Category Archives: POWER Mentoring

Eight percent of the children in America’s public school are black boys, yet their representation in the nation’s special education classes is nearly twice that: 15 percent. African American males are also three times likely as white males to be enrolled in special education programs for “mildly to moderately mentally retarded,” according to a 1992 report released by the Office...

Nothing Expected, Nothing Granted. In one of the largest studies of black male students ever conducted, New Orleans public schools found that while eight out of ten black parents believed their sons expected to go to college, only four out of ten teachers believed their black male students would receive a higher education. As a rule, children tend to live...

The Downhill Slide. A 1990 study of more than 105,000 students in Maryland’s Prince George’s County, where African Americans made up about 65 percent of the enrollment, showed that black male pupils performed comparably to boys and girls of all races on first- and second-grade standardized math and reading test. But by fourth grade, African American boys experienced a sharp...

By fourth grade many African American boys are already falling behind in the classroom. Our report examines what’s happening, what can be done, and why it should matter to all of us. Imagine for a moment that you live in a land where a number of the citizens have purple hair. Now suppose that most non-purple-haired people feel a little...