBN 978-1-68456-499-6 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68456-500-9 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

Author’s Statement

Why the Black Male and Males of Color

Presentation of the Strategies

Strategy 7

Strategy 6

Strategy 5

Strategy 4

Strategy 3

Strategy 2

Strategy 1

Preface

Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by.

—Psalm 57:1

Our graduation ceremonies just came to a closing. As I sat on the stage for our various high schools and watched the students come across stage to receive their diplomas, I witnessed so many things. First, there was the cheer from the audience as members of the graduates’ families cheered them on; second, I watched the faces of the principals and my colleagues as they beamed with pride over the young men and women who excitedly strolled across the stage to receive the prize of sometimes twelve or thirteen years of education. Third, however, I watched the faces of an exceptional group of graduates—our males of color. A few did the seemingly ceremonial dances and shout out gestures to the audience who may have journeyed with them during their education. For many in this group, getting to this point, perhaps indicative of their onstage gestures, was one filled with doubt, frustration, and yet an unfathomable amount of determination. Others in this group walked quietly toward the principal and other dignitaries to receive their diploma. Each, I am sure, had his own unique story of how he persevered to get to the day of graduation that many of us who sat on the state or even in the audience could not begin to imagine.

My mind ran across the young man I mentored two years ago at the request of his principal who felt that he needed a good role model, something that she desperately wanted for him but realized that she could not be that person because he needed a male. This was a young man who was living in a dilapidated apartment with his sister and her baby. He felt that it was his responsibility to take care of his sister and his little nephew and try to go to school at the same time. Many times, I helped him with groceries and checked on him at school to make sure he was staying as focused as he could. As he got closer to graduation, he would share conversations where he wondered what he would do next. The day before graduation, he texted me and asked me if I could pick him up and get him to the ceremony because he had no way of getting there.

While those of us who sat on stage were certainly proud of all our graduates, I am sure at some point we all felt a special sense of pride as we watched our males of color complete this part of their journey, which opened the door to the next phase of their lives. My silent prayer—as was with my mentee—was that they would recognize the resiliency that got them to this part of the journey and build upon it as they entered the next chapter of their lives. My knowledge of and—in some instances—firsthand witness of the ups and downs of their destination made me even more of my desire to want them to go on and be the best for which this accomplishment has prepared them and that they would continue to do and be great in their future endeavors.

Earlier during the school year, I attended Columbia, South Carolina’s Urban League Young & Gifted Awards program where well over five hundred students were recognized for their accomplishments in the areas of academics, athletics, CATE, arts, and leadership. Among this number were many young males of color who had defied the odds of succumbing to the negative stereotypes that our society would have us to think about them. On the contrary, these young men were recognized for having excelled in the areas of academics, arts, athletics, leadership, and/or career and technology education (CATE). Some were recognized in multiple areas. While I sat in the audience beaming with pride over the accomplishments of our young people, my chest expanded wider every time I heard name of a young brother.

Sadly, however, there are so many more of our black males who have not reached this beginning pinnacle of success, and unfortunately, too many have pretty much given up—because of many variables outside their control—on even thinking that they could become a success at anything. Society, they feel, has written them off, characterizing them as degenerates, lazy, and unfocused. When I heard the names of black males from area high schools, I couldn’t help but wonder that if such talent existed in this room, where is it in our schools, and why aren’t more of our black males recognized in their schools or aren’t at the top of their academic data in their schools instead of being at the top in discipline and suspension data? It’s an interesting phenomenon that makes you go hmmmmmm? or as Keith Pounds in a recent Times and Democrat (March 4, 2018) newspaper editorial asked, What is happening—or what has happened—to our young men?

I am sure almost anyone who is asked this question would readily give his/her answer or opinion. What I find somewhat perplexing is that this question is not a new one—it is one that has been asked for well over the last twenty years. We hear it all that time that no child will be left behind or all students can achieve at high levels. Really? If that is the case, then why is it in most of schools and school systems that our actions are in constant conflict with our beliefs? We have seminars, books, marches, and the list goes on, yet we still find ourselves asking the same question. All the time, though, our young males are looking at us and telling us through their actions, what is going on—they are giving us the answers. I content that we refuse to see and listen to them until something drastic happens that causes us to respond in an urgent manner until we get tired or something else comes along and distracts us. Then we go right back to acting the same way we did before…all the while, the actions of our males continue to beckon us to rescue them. The prevailing sentiment can be likened to the title of Nathan McCall’s book Makes Me Wanna Holler.

We have all the research we need; maybe now, we need to stop and start listening—listening with our eyes and ears and then taking a bold step or charge to action that speaks to a notion of no more. No more abandoning our young boys at an early age that makes them act out to seek the attention that they cry out daily (mostly through negative actions) for that older male attention for which they crave so deeply. Yes, we are familiar with the home-life statistics that most of our males are reared by females. But do we really believe that it takes a man to help a boy become a man? Let’s say no more to placing our males in low-leveled-instructional, special education programs that puts them even further behind their peers when the problem that caused them to be placed in these classes in the first place had nothing to do with a learning deficiency but more of a behavioral issue that, with the proper support services, could easily be changed. Besides, we must be brutally honest; our law enforcement system could care less that the young man who has been arrested was in a special education program when he committed a particular crime. Let’s say no more to suspending them at higher rates than their counterparts because they don’t have the proper resources that their counterparts’ parent do to keep them out of school or even out of the penal system. Let’s say no more to losing our males at a disproportionate rate than their counterparts.

Finally, let’s say no more to scratching our heads with a perplexing sigh that makes it appear as if we have given up on this group of individuals. Pounds (2018) notes in his editorial that we have reams of paper written on how our modern school system almost wholly ignores the biology inherent in the way boys learn, interact and even cope with their frustrations and anxiety. This book is written primarily as a call to action. I remain convinced that recognitions such as the one sponsored by the Columbia, SC Urban League is a testament that, despite the negative narrative that has plagued our black males for over four decades, our black males can and will achieve at high levels if they are merely given a chance and a firm unfailing belief that we, as adults, refuse to let them fail. It is time we stop so much talking and start acting.

Acknowledgments

At an early age, I learned the importance of thanking God for everything and understanding that I can do nothing without Him. Therefore, my first step in writing this book is to give the Almighty God thanks for placing people in my life who recognized in me what I either could not or refused to see as a calling. Second, I thank God for my mother who always pushed me to strive for greatness and to never give up on what I sought to do. Thanks, Mom, for being my inspiration and the wind beneath my wings. I also recognized those teachers who knew even before I did or even wanted to believe that, as much as I tried to run, my true calling was to become an educator whose charge was to help my younger brothers believe in themselves.

While it would be utterly impossible to list my many supporters who checked on me with the project, and even though they knew very little about what I was doing except that of writing about males of color and achievement, their encouraging words and support meant so much. I would also like to recognize my advisor in the graduate program at the University of Missouri who helped ignite the flame to this work when, after reading my second dissertation, challenged me to get even more mileage out of my study by writing this book. I would also like to pay homage to my best friend, ESB, and my superintendent mentor who both took an interest in me at the onset of my career as a public school administrator by challenging my thinking and pushing me to go beyond what I could see and to forge new paths as a means of giving to others what they continue to this day to give to me—wisdom, support, and time. Thanks also to K. Waymer and J. Moor for the artistic renderings for each chapter.

Lastly, I would like to thank my former students who have become my children and especially my younger brothers and the faculty who journeyed with me as a brand-new principal at Columbia High School where we challenged each other to think outside the box because we first of all believed in ourselves and second in each other to make our school one of the best in such a short period of time. Together, we studied and applied much of what is shared in this book during my tenure as principal to push our students to do what they thought they could never do as scholars.

This book is dedicated to those whose lives I hoped to have had some lasting impact as well as those who have had a lasting impression on my life.

Author’s Statement—Why We Can No Longer Wait

What’s wrong with our children? Adults telling children to be honest while lying and cheating. Adults telling children to not be violent while marketing and glorifying violence… I believe that adult hypocrisy is the biggest problem children face in America.

—Marian Wright Edelman

Imagine This…

Perhaps one of the most prolific minds in this country and a spokesman for civil rights and equal rights in general, the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out what needed