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EDUCATOR PERCEPTIONS OF POLICIES THAT MAY IMPACT BLACK MALE

HIGH SCHOOL PERSISTENCE

L. ANTONIO HENLEY

B.S. Psychology, Cameron University, 1992

M.S. Behavioral Science, Cameron University, 1996

DISSERTATION

Submitted to the University of New Hampshire

In Partial Fulfillment of

The Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Education

May, 2010

UMI Number: 3470100

INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.

In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed,

a note will indicate the deletion.

UMT Dissertation Publishing

ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway

P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346

L. Antonio Henley

This dissertation has been examined and approved.

l>oU.a- \\3^~~, Dissertation Director, Todd A. DeMitchell, Ed.D. Chair, Department of Education and Professor of Education and the Justice Studies Program

agbi/Beattie, D^Ed. Rog* Student/Academic Services

Jijstfog Ogembo, Ph. Associate Professor of Education and Anthropology

Paula Salvio, Ph.D. Professor of Education

Salty Ward, Ph.D. Senior Faculty Advisor of the Carsey Institute and Professor of Sociology

Date

DEDICATION

This project is dedicated to the Sons ofToni, from whom I have learned much,

from whom I have much still to learn.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost I thank God, the creator of the universe, the sustainer of all that is for endowing me with health and strength through this project. To my wife, Indira Henley, and to our children, I owe a debt of gratitude for their tolerance of my academic passion. Also, I am especially grateful to my grandmother, the late Bellencita Benjamin, for having instilled in me the provocative to question, and to my mother, Eleanor Benjamin- Whyte, for encouraging my educational trajectory despite the challenges and hardships.

I have been blessed along this journey by able individuals who have aided this project directly and indirectly. To my supervisors during the period, Alan Glotzer (Upward Bound, Keene State College), Dean Harry Richards (Graduate School, University of New Hampshire), and Professor Bruce Mallory (in his role as former Dean of the Graduate School at the University of New Hampshire), I am appreciative for the allowance of time off from my professional duties to attend to the work that has culminated in this document. To my colleagues Beth Zinn, and most notably, Amanda Powell who took on significant responsibilities in my absence from the office(s), I am forever indebted.

Jarrett Couser, while a University of New Hampshire undergraduate student, provided an enormous amount of support to the project for a year and a half as a research assistant. Timothy Bryant, during his tenure as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders, gave critical feedback during formative drafts of chapters and the survey instrument. Associate Professor Cesar Rebellon (Sociology) offered technical instruction and support in the use of the SPSS statistical tool. I am much obliged to these gentlemen for their assistance.

Finally, I wish to recognize the members of my dissertation committee. I am truly indebted to Professor Paula Salvio for taking the risk that permitted me to begin this project, and for the innumerable conversations that often caused me to feel as though I were in the flood gates and were even more so intellectual stimulation. I am forever grateful to Dr. Roger Beattie for the ways in which he kept me grounded and focused, and I especially appreciated those opportune moments of laughter. I am thankful to Professor Sally Ward for the assistance rendered during the data analysis phase, which helped greatly to strengthen the project. The graciousness of Assistant Professor Justus Ogembo and his steady guidance helped me to stay the course, and I am grateful to him for both. And, I am particularly thankful for the dissertation director and chair of the education Department, Professor Todd DeMitchell. Despite the demands on his time and the hectic pace of his schedule I was always welcomed with no sense of imposition. I am deeply appreciative for the incredible ways in which he allayed my fears, disarmed my frustrations, and gently insisted that each draft could be made better.

CONTENTS

DEDICATION iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v

LIST OF TABLES viii

ABSTRACT ix

CHAPTERS

1. INTRODUCTION 1

Statement of Problem 1

Statement of Purpose 8

Significance 10

Definition of Terms 10

Summary 11

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 12

Educator Perceptions 12

Racism 16

Academic Achievement 22

Persistence 43

Education Policy 47

Wrap up 59

3. METHODS 63

Research Questions 64

Participants 65

Procedures 66

Measures 68

4. RESULTS 75

Educator Demographics 76

General Perceptions of Educators 77

Perceptions Based on Educator Role 90

Perceptions Based on Educator Race 102

Other Demographic Variable 112

Educator Comments/Open Ended Responses 113

Summary 128

5. DISCUSSION 133

Review of Findings 133

Conclusions 138

Implications 140

Recommendations 146

Limitations 148

REFERENCES 149

APPENDICES

I. IRB Approval 159

II. Correlations 160

III. Equality of Means Tables 161

IV. Analysis of Variance Table 165

V. Survey Instrument 173

LIST OF TABLES

1. Respondents by State 75

2. Age Range of Educators 76

3. School Setting, Population, and Socioeconomic Status 78

4. Perceptions of Academic State 79

5. Perceptions of Influence and Outcomes 80

6. Perceptions of Persistence 82

7. Perceptions of Policy Strategies 84

8. Correlation of Policy Strategy Items 85

9. Perceptions of Policy Effectiveness 88

10. Perceptions of Policy Aim and Impact 89

11. Perceptions of Academic State (by Role) 91

12. Perceptions of Influence and Outcomes (by Role) 92

13. Perceptions of Persistence (by Role) 94

14. Perceptions of Policy Strategy (by Role) 96

15. Perceived Policy Targets and Impact by Role (Affirmative Responses) 99

16. Perceptions of Academic State (by Race) 102

17. Perceptions of Influence and Outcomes (by Race) 103

18. Perception of Retention (by Race) 104

19. Perceptions of Policy Strategies (by Race) 106

20. Perceived Policy Targets and Impact by Race (Affirmative Responses) 110

21. Themes of Educ ator Comments 114

ABSTRACT

EDUCATOR PERCEPTIONS OF POLICIES THAT MAY IMPACT BLACK MALE

HIGH SCHOOL PERSISTENCE

L. Antonio Henley

University of New Hampshire, May, 2010

This study purposed to identify educators' perceptions about the academic state of

Black males, explore the influence of policies on Black males' high school persistence,

and examine differences in educator perceptions with regards to the impact of education

policies on African American males. Findings indicate that educators believe that Black

males are doing poorly academically and educators are concerned about the academic

progress of Black males. Also, educators do not to believe that the majority of policies

identified in this research have any significant impact on the high school persistence of

Black males. Further, there are significant differences in educators' perceptions based on

their role and their race. Finally, educators recommend mentoring initiatives, especially

those that can employ African American males to serve as role-models, and they further

urge parental involvement, particularly with regards to monitoring of academic work.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

In a southwestern, mid-size city school an African American fourteen- year-old student, while speaking to the principal in his office, was enraged with the African American administrator as the student felt blamed and disrespected. In his anger he stormed out of the principal's office and went next door to the school counselor, with whom he had a decent relationship, to vent. In his emotional tirade and angry outburst filled with expletives, the young man said to the white female listening to him that he "could kill that nigga." By a guidance staff who expressed caring for the student the adolescent's comments were construed as threatening despite the fact that he was simply letting off steam and left the principal's office before the intensity of his emotions led him to do something he might regret. His words were reported back to the principal and under a zero tolerance policy, he was expelled from school.

As a participant in the scenario reported above I testify that it is a true story.

Many educators and academicians raise concern that the nation is facing a crisis with

regards to Black boys (Hefner, 2004; Smith, 2005). Black males have consistently

struggled in the U.S. educational system. If it can be said that schools have contributed

and continue to support academic marginalization of particular students, namely Black

boys, what factors give rise to this? What role does policy have in the efforts at reform?

How might the landscape be changed to provide Black males the academic successes that

lead to the economic and civic advantages afforded to others of the population? These

questions are serious and perplexing.

Statement of Problem

Low Performance

U.S. American society is structured in such a way that rewards are offered to high

performers. High performers tend to also be highly credentialed. Schools are

credentialing bodies of the country and credentials lead to the promises of the American

dream, more precisely, credentials lead to economic viability and prosperity. But, for

much of the nation's history credentials were withheld from certain groups of the

population. Today, some groups that were historically disallowed from participating in

the credentialing process are achieving the goals and securing their claims to the promise,

while other groups lag behind, stymied and deterred. Academic performance is critical to

the credentialing system.

African American males represent one group experiencing limited achievement.

A 2005 Schott Foundation report stated that forty-one percent of special education

placements are Black and of those eighty-five percent are male, and the high school

graduation rate for Black males is fewer than fifty percent across the country. In addition,

Black males have a high rate of school suspension (Smith, 2005). They also represent

large portions of the high school dropout rates, almost five percent in 2007 according to

the Statistical Abstract (2010), compared to white males and females which were both

less than three percent, and Black females at a little more than three and a half percent.

Black males enroll in college at lower rates than Black females and the gap has widened

since 1990 (Statistical Abstract, 2010). Further, of those Black males who make it to

college, they have a low rate of college graduation (Journal of Blacks in Higher

Education, 2005). Nationally, Blacks represented a little more than thirteen percent of the

post-secondary education population in 2007 and of this Black males were only about

four and a half percent (Statistical Abstract, 2010).

Not all African American males succumb to the negative influences that exist in

society and schools. Some young Black men are successful academics who make it

through high school (Hemmings, 1996; Hubbard, 1999) and into college (Harper, 2004).

However, the data shows that the overwhelming majority of Black males are not so

fortunate. While academic performance is often attributed to individual competence, it is

possible that a component of the problem exists within policies and practices utilized by

school personnel.

Education Policy

There are three aspects employed in use of the term policy, according to Pauline

Lipman (2003). First are the written laws and rules that govern school organization,

curriculum, discipline and the like. Second, policy refers to the written and unwritten

procedures and practices that serve to accomplish the intent of the stated law or rule. And

third, policy pertains to the discourses and texts that coalesce into symbols of the politics

of the institution. In this way Lipman says that policies function to control behavior and

legitimate what is thought, said, and learned, framing even the social identities that are

allowed to emerge, and the very meaning of the purpose of education.

With regard to schools there are different levels of policy formation. Education

policies can be created by the federal government, enacted by Congress with regulations

drafted by the U.S. Department of Education. At times federal court decisions also

become policies. The same can happen at the state government level, where both state

legislatures and state school departments generate policies, or state courts advance rulings

that are passed down to school agencies within communities. Generally speaking, local

school boards are responsible for the creation of policies that affect the schools and

students under their jurisdiction. However, while not carrying the same legal weight as

school board rules and actions, policies may be created at the building level by school

principals and teachers. In most cases, regardless of where the education policy is

created, it will be implemented at the building level by principals and teachers (Fowler,

2000).

No matter the level or political body, policy formulation is driven by values, both

personal and corporate (Fowler, 2000). Frances Fowler (2000) grouped the basic values

in U.S. politics into four categories: values of self-interest, general social values,

democratic values, and economic values. She stated that values are sometimes in conflict

and further suggested that with an individual's belief system, political and economic

philosophies and ideologies are formed. According to Fowler, one way that ideologies are

disseminated to the general population in the modern age is through schools. Some

scholars argue that a white supremacist ideology continues to inform education policy

and hampers the ability of racially diverse populations from achieving success similar to

that of white students (King, Houston, & Middleton, 2001). On some level this may seem

intuitively obvious, but given the historic significance of race and gender in the U.S.,

educational policies may well explain and account for a share of the longstanding

negative effect on African American male school persistence.

School Persistence

For the purpose of this study school persistence is defined as a) the promotion of

the student between grades, and b) the transition of the student from high school to post-

secondary education. For example, a student who is repeatedly sent to the principals'

office may likely be missing instruction while absent from the classroom. Such a student

will likely have poor performance on assignments and tests, which will probably result in

poor grades. If the pattern continues the student will likely be retained at grade level. This

is one type of failure to persist and marks a temporary failure or interruption in

persistence.

If the student is sixteen years of age and liberated from compulsory school

attendance, he may be inclined to see the pattern at school as a waste of time and

seriously consider dropping out. If he chooses to drop out, this marks another type of

persistence failure. However, the student may choose to re-enter school either in the

traditional setting, an alternative school, or a general education diploma (GED) program.

If the student re-enters and/or stays in school to completion, his poor academic

patterns and habits may seriously limit his chances of admission to a technical or trade

school, or a four-year college or university. Lack of academic preparedness to continue

formal education beyond high school presents a third type of persistence failure.

How the teacher and administration respond to the student throughout the process

described is often guided by policies. A few policies that may be related to the scenarios

are discipline, guidance, tracking, and retention. School policies on the surface may have

good intentions for all students, but may also have ill effects on the persistence of African

American males. Because schools' social role is economic and civic, the potential

damage to individuals and society is horrendous.

Educator Perception

Building level educators, most specifically teachers and principals are the closest

to policy implementation and have the most direct knowledge of how African American

males fare in school between grades and from high school to college. So, their

perspective is critical to an understanding of what policies may have potential impact on

Black males. So, for the purpose of this research an educator is defined as a teacher or

building level administrator, such as a principal or assistant principal. Moreover, because

the focus of this project is on the views of educators with regard to Black males and

policies, the term perception will refer to teacher and building level administrator

observations with regards to ideas about policies that may hurt or help African American

males. Teachers and administrators have the opportunity to directly observe the

consequence of educational policies and practices on students.

It is true that on the surface the ability of students to speak for themselves of their

direct experiences may appear more informative. However, students can only speak of

what they know with regard to their experience. Meaning, that a student who has a

positive or negative experience with regard to schooling may understand the details that

surround his or her experience, but may not grasp the greater connection to particular

policies or practices that gave rise to the experience. Thus, the knowledge base possessed

by teachers and principals is privileged by their experience related to their position.

The station that educators occupy as implementers of policies is a status position.

Despite the fact that the goal of a policy may be regarded differently by and amongst the

framers, the implementers, and the general public, it is the people who apply the policy at

the ground level who decide its fate. Educators may at times resist the implementation of

a policy with which they have philosophical or ideological disagreement, and/or may

reinterpret the policy to fit their particular values or beliefs (Fowler, 2000). Therefore, a

policy may have one intention and may achieve its objective while simultaneously

achieving another result or it may not achieve its intended outcome at all, but accomplish

something altogether different.

Fowler (2000) posits that the school principal is primarily responsible for policy

implementation at the schoolhouse and can make or break successful implementation. So,

to the extent that a teacher might rebel against a policy with which s/he disagrees, s/he

will not easily go against the interpretation of the policy that operates within the

schoolhouse. Such a risk for many teachers would be too great. (It is possible that tenured

teachers may feel free to resist, but there are ways that they too can be sanctioned for

non-compliance.) Thus, it seems most critical to apprehend the perception of teachers

regarding their observations of how policies may affect Black males in their classrooms,

as well as the thoughts of principals on how policies impact African American males in

the building.

There is a key assumption here that needs to be laid out. It is the idea that most

teachers are aware of school policies and hold some beliefs about students, especially

African American students. It certainly is true that administrators are expected to have

some working knowledge of policies that impinge upon the operation of the school, but

this is not necessarily true for teachers. Although, it is likely that the longer a teacher has

been at a school, the more likely he/she has had opportunity to come into contact with

some policy or policies of the school. Also, beliefs about students in general may not

exist for teachers who are new to the profession. And for some educators, beliefs about

African American students in specific may be buried so deeply based on family history

and background that the individual has never taken the time to reflect or consider these

fundamental aspects of attitudes and behavior. However, it is the range of this type of

variation that this project will explore. It is anticipated that some number of educators

will know well and articulate clearly their observations and beliefs while others may be

more challenged to reflect and consider their values and perceptions.

Pulling this all together - education policy is value laden and reinforces social

inequality. In addition, most U.S. educators are raised in a racialized and gendered

structure and bring their own personal values to bear on the interpretation and application

of school policies. In this education setting, Black boys continue to be disadvantaged in

part because of the historically marginalized position of African American males and the

function of schools in society to perpetuate the status quo. This is the problem stated

succinctly.

Statement of Purpose

Based on the information available, it can be inferred that there are negative social

influences affecting U.S. males and they are, at least in part, experienced in schools.

Because of Black males' historic and contemporary social position, they are most acutely

affected. The negative influences appear intimately connected to race, identity, gender

role, and public policy.

The guiding rationale for research on African American and Latino men in

educational settings is to uncover the source of poor social and academic outcomes, and

to create remedies that will help them succeed. The aim of this project is to identify

policies that educators believe help or hinder Black male educational persistence from

one grade level to the next and from secondary to post secondary school.

Research Questions

The achievement and persistence gaps between Black and white students have

been long lasting. But, increasing gaps within race groups are also causing alarm.

Concluding her review of the data, Rosa Smith observed that Black siblings who were

reared in the same home and communities have significantly different educational

outcomes (Holzman, 2004). As a result, she raised a potent question, which begs for a

response: "What is it about our education environments, policies, and systems that

produce this dramatic Black student gender gap (p. 3)?"

Pauline Lipman (2003) argued that education policy in U.S. schools function to

produce inequality and marginalization, and in doing so, reinforces patterns of racial

domination. Thus, in an effort to answer the question that Smith asks, this research will

identify school policies that affect Black males at the secondary level. The purpose of the

research is to uncover the policies that inhibit Black male promotion from one grade level

to the next, as well as those that prevent high school graduation and deter college

enrollment. The central questions are:

1. What do educators perceive to be the academic state of Black males?

2. What policies and/or procedures do educators perceive to affect the ability of Black males to persist through high school graduation?

3. Do perceptions of policy impact differ by educator role?

4. Do perceptions of policy impact differ by educator race?

Guiding Questions

• Are there policies directed at closing the race/gender gap in educational persistence from high school to college?

• Do educators perceive that such policies are effective?

• Is there a relationship between size and the racial composition of school, and educator perception of policy impact?

• Is there a relationship between educators' racial identity and educators' perception of policy effectiveness?

Significance

This research is necessary because although there is much investigation into the

negative educational outcomes of African American students and increasing attention

paid to Black males, there is little inquiry into policies that produce or facilitate these

outcomes. Policies are important considerations because they involve the values and

processes through which a system takes action to address a situation, to include expressed

intentions and consistent practices, both direct and indirect, or active and non-active

(Fowler, 2000). Educational policies while focused on schools and those within the

confines of the school facility reflect social values. Teacher perception of the impact of

educational policies is meaningful to study because teachers operate in the classroom

with students, at the ground level of policy implementation, so too do principals function

at the lowest level of school district administration. Teachers and principals have

opportunity to observe directly the consequence of educational policies on students.

Further, it is expected that this research will contribute to the works on

educational equity in the United States. As some scholars warn, there are deep and

widespread consequences to continued failure to educate males, Black Males in

particular, as effectively as their counterparts (Holzman, 2004; Mortenson, 1998).

Therefore, this research is important because if society truly cares about equality of

genders and races we must attend to the educational disparity observable between Black

males and other groups.

Definition of Terms

In effort to make clear the terminologies used regularly throughout this project,

the following definitions are provided:

African American - which has in its earlier use referred exclusively to U.S.

Blacks and did not include naturalized Black African and Caribbean immigrants will in

its use here, be inclusive of all categories.

Black - is defined here as any person having ancestry in Africa. When referring to

U.S. high school students in this study, it is considered synonymous to African American.

Educators - the target population, refers to both high school teachers and

administrators. For the purpose of this study, the term shall exclude elementary school

teachers and principals, district administrators, and college and university professors.

Perception - refers to the views, perspectives, and beliefs as espoused by

educators.

Policy - pertains to the articulated statements (written or spoken) of the institution

that guides or governs particular practices in the operation of the school, both inside and

outside the classroom.

Summary

Schooling has a tremendous influence on people. Schools also play a role in

supporting the social structure. Generally, this support stands in the form of codes and

rules. It is postulated that because of their historic location with regard to

marginalization, African American boys are significantly harmed by often well-intended

policies. As a result, this study aims to begin the work of identifying and examining

education policies. The study privileges the perspectives of educators as those most

closely associated with the enactment of education policy and seeks to uncover

educators' beliefs about Black boys and their opinions about the ways in which education

policies affect African American males.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This literature review will describe the relationship between Black male high

school persistence and education policy. Further, the implications that racism has on

academic achievement as mediated through educators' perceptions will be examined as

the bearing of racism on students' persistence is important. More specifically, the

argument made in this research is as follows: the academic achievement of African

American males is low. Limited educational attainment has a negative influence on

educational persistence. Further, low educational achievement and persistence are

influenced by educators' social orientation, which underpins their perspectives of

students in the classroom. All of these factors together create the need for an assessment

of educators' perceptions and of education policies. Therefore, this chapter will examine

the perceptions of educators, the effects of racism, the issue of academic achievement,

and the impact of education policy on the persistence of Black males.

Educator Perceptions

DeMitchell and Cobb (2007) reason that professionals use judgment within

acceptable standards for the benefit of clients and that such judgment is used in the

application of knowledge to meet the needs of clients. Therefore, they assert that

professionals are obligated to work in the best interest of clients. Despite this obligation,

individuals sometimes yield to their personal biases. While it can be said that everyone is

biased in some fashion, personal bias should not interfere with one's professional

obligations.

Ferguson (2005) describes bias as a "deviation from some benchmark that defines

neutrality (p. 81)." In his work, he examined the idea that the perceptions, expectations

and behaviors that teachers bring into the classroom interact with their students' beliefs,

behavioral styles, and work habits in ways that perpetuate the test score gap between

white and Black students. Ferguson's work suggests that teacher perceptions impact the

academic performance of all students, and given the differential outcomes for Black

males compared to other race and gender groups, teacher perceptions may have

extraordinary impact on them.

In addition, Torf and Sessions (2005) drawing on many other researchers, note

that principals' assessment of teachers are subjective and possibly biased. What seems

significant here is that bias can be an influence at all levels of interaction. For example,

McCray, Wright & Beachum (2004) contend that communities can have a major impact

on a principal's perception of multicultural education, particularly where the population

is homogeneous multiculturalism could be seen as divisive, driving a wedge between

majority and minority groups. Bias then operates within individual interactions,

regardless of one's position within the hierarchy, and it operates within groups such that

the perceptions and expectations of the mass influence the individual.

Further, Lawrence (2005) drawing on Combs (1962), noted that people behave

according to their perceptions. For example, in their study that examined the beliefs of

public school teachers who teach African American children, Love and Kruger (2005)

found general agreement among educators that the teacher role is to disseminate

knowledge. This perception of the teacher role as disseminator of knowledge and the

belief in the use of repetition, drill and practice correlated significantly with achievement.

In addition, their findings yielded significant correlation between teacher belief that each

child is successful at something and students' mathematic achievement scores. These

findings suggest that the teachers' perception of their role shaped the strategies they used

to impart applicable information to students in a manner that improved student learning.

Despite what these hopeful results suggest, researchers have long written about

the limited expectations that many educators hold for socially marginalized students. In a

review of perception studies, Ferguson (2005) discussed Casteel's (1997) research, which

demonstrated that Black students are most interested in pleasing teachers with their class

work, but white students are most concerned with pleasing their parents. He further drew

on Klienfeld's (1972) and Irvine's (1990) works which found that Black high school

students' concept of their ability correlated with perceived teacher ratings of ability,

whereas white students' concept of their ability correlated with perceived parent ratings

of ability. Ferguson stated that "disruptive apprehension" occurs because of ability

stereotypes, as stigmatized students may fear performing in ways that corroborate the

stereotype and so inhibit their performance through disidentification with the task.

Ferguson concluded "that teachers' perceptions, expectations, and behaviors probably do

help to sustain, and perhaps even to expand, the Black-White test score gap. The

magnitude of the effect is uncertain, but it may be quite substantial if effects accumulate

from kindergarten through high school" (p. 113).

Part of the rationale for differential expectations may be explained by beliefs,

conscious or subconscious, that Blacks are less capable and that the poor cultural values

and family structure of the home are more influential than the school. For instance, a

detrimental family background is perceived to be the most serious problem confronting

students by both elementary and secondary school principals (Vanderjgat, Shen & Hsieh,

2001). In somewhat of a pessimistic outlook, Ferguson (2005) expressed the unlikelihood

that there will be an end to what he termed "rumors of inferiority" between the races due

to the slant of expert opinion in favor of the genetic explanation to describe racial

differences coupled with the hype generated by the media. He argued that the lack of

incentives and supports for teachers to believe in and establish goals for all students,

particularly African Americans and other stigmatized minorities is a major social

injustice as this failure creates an underestimated and significant waste of human

potential. King, Houston & Middleton (2001) assert that a white supremacist ideology

persists due to the lack of scrutiny regarding the failure of Black students in the context

of a history of institutions that promote notions of Black inferiority.

Because a teachers' perception of a student is static and is difficult to change,

especially with regards to students who are different from him/her (Lawrence, 2005), and

because teacher's expectations once established are not significantly altered, there is

obvious concern as there is some awareness that teacher expectations predict student

performance (Ferguson, 2005). Further, because a "classroom teachers' daily work with

students is a translation and reconfiguration of policy to meet the highly individualized

contexts of their classroom" (DeMitchell & Cobb, 2007, p. 26), it is critically important

to examine teacher perception of their use of policy in their interaction with students. In

addition, some researchers argue that the perceptions of principals are important to

understanding school problems because they know the issues that affect children and

have the perspective of the entire school organization rather than individual classrooms

(Vanderjgat, Shen & Hsieh, 2001). As a result of these personal and social, often

unexamined perspectives and influences that educators bring into the school context, the

way that they interpret, interact, and react to students, the way they create or implement

policies that affect students, is shaped by their perceptions. This allows majority

individuals to form institutions in such a way that bias is woven into the fabric of

operation and rendered invisible as it is structured as the norm. Even in those

circumstances where bias can be seen, it may often go unacknowledged. Personal bias

when coupled with institutional bias (be either of these implicit or explicit) serve to

devalue those who have been historically marginalized and perpetuates the status quo.

Racism

In schools, educators treat students according to the way that they perceive them.

That is why some scholars challenge educators to consider how they feel about the

students whom they are charged with educating (DeMitchell & Fossey, 1997). Educators'

perceptions, which are underpinned by their values and beliefs, shape the self-perceptions

and academic outcomes of their students. However, educators' perceptions are

constructed, as is the system of education itself, in a racist context.

Racism Defined

Historically, the creation of race distinctions was grounded in the biological

science model, which offered phenotypic variance as evidence to support categorizations

(Kuumba, 2001; Willie, 2003). In modern times scholars contend that race markers are

socially constructed and difficult to jettison because of their centrality to peoples'

identities and understandings of the world (Omi and Winant, 1994). Race as defined by

Omi and Winant (1994) is a concept signifying social conflict and references different

human bodies (p. 55). Therefore, the authors assert that race is not immutable nor is it

illusory: it is a political mechanism deeply connected to belief systems and ways of being

and interacting with the world.

However, race is more than ways of being. It is a structure of privilege and

exploitation established by laws and codes. Charles Mills (1997) drawing on social

contract theory, which is the agreement of individuals starting in the natural state to

establish civil society and government, demonstrated how the racial contract affords

socioeconomic privilege and promotes global white supremacy. The racial contract is a

socio-political arrangement that establishes Europeans as white and the dominant race

and non-Europeans as non-white and the subjugated peoples. Mills argued that the racial

contract allows whites to take for granted the concepts that legitimizes the racial order

and that relegates non-whites to sub-personhood. He further asserts that the racial

contract in its requirement of exploitation cultivates in whites an aversion to or weak

affect and empathy to the suffering of non-whites. Thus, race designations serve political

ends and give social and economic benefits to the established master race of white

people, particularly white men. Mills says that to safeguard its benefits, the racial state

employed coercive weapons: physical violence and ideological conditioning. It is this

ideological conditioning and the ways in which it was manifested that has had

tremendous impact.

Racism as defined by the Oxford American Desk Dictionary (1998) is the 1)

"belief in the superiority of a particular race; prejudice based on this, or 2) antagonism

toward other races" (p. 493). While this is a typical constitutive definition, it in essence

creates an absolution from responsibility for the majority of whites, as they are not likely

to consciously or intentionally ascribe to white supremacist ideology (Kaitlin, 2002).

Kaitlin (2002) defines racial prejudice as a prejudgment made about another based on

race stereotypes prior to the knowledge of factual information and notes that such an

opinion is usually maintained despite the facts. Similarly, she refers to racial dominance

as social control, structured and exerted by one race group to sustain their prejudice and

maintain their privilege. Racism then, is "the transformation of race prejudice and/or

ethnocentrism through the exercise of power against a racial group defined as inferior, by

individuals and institutions" (Jones, 1981, p. 28).

Racism is socially constructed, motivated by greed and power, and has been

justified by scientific and religious communities (Spencer, 1998). Kaitlin (2002) noted

that racism is reinforced by the material gains and class interests of white citizens in a

thriving capitalist society; essentially, it pays to be racist. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (2003)

argued that racism is a systematic notion of superiority and is characterized by a power

dynamic. Drawing on ideas of laissez-faire racism, Bonilla-Silva contends that in the post

Civil Rights era of the modern free labor economy, a color-blind ideology has evolved,

which blames the victims and positions Blacks as culturally inferior and responsible for

their poor economic status. He argued that contemporary racism is communicated in race

neutral tropes that promote merit, not race, as the basis on which to confer privilege.

Bonilla-Silva posits four frames of color-blind racism. The first frame is abstract

liberalism - the idea that there is equality of opportunity, that individual choice and

character traits should make the difference, and so there is no need for race based

initiatives. The second frame is naturalization - which suggests that race situations are

natural, accepting whole sale the adage "birds of a feather flock together." Cultural

racism is the third frame and is based on the notion that minorities hold different, less

acceptable values that damage the fabric of society. And, the fourth frame is minimization

- which discounts discrimination as a central factor impacting minorities today.

According to Bonilla-Silva, "the language of color-blindness is slippery, apparently

contradictory, and often subtle" (p. 53), yet it persists.

Racism and Black Masculinity

Racism is a horrible experience. Sexism is an equally awful experience. How do

notions of race and gender interact in shaping African American males?

Masculine identity is developed through social messages, by in large, and those

have traditionally included man as breadwinner, protector of family, public servant, and

business entrepreneur (Friedan, 1966; Harper, 2004). Some scholars put forward that

mainstream concepts of masculinity, such as the accumulation of wealth, status, and

power, are often unattainable to African Americans due to the constraints of race

(Franklin, 1984). Whitehead (2002) suggests that Blackness presents a diversity of

subject positions, experiences, and cultural identities. He also stated that the existence of

Blackness is a conduit for constructing identity and represents a personal and political

position. Other researchers posit that Black males may seek to identify with dominant

cultural notions of idealized masculinity (e.g. success, competition, aggression), but may

suffer psychological distress as such conceptions disavow the African worldview of

masculinity (which values cooperation, and promotion of and survival of group), because

these perspectives may conflict (Pierre, Mahalik & Woodland, 2001).

Pierre, Mahalik & Woodland (2001) argue that African American males are

socialized by the dominant culture in such a way that they are forced to suppress their

emotions regarding social and psychological situations in which they experience a great

deal of anger-hostility as a result of unfair evaluation and threat by whites. They also note

that African American males are expected to operate in a nation that silences, abuses and

devalues their existence. Further, they contend that in the U.S., African American males

struggle to assert their masculinity amidst societal prejudice, economic hardship,

educational limitations and even unwarranted violence. As a coping strategy to life in a

racist society, many African American males focus on impression management, invoking

the "Cool Pose" as an aggressive assertion of masculinity (Majors & Billson, 1992;

Pierre, Mahalik & Woodland, 2001; Staples, 1982). According to Pierre, Mahalik &

Woodland (2001) the objectives in the use of the cool pose stance are protection, social

competence and self pride, it also moderates stressful conditions and can provide the

basis for personal achievement and self-respect.

For many Black men, the adaptation of the tough guy image, the cool pose, and

the hypersexual persona are central characteristics to masculine identity (Harper, 2004;

Whitehead, 2002). Tough guys, according to Harper (2004), are fighters who incite fear

in others and are not afraid to defend themselves. The cool pose is a combination of

composure and expression oriented at appearing trendy and relaxed and is characterized

by a "pimp-style" strut (Harper, 2004; Pierre, Mahalik & Woodland, 2001). Sexual

activity among Black males bend toward permissiveness, begins early, occurs frequently

and involves multiple partners (Staples, 1986). These personal and political stances can

be considered acts of power and resistance (Staples 1986; Whitehead, 2002).

Often, Black athletes are presented as the epitome of Black masculinity. They

exude toughness and skill on the court, field or track, and while outside the athletic arena

they are objectified as sex items. Harper stated that the media popularizes certain images

of African American men, particularly the professional athlete and rapper, and portrays

them as financially prosperous, surrounded by many attractive women. Despite the fact

that many Black males appropriate the admired traits of the visible public figures, few

Black men actually acquire the professional status and the financial gain that defines it.

Marable (1993) charged that the weight of white history functions to frustrate the

self image of Black men and disrupt their quest for liberty. "Disrupting" and "soul-

killing" are the terms that Patterson (1995) used to describe the oppressive treatment of

African American males throughout history. Franklin (1984) contends that the

insurmountable barriers against which millions of Black males must compete prevent

them from achieving masculine status as defined by the majority of Americans, and

renders them socially impotent and dysfunctional. Thus, African American masculinity

operates in a pervasive culture of hopelessness and many Black males rebel against

whiteness and femininity (Marable, 1993; Patterson, 1995)

During the period of slavery Black males learned to behave in such a way as to

please the white power structure, acknowledging, accepting and simultaneously resisting

white cultural dominance over their lives (Pierre, Mahalik & Woodland, 2001). Today it

seems that young Black males do more outright resisting than accepting or placating to

white cultural dominance. So, if Black masculinity is characterized by a prevailing sense

of despair and a tough guy image projected in a poise of coolness and marked by

promiscuity, how do these roles play out in educational settings? How do schools convey

social expectations to Black males? What is the interplay between the messages conveyed

and the Black masculine identity? Do educators try to understand the plight of Black

males in the teaching and learning process? These questions merit some exploration.

Academic Achievement

Race, when compounded by the historic nature of gender, yields experiences in a

school culture of marginalization, which hampers academic performance. Therefore, this

section of the chapter will examine educator racial socialization and its implications, the

achievement gap debate and other influences on achievement, the impact of schooling on

Black masculine identity, and the consideration of remedies to the achievement gap.

Racism, Socialization, and Implications

Educator Socialization -

Schools are artifacts of the social order, and while it is daunting to consider them

in modern times as agents of racism, in many of the nations' schools the results seem to

suggest just that. In part, this is the case because all too often many educators are

unaware of their own racist orientation and views, and so they cannot see the ways in

which those hidden, unexamined perspectives shape their attitudes and interactions.

Consider the following excerpt from Kaitlin (2002):

Yet my solidarity with some of them as teachers and as women was challenged by my increasing awareness, as the months passed, that there were certain patterns of behavior that contributed to the process of alienation of the Black children in particular. In subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways, I often saw that they were not as nurturing or supportive of the Black children as they were of the white children, even though they all considered themselves to be fair and open-minded. Sometimes I left my intensive three- or four-hour observations and note taking and fought tears until I could get home and have a good cry before I typed up my field notes. For what I had observed were those subtle, hidden injuries of racism, and I knew without reeducation, it would be difficult for the teachers to believe that they were doing anything to endanger the education of Black children or other children of color — or white children as well (p. 5).

Kaitlin (2002) noted that the teachers highlighted in her research and the problems

encountered in schools are not necessarily reducible to the nature of "bad" teachers, but

exist because educators have been socialized in a racist context where a racial chauvinism

or superiority is reflected in their worldview and teaching practices, moreover they are

ignorant to the multidimensional ways in which a white supremacist orientation

percolates and is propagated throughout U.S. American society. Kaitlin states that

children of color are effectively "colonized" in our nation's schools as they are

marginalized not only by teachers' direct actions or individual attitudes, but also by a

school culture that reproduces racial and economic inequality. An example of how racism

creeps into the school setting is observed by researchers who submitted that a unique,

endemic phenomenon occurs in poor urban schools as a number of teachers believe that

student underachievement results from factors outside the realm of educational controls,

and so they behave by lowering academic expectations and standards (Belfiore, Auld &

Lee, 2005).

Implications for Students -

Racism has a negative impact on students' school experiences. Pollard (1989)

noted that the classroom atmosphere is affected by the academic expectations teachers

hold, and too often teachers hold high expectations for white students and low

expectations for students of color. These expectations are significant as it has been found

that African American students strive to meet teacher expectations (Ferguson, 2005), and

if those expectations are low, students are ill-served and will not likely reach their

academic potential.

Moreover, the practice of racism in schools, however subtle or direct, is damaging

foremost because it detracts the attention of students of color from academic pursuits due

to the highly negative emotional nature of the experience (Pollard, 1989). Drawing on

other researchers, Spencer (1998) noted that racism leads students of color to detach from

school, facilitates a loss of cultural identity and has a negative impact on self-esteem and

self-efficacy, aspirations and hope. Pines & Hillard (1990) found that racism lead to

increases in dropout rates, suspension, expulsion, and decreased academic achievement

for children of color (in Spencer, 1998).

As Pollard said, "Although schools alone cannot control the level of racism in

society, they can do much to counteract this ugly American tradition" (p. 75). The

damages inflicted by racism on Black males interact with their socialization to manhood

in a way that is unique. "Black men unable to express their feelings, fears, or worries are

constantly under pressure to prove their manhood. Their emotions often can result in

assault, accidents, homicide, suicide, alcoholism or substance abuse. In addition, in order

to be 'cool' African American men may distance themselves from un-cool activities like

achieving success in school" (Pierre, Mahalik & Woodland, 2001, p. 27). Educators must

take stock of their own orientation to race and the racist ways in which school activities

and policies are structured against African American males, if these students are to ever

make improvement toward academic performance.

Achievement Gap Debate

The debate over the achievement gap rages on. While there are many in-school

and out-of-school influences on the achievement gap, they are typically presented in such

a way as to highlight the superiority of the majority group and minimalize the detrimental

lifetime impact on African Americans. The achievement gap was narrowing under steady

decline for thirty years , but because of stalled progress in the 1990s, substantial

disparities exist today regarding the academic success of African Americans compared to

European Americans, despite the gains made in the 1970s and 1980s (Harris &

Herrington, 2006; Olneck, 2005). The achievement gap debate is typically discussed from

the perspective of causes external to the student, such as teacher expectations and

classroom and school structure, or causes internal to the student, such as low motivation,

limited competence, and devaluing of academic success (Caldwell & Siwatu, 2003).

However, the later in the discourse represents a shift from notions of unequal educational

opportunity to theories of student deficits with focus on failure to perform (Love, 2004).

Love (2004) contends that the access to educational opportunities intended by Brown v.

Board of Education has been subverted to support achievement gap storytelling that

reincarnates white supremacist ideology which positions African Americans as

intellectually inferior. Rumberger & Palardy (2005) also noted that desegregation policies

have been increasingly abandoned over the last twenty years because of declining

government support.

One perspective of the debate, which is believed by many, is that school

integration is not necessary and what are more important are the establishment of high

standards for all students and the provision of adequate resources to all schools

(Rumberger & Palardy, 2005). The achievement gap discourse regarding standards

assumes that those students who are smart and/or who work hard are rewarded by

meeting the standards of high achievement and those who do not meet the standards did

not work as hard or they are not as smart, thus all African Americans have to do is fix the

things that are wrong with them, including such things as their motivation, work ethic,

language, culture, families, and values, and they too can achieve their fair share of what

America has to offer (Love, 2004).

Another perspective in which the academic community has engaged in discussion

for a decade and a half regards the contention that many African American youth avoid

scholastic attainment due to a peer cultural orientation that declares academic

achievement a white domain (Peterson-Lewis & Bratton, 2004). This cultural explanation

is one of many and as such is viewed by others as too simplistic. For example, Frisby

(1993) suggests that Black scholars who proffer Afrocentric explanations for the

achievement gap exhibit symptoms of psychological disorder (i.e. denial, frustration,

despair) as they ignore research that contradicts their theories, blame society and schools

for the failures of Black children, and subscribe to the belief that Black children are to

culturally different to gain from Eurocentric education models.

In opposition to notions of Black Cultural Learning Styles (BCLS), Frisby

asserted that many contemporary African schools are modeled after European education,

not the Afrocentric, relational model that is supposed to liberate Black American

students. He explained that BCLS is described as the different ways Black children learn,

which are distinct from white children, because of their ethnic/racial culture. Frisby

argued that Afrocentric scholars 1) draw unwarranted conclusions based on flawed

research, 2) utilize pseudoscientific theories to promote ideas that African Americans

have a distinctively different culture, 3) foster an academic community cowered in fear of

being labeled culturally insensitive or racially disloyal, and 4) harbor hypersensitivity to

any achievement gap explanation perceived as reflecting a deficit model. Frisby rails that

Afrocentrists are advancing sociopolitical ideologies and that they discourage Black

education researchers from using high scientific standards through peer pressure, and he

brackets their concerns about using a student deficiency orientation to education as

cultural relativism and a hindrance to the development and application of common

standards. However, what Frisby renders invisible because he omits its mention is that he

too is peddling a sociopolitical ideology, moreover that all ideologies are political

implements of some kind. And, while standards (highly scientific, common, or otherwise)

are important, who defines the standards is as important as the standards themselves.

Further, what Frisby fails to mention, maybe because it is left to the reader to know or

assume, is that the standards in question are constructed from the European perspective.

While one can agree there should be standards (including common and high), it is quite

evident that standards are formulated from the creator's experiences and vantage point.

The debate of the achievement gap shows no sign of fading as "The gap in

achievement has shifted steadily from being an indicator of educational inequality to

being a direct cause of socioeconomic inequality" (Harris & Herrington, 2006, p. 210). In

addition, adding to the long term damage, the discussions of the achievement gap has

moved from blaming the system that failed to provide adequate resources to Black

students in terms of a rigorous curricula, for example, to blaming African American

students for their failure to be engaged with the curricula, regardless of its rigor (Love,

2004). What is also interesting, as Love (2004) points out, is despite the fact that most

Asian groups outperform whites on standardized test measures there is no national

discussion of an achievement gap between white and Asian students. The entire

achievement gap debate is framed in such a way as to maintain the academic superiority

of the majority group.

Influences on Achievement

Poor academic achievement has long term consequences. Smith (2006) found that

middle school students who experienced achievement loss in high school were more

likely to drop out of their first college than students who did not experience achievement

loss. He stated that " . . . achievement loss in high school transition was a strong predictor

of high-achieving students subsequently leaving college" (p. 218). Further, the closing of

the achievement gap is important to the economic and social stability, and the moral

health of the U.S. (Evans, 2005). Therefore, it is important to identify variables that may

have a significant effect on academic achievement.

Interpersonal Motivation Factors -

There are a number of influences on academic achievement. Ego development

and motivation are two factors that influence academic performance. Learning orientation

(LO) as an internal academic locus of control is associated with greater academic success,

whereas grade orientation (GO), which negatively correlates with academic performance,

is an external locus of control and is marked by efforts to please the instructor to obtain

positive feedback (Beck, Rorrer-Woody, & Pierce, 1991; Findley & Cooper, 1983; Harris

& Harris, 1987). Whereas males tend to have an internal locus of control and females an

external locus of control, the externality focus was not associated with lower academic

performance for girls (Bursik & Martin, 2006). Drawing on other research, Ryska &

Vestar (2004) state that by-in-large, students who adopt an ego based motivation tend to

view their competence as based on standards established by others and typically seek to

outperform teammates using superior ability with minimal effort; this is different from a

task-oriented motivation which defines competence in terms of self-referenced standards

and seeks personal fulfillment of potential. Other researchers have posited that African

Americans tend to base their motivation to perform externally with teachers and suggest a

race based or culture based motivation orientation. For example, while respondents in the

study by Peterson-Lewis & Bratton (2004) did not associate the dynamic of "acting

Black" with oppositional academic outcomes such as poor grades, they did instead

associate the concept with inputs such as skipping class, not completing assignments, and

emphasizing non-academic priorities, all of which tend to be highly correlated with

academic failure. Peterson-Lewis & Bratton further state that because of the qualities

attributed to "acting Black" the implication is that Blacks who perform poorly or

misbehave have greater racial authenticity and higher claim to the label "Black."

Social and Family Factors -

After controlling for socioeconomic class factors including wealth, race had a

significant negative effect on academic achievement (Orr, 2003). In addition, drawing on

other researchers, Smith (2006) noted that teacher quality, transition programming, and

peer attendance, as well as other family factors influences transition and achievement

loss. While the school environment may have an impact on achievement, others assert

that the perspective that holds school as the primary cause and cure of the achievement

gap is deeply flawed because it exaggerates the influence of schools and minimizes the

influence of factors outside of schools (Evans, 2005). Evans (2005) claims that

scapegoating schools is a copout that attempts to substitute the primary cause of the

achievement gap.

Evans (2005) argues that while schools play an important role in a child's life, it

is the influences outside of school (the family structure, parent's education level,

residential community, and state's poverty rate) that have a larger effect on the

achievement gap. He goes on to point out that one can accurately predict a child's chance

of college completion by knowing only the zip code. Evans further asserts that schooling

is only a part of the student's life and by the time the child graduates the senior year of

high school only ten percent of the life lived was spent in school. What Evans wants so

easily to dismiss is the reality that the majority of the out of school influences are social

constructs and benefits resulting from the historical impact of schooling and educational

attainment, not to mention the ability to accurately predict school failure based on zip

code is a testament to generations of racial segregation based on zoning practices that still

continues today.

Family income and wealth also have a significant role to play in students'

academic performance. However, it is income, not wealth that has been the financial

marker used historically to determine socioeconomic status and its impact on

achievement (Orr, 2003). Orr (2003) noted that although wealth can have the same effect

on academic achievement as does income, it can intensify the effects because families

with wealth can provide more opportunities for their children. Orr also found that

children from families with little or no wealth score lower on the PAIT mathematics

assessment than do children from wealthier families, regardless of parental income,

education level, or occupation. Orr concluded that wealth explains a portion of the Black-

white achievement gap because as wealth between children increases, so too does the gap

between test scores. Further, Orr stated that income producing assets have a positive and

significant effect on academic achievement, whereas non-income producing assets do

not.

However, wealth has a positive effect on achievement and explains a portion of

the Black-white academic achievement gap, the influence of which is mediated primarily

by the amount of cultural capital to which a child is exposed (Orr, 2003). Other

researchers found that socioeconomic status, middle school high achievement, parental

education level, and being of Asian descent were characteristics associated with first

college retention (Smith, 2006). In addition, some scholars argue that racial segregation is

related to socioeconomic segregation as Black and Hispanic students are more likely to

be poor and to attend high-poverty schools (Rumberger & Palardy, 2005). Rumberger &

Palardy (2005) found that the school socioeconomic status had a greater effect on student

learning than any other compositional variable (e.g. school SES, minority status, family

SES, family structure, prior grades, college aspirations, prior retention rates), meaning

that both the student's family economic position and the average school socioeconomic

status contribute to achievement growth during high school. As a result, Rumberger &

Palardy reason that socioeconomic status matters because it is related to various school

processes that predict achievement growth, including teacher expectations of students'

ability to learn, amount of homework completed per week, advance coursework offered

within the school, and students' perception of safety at school. Also, according to

Rumberger & Palardy, segregation matters to academic achievement not because of racial

variables but socioeconomic ones associated with characteristics such as academic

climate and teacher expectations. Though, insofar as the race element is not intended to

be an indication of intellect or inherent ability, the conclusion seems insufficient, maybe

even untenable, as the link and association between race and socioeconomic status is

intimate and has been demonstrated by the researchers as well.

We can agree that school is only a part of the child's life, but schooling is a

significant part, because a child will spend roughly twenty-nine percent of her/his woken

moments during a week in school. While external factors clearly impact a student's

educational attainment, various factors inside the schoolhouse gate also affect educational

progress. Our attention will now focus on a couple of those factors.

School Factors -

School resources and teacher quality have a tremendous impact on student

academic performance. Pertaining to the achievement gap, one of the two essential

arguments heralded by accountability advocates is that limited resources inhibit adequate

performance in schools (Harris & Herrington, 2006). Rumberger & Palardy (2005) also

offer that some of the reasons social composition matters to student achievement are

because of the direct influence of peers and the indirect impact of material resources,

school organization and structural features. Therefore, an effective means of improving

equity of educational outcomes is the provision of greater resources and academic content

(Harris & Herrington, 2006).

According to Harris & Herrington (2006), the provision of additional resources to

schools that began during the 1950s and 1960s facilitated, in important ways, the closing

of the achievement gap that occurred during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In addition,

they also state that the improvement in the quality of content that occurred during the

1970s and 1980s may mask inequities in the quality of classroom instruction due to

differences in teacher quality. Rumberger & Palardy (2005) argue that teacher efficacy

and sense of responsibility for student learning is critical as they found that teachers'

expectations impacted student learning after controlling for students' academic effort.

Further, teachers who held students accountable for one another's success were more

likely to teach students with higher standardized reading scores (Love & Kruger, 2005).

Love & Kruger (2005) found that while teachers believed that students' race, culture, and

ethnicity are important and they strove to connect world events to students' lives, they

also simultaneously affirmed colorblind ideology, claiming to not distinguish students'

color or culture, but only acknowledged the child. These two positions are obviously

incongruent. Colorblindness is a political stance that renders race immaterial to preserve

white privilege and deny African American experiences (Love, 2004). Love & Kruger

also found a relationship between teachers who endorsed the notion of teaching as a

commitment to "giving back to community" and reading achievement. Therefore, they

contend that "successful teachers may hold an eclectic array of beliefs (p. 97)."

The impact the teacher has in the classroom is significant, as are the resources

brought to bear on the educative process. There is a dynamic force between the school

factors and the societal factors as they interact with the interpersonal factors to shape the

developing student. In the context of public schooling, this may be a particularly potent

influence on Black males.

Schooling and Black Male Identity

Schools make heavy demands on Black students to conform to high standards of

behavior (Tyson, 2003). Race is still a divisive element of U.S. education. In fact, in

school settings, race is a matter of performance enacted to obtain the promises of the

dream: a quality education that will lead to economic security. This promise of taking

their "rightful place in society" (p. 273) is what researchers have noted that Black

students value when those students mention the meaning of a college education (Horvat

& Lewis, 2003). For many Black youth, race becomes a deterrent to academic pursuits as

these students refuse to "act white," because in their estimation the payoff to comparable

work is delimited (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986).

Claude Steele (1992) posited that schools make an unwise offer to Black students.

He argued that schools make an assimilationist offer that states: you may be valued and

rewarded as long as you master the culture and ways of the American mainstream -

White America's cultural ways of being and doing. Steele contends that the offer is an

insult because it ignores Black's contribution to U.S. society and simultaneously denies

them membership in the social structure in which they have labored and helped to build.

He posits that it is an offer to become a part to those who have always been among, albeit

positioned as servants and rendered invisible. But, invisibility is the act of assimilation; a

reality not so easily accomplished even if Blacks accepted the terms of the offer.

Blackness cannot be hidden.

In her compelling work Sarah Willie (2003) discussed how many Black students

on college campuses perform race. She argued that race is continuously shifting based on

the relational context and further suggested that it is an experiential identity. Willie

contends that treating race like a role or vestiture that can be taken off is a subversive act

and renders the long standing notion of phenotypic immutability of race inadequate.

What is profound about Willie's work and that of other contemporary researchers

(Harper, 2004; Horvat & Lewis, 2003) is the connection between the performance of race

and success in academic institutions. Even when the language is cast in business terms,

such as "managing academic success," it is shrouded by performance nomenclature such

as camouflaging, which means to cover (Horvat & Lewis, 2003).

However unfortunate the idea that academic excellence is an imitation of white

Americans, the notion is held by whites as well and may have originated with the ruling

class. There are two reasons for this contention. First, Lisa Delpit (1995) retells a

poignant story about renowned African American Sociologist E. Franklin Frazier. Delpit

recounted that Frazier, who was born poor to unschooled parents learned well his lessons

from his teachers and self-taught father that he went on to higher education at Clark

University. So complete was the transformation of his education during the oppressive

system of segregation that at the graduation of his master's degree Frazier received

confirmation of his achievement from the university President, G. Stanley Hall. So

astonished by the anomaly that was E. Franklin Frazier that President Hall remarked,

"Mr. Frazier ... seems to me to be quite gentlemanly and mentally white" (Anthony &

Piatt, 1991, p. 15). Second, scholars have pointed out that in the early part of U.S. history,

white Americans were conditioned to believe that Black people, Black men in particular,

"were only a step above the animals - possessing awesome physical power, but lacking

intellectual ability" (Marable, 1993). In the case of the later, if Blacks are less than

human, then any demonstration of human cognition or capacities is an effort on the part

of the beast to appropriate the qualities of the civilized master.

Given the revolutionary notion of performing race and in light of the conditioning

of Blacks, what does it mean for African Americans to be schooled or to seek higher

education? Given the concerns for Black men, what are the implications for this subgroup

in educational institutions? Educational goals are often broad, but how do the practices

affirm those who were originally barred from the doors and halls of the academy?

In her study, Tyson (2003) found that behavior and ability were racialized for

Black students, causing students to develop the perception that misbehavior is attributable

to Black skin. Tyson states that the school's intent to socialize Black students is not

always explicit, though it is implicit. Thus, African American students often internalize

the consistent disapproval messages they receive from educators as evidence that they do

not measure up, that they do not posses what the schools require.

Moreover, there is a possibility that these racial messages may also have a gender

element. Researchers found that the overwhelming majority of aesthetic dynamics

declared by respondents to be qualities of "acting Black" are most readily observable

among African American males in low-income, urban cities (Peterson-Lewis & Bratton,

2004). Peterson-Lewis & Bratton (2004) noted that superimposed on notions of "acting

Black" are attributes of age, gender, socioeconomics, and geography, meaning that the

authentic characteristics of "acting Black" are portrayed by younger, low-income urban

males. Respondents in their study perceived that "acting Black" entails detachment,

indifference and disregard, which correspond with "coolness" self-presentational style.

According to Peterson-Lewis & Bratton, cool pose posturing camouflages anxiety and

decreases the likelihood that others will gain insight into, and control over ones real

emotions.

Further, research indicates that African American males are behind academically,

compared to Black females and white students from elementary school through the first

year of college (Hamilton, 2006). Hamilton (2006) stated that Black males have been the

subject of educational debate because of low test scores, disproportional suspension,

expulsion, and drop-out rates, but the issues are viewed from a deficit perspective. Black

male respondents in the study by Peterson-Lewis & Bratton imbue some school related

behaviors with both race and gender. The researchers further state that many actions,

mannerisms, and ways of behaving that school authorities believe to be gender neutral,

good student behaviors are perceived by Black males as feminine and are to be avoided at

all costs in an environment where physical toughness is a survival tool (Peterson-Lewis

& Bratton, 2004). Some respondents in the study by Peterson-Lewis & Bratton (2004)

expressed concerns that their descriptions of "acting Black" might reinforce school board

policies and systemic practices that negatively impact African American students, while

other students lamented the low-teacher expectations held for Black students, particularly

African American males.

One study posited that the higher education dilemma pertaining to the increasing

gender gap polarizes the question does women's gains mean men lose (Report of the

Research and Policy Analysis Subcommittee, 2002). In other words, is it a zero-sum

outcome? The report noted that in reality, both genders can have concomitant gains in

admission and completion rates. It is true that schooling has differential outcomes for

Black males and Black females. Orlando Patterson (1995) posited a historical rationale in

suggesting that although the system of slavery was problematic for all Blacks, it was

demoralizing and dispiriting for African American males, while being at least in part

generative and empowering for Black women. He argued that the worth of Black women

was in those areas similar to white women, those being childbearing and support of the

master's family and house, whereas every effort was made to strip Black men of their

masculinity. What Patterson is saying is that African American women have been

traditionally granted a small measure of acceptance that was not generally afforded Black

men. In fact, Marable (1993) said that despite the many sacrifices Black men made in

support of the white man's civilization, they were consistently regarded with contempt.

Clyde Franklin (1984) posited two conflicting messages that evolved during the

nation's historic oppression and segregation and that are taught in the early socialization

of Black males. The first message is that becoming a man means that one is to be

aggressive, dominant, decisive and violent in some social situations. The second message

is that Black men cannot be too aggressive, or dominant or whatever else masculinity

may call for because "the man" will cut you down if you try. Whether the reference "the

man," refers to an actual person or a system of laws and practices controlled by "the

men," the notion is well ingrained in the psyche of African American males from early in

their development.

Franklin further asserts that access to opportunity for Black males is significantly

limited. If this is true, then the atrocious rates of suicide, homicide, incarceration, and

abysmal school outcomes make some sense. These become tropes of a frustrated and

hopeless mindset. There is much reference in the literature regarding the anger of Black

men (Franklin, 1984; Marable, 1993; Patterson, 1995; Staples, 1986). Anger is often born

out of a lack of hope.

In her research, Judy Cohen (1993) described Black students' anger over schools'

irrelevance to their lives as expressed in cutting classes, acting up, and dropping out. She

stated that "playing bad, playing Black" is an admirable performance for males. Cohen

shared the comments of an African American male high school student's depiction of

pent up anger and captured his sentiments this way:

The Legions of Fury, that's what I call all 40 million of the Black people in this country, the hate had built up so much and the resentment because of what happened to us. . .1 don't think white people understand the pressure or the anger or the right to be angry. So, that's why I say, Legions of Fury, we have to create now (p. 304).

Cohen went on to say that graduation is this student's sole academic symbol of

success, after which his perception of the future stands uncertain. While this student is

expected some mark of achievement, more than half the African American male

population will fail to graduate high school (Holzman, 2005). Just as alarming is the

reality that the overwhelming majority of all Black males who enter college will not

graduate (Hefner, 2004).

If schooling has no bearing on life as one African American male high school

informant told a researcher (Cousins, 1999), then there is no purpose to work to satisfy

teacher expectations, no hope to earn social rewards. According to Cousins (1999),

students like the ones he interviewed play between classes both literally and figuratively

and often develop aggressive masculine dispositions to deal with circumstances that

threaten their physical and psychological survival. Cousins asserted that racism helps to

level their aspirations. Other scholars are more emphatic that racism functions to infuriate

Black males' self concept and stymie their liberating efforts (Marable, 1993), which

creates a sense of hopelessness (Nonn, 2001; Patterson, 1995).

Much of what is seen as poor educational outcomes can be interpreted to be

despair or rebellion against an oppressive system. However, while the notion of pushing

against is often seen as oppositional, it is at time a beneficial action. Nocon (2005)

described productive resistance as a conflict where the student negotiates in an open

forum with the potential to construct identity as a capable learner and co-develops new

cultural rules and goals. The unfortunate predicament is that not much of the resistance of

African American males in the educational systems leads educators to consider the

ineffectiveness of their orientation and instructional strategies.

Some scholars, such as Lomotey & Fossey (in DeMitchell & Fossey, 1997) assert

that all too often teachers are equipped only to teach certain types of students with

particular habits, values and cultural characteristics, and because most students do not fit

the mold, unprepared teachers do whatever is necessary to remove the hindrance to their

lesson plan or class instruction. These scholars resolve that teachers are not prepared for

the cultural differences that students bring into the classroom, differences that are

reflected in values, language, dress and learning styles. This particular dynamic of

schools has tremendous cost for all students who fail to fit the mold, and this is strikingly

evident for African American males.

Steele (1992) argued that Blacks are devalued in U.S. schools where their

humanity and competence are suspect. He stated that although some Black students

succeed, few could hope to do so as the everlasting struggle to achieve exoneration is

daunting. Steele resolved that "Black students are left helpless and vulnerable in

America's classrooms" (p. 74). Further, if African American males are more susceptible

to the racialization of schooling as Horvat and Lewis (2003) have suggested, then their

differentiated school outcomes can be viewed as a racially gendered product.

Steele asserted that students who are devalued fail to identify with the school and

the learning process. If society has traditionally treated Black males with fear and

contempt, and the devaluing of personhood is continually perpetrated within schools, it

becomes somewhat easy to see how many African American males dissociate with

schools and identify with antisocial cultures that stand in opposition to schools and the

established social order.

Achievement Gap Remedies

Drawing on earlier literature, Peterson-Lewis & Bratton (2004) noted that

prolonged exposure to damaging expectations and stereotypes of one's racial group

eventually leads to the internalization of and actions upon those expectations. Therefore,

care systems in schools that support efforts to change, provide positive identity, and

higher learning standards, facilitate trust and confidence between Black males and those

who are committed to them (Hamilton, 2006). One mechanism for this, as Hamilton

(2006) recommends is strong mentoring programs, which have a favorable impact on the

academic success of Black males.

Other likely remedies to closing the achievement gap lie with heavy investment in

pre-school programs for Black and Hispanic children, as well as in the ongoing

circumstances of their development (Evans, 2005). Students who enter low-income high

schools are, on average, four years behind students who enter high-income high schools

(Rumberger & Palardy, 2005). Rumberger & Palardy (2005) found that students'

background and prior schooling accounted for three fourths of the difference in initial

achievement for high school students, and while minority students had substantively

lower initial high school achievement than white students, they did not always have lower

achievement growth rates. However, the authors stated that across all subjects, Blacks

had lower achievement growth rates than whites, and Asians had higher achievement

growth rates than whites, while Hispanics had similar growth rates to whites.

Further, despite trends bent back toward segregation (Orfield & Lee, 2004),

desegregation would help Black students more than it would hurt white students (Jencks

& Mayer, 1990). However, socioeconomic desegregation is an intriguing idea. Some

scholars posit that moving students from low-income schools to high-income schools

would have a significant effect on the low-income students' overall academic

achievement growth, but any attempt to integrate high socioeconomic schools would

likely lower the achievement advantage of such schools over lower-income schools

(Rumberger & Palardy, 2005). In addition, Rumberger & Palardy comment that "In

particular, Whites who feel advantaged by a system of segregated schools are unlikely to

willingly give up or share their privileged position" (p. 2022).

Evans (2005) recommends prevention and early intervention strategies be

employed both in school and out of school, to include quality pre-school and after-school

programs, restricted television viewing, parent training programs, better health care and

child care, and high-quality teachers. Other strategies are also recommended. While the

academic climate of schools can be altered by policies and practices that center around

the amount of homework completed, the rigor of coursework taken, and strategies to

improve student safety at school, it is less clear whether teacher expectations can be

altered or if teachers with low expectations for student learning would increase

homework or academic rigor (Rumberger & Palardy, 2005). Booker (2004) noted that

students in the second component of her research felt strongly that they were the primary

ones responsible for, in fact the sole determining factor with regards to their academic

achievement and generally did not believe that teachers, peers or extracurricular activities

were related to their overall achievement. These minority students hold this belief as if

academic performance is exclusively an independent venture. Moreover, their tenacity in

their belief demonstrates that they have internalized well the message of white

supremacist ideology, which states that there is no system liable for your failure, only you

alone.

As this section argues, racial socialization impacts students and their self

perceptions, which in turn shape academic achievement and the debate about the

achievement gaps. There is one particular issue related to school failure that now merits

attention. Black males while faced with the unique challenges of personal and social

identity are also confronted with the common challenges of persistence. This dilemma, as

a dimension of school failure, represents a cumulative result of extraordinary measure.

Persistence

"The sum effect of annual battles to reify ones intellect and potential in

educational settings can have lifelong consequences as systems of education change the

rules and definitions of success randomly" (Caldwell & Siwatu, 2003). The public school

system is a pipeline through which too many minority students leak out along the way

(Greene & Forster, 2003). Therefore, school persistence in this study is defined as a) the

promotion of the student from one grade to another and b) the transition of the student

from high school to post-secondary education. Because academic goals that are

unfulfilled result in unfulfilled career possibilities in terms of low wages, job security and

upward mobility (Swail, Redd & Perna, 2003), academic persistence is critical to the

discourse on educational equity (Caldwell & Siwatu, 2003), because lasting disparities in

academic achievement creates disparities in educational attainment (Olneck, 2005). In

this study, there are three junctures critical to the issue of persistence. These elements are

academic preparation for college, high school graduation, and college enrollment (Swail,

Redd & Perna, 2003).

High School Grade Retention and Academic Preparedness

A number of factors may influence academic persistence and educational

attainment (Caldwell & Siwatu, 2003). Researchers found that retention has a negative

impact on student learning in low-income and middle-income high schools, but has no

significant effect on student learning at high-income high schools (Rumberger & Palardy,

2005). More specific to the population of focus, a Georgia task force followed a 1993

cohort and speculated that the increase in 9th grade African American males within the

state relative to the number of 8th grade African American males is due to high retention

in the 9th grade, and the group postulated that the significant decrease (of almost thirty

two percent) in the 10th grade is due to drop-out (Report of the Research and Policy

Analysis Subcommittee, 2002). The difficulties of grade retention, school persistence and

academic readiness for higher education faced by African American males are not unique

to the state of Georgia. Improving the overall academic performance for Black males is

important beyond any immediate subject because researchers found that students with

greater high school grade point averages are more likely to persist to college graduation

(Reynolds & Weagley, 2003). Many students take remedial courses along the way, which

adds difficulty in their efforts to complete a degree program. Moreover, remedial college

course enrollment signals the inadequate preparation high schools provide and the

estimates of such enrollment ranges from thirteen percent at private colleges to twenty-

two percent at public institutions, and has been reported as high as forty-nine percent

among all higher education institutions (Greene & Forster, 2003). Greene & Forster

(2003) state that despite what insight remedial college course enrollment provides it does

not provide information about the numbers of student who never made it to college, as

students who took the wrong courses in high school are likely barred completely from

entering the gates of the academy.

High School Graduation

Before a student can achieve the dream of a college education s/he must complete

high school. However, thirty percent of public high school students fail to make it to

graduation and these are disproportionately Black and Hispanic students (Greene &

Forster, 2003). While African Americans experienced the largest increase in high school

graduation rates from the beginning of the 1980s to the end of the 1990s, an increase of

twelve percentage points (Swail, Redd & Perna, 2003), Greene & Forster (2003) found

that only fifty-one percent of African American students graduated high school, only

thirty-nine percent do so with a regular diploma, and only twenty percent are college

ready. In addition, between 1997 and 2001, African American males represented less

than fifteen percent of the all diplomas granted to high school completers in Georgia, but

represented more than thirty-three percent of special education diplomas and more than

twenty-five percent of certificates of performance (with no diploma) granted during the

period (Report of the Research and Policy Analysis Subcommittee, 2002). Further, the

report of the task force of the Research and Policy Analysis Subcommittee of the

University System of Georgia (2002) found that only thirty-seven percent of the cohort

group of Black males graduated from high school compared to fifty-three percent of

Black females. The likelihood of high school graduation presents a particularly daunting

task for Black males. Yet, the issue of what counts in official records of high school

completion is noteworthy. Some researchers argue that the grouping of general education

diploma (GED) recipients with regular high school graduates when computing high

school completion data obscures more than it reveals as the expected life outcomes are

fundamentally different (Greene & Forster, 2003).

Higher Education Enrollment

Greene & Forster (2003) highlight that there is a gap between what high schools

require for graduation and what colleges require for entry. They state that because of their

limited preparedness for college, Black students are underrepresented in the pool of

college applicants. Forty-seven percent of African American students were minimally

prepared to enroll in a four-year college or university compared to Hispanic (53%), White

(68%), and Asian (73%) students in 1992 (Berkner & Chavez, 1997, as cited in Swail,

Redd & Perna, 2003). Despite this, the share of African American high school graduates

who enrolled in postsecondary education increased during the 1990s to 39.6% in 1999,

up from 28.9% in 1979, and although there is an increase in the representation of African

American students on the campuses of four-year institutions, they are still

underrepresented compared to their share of the overall population (Swail, Redd & Perna,

2003). Some researchers argue that the overall low proportion of college freshmen who

are Black (only eleven percent) suggests that public high schools fail to adequately

prepare these students for college (Greene & Forster, 2003).

According to the American Council on Education, proportionally the overall male

college student enrollment continues to shrink and while the enrollment gap between

Black males and other race and gender groups has marginally narrowed, Black males

continue to represent the smaller share of higher education enrollment compared to

African American females and Hispanic, white and Asian males and females (Inside

Higher Ed, 2006). Further, a report concluded that African American males in Georgia

are not as well prepared to enter college compared to other race and gender groups

(Report of the Research and Policy Analysis Subcommittee, 2002). Black males, the

report asserts, enrolled in Georgia colleges and universities in the fall of 1997 at a rate of

twenty-two percent, well behind Black females, white males and white females who

entered the Georgia system at rates of twenty-nine percent, forty-five percent, and fifty

percent respectively. Despite the increasing gender gap, the American Council on

Education argues that the declining male higher education enrollment rate does not entail

male suffering (Inside Higher Ed, 2006) and offers no remedy to address the issue.

Education Policy

DeMitchell & Cobb (2007) state that "Classroom teachers' daily work with

students is a translation and reconfiguration of policy to meet the highly individualized

contexts of their classroom" (p. 26). As a result, they assert that "Classroom teachers

make and adopt policy with the myriad classroom decisions they make daily" (p. 26)." In

a more formalized sense, Lipman (2003) declared that policies are the written laws and

rules that govern school organization, curriculum, discipline and the sort, which refer to

both the written and unwritten procedures and practices that function to accomplish the

intent of the stated law or rule, and pertains to the texts and conversations that come to be

represented in symbols of the politics of the institution. Further, Kingdon (1984) posited

that policy formation (at the governmental level for example) involves the recognition of

problems, the generation and refining of policy proposals, and the engagement of

political activity. He said that as public problems capture the attention of individuals in

and around government, official representatives, staffers, bureaucrats, and special interest

groups develop and refine possible solutions, while immersed in politics such as

elections, public polling and lobbying. The stream of politics, Kingdon observed, occurs

independent of the streams of problems and proposals, which often makes the adoption of

solutions difficult. The likelihood of a policy outcome is increased Kingdon stated, when

a problem has garnered sufficient attention to make it to the policy agenda.

While the creation of policy in the larger, public sense is a complicated process,

the constitution of policy, both as written document and as practice, can be more easily

generated and delivered at the school level. Lipsky (1980) described public service

workers, of which teachers are members, as street - level bureaucrats: public employees

who interact directly with citizens in the execution of their jobs and who exercise

substantive discretion, the collective actions of which constitute policy. Lipsky contends

that such bureaucrats are often the focus of controversy because they have tremendous

impact on people's lives, especially the poor, as the policies they deliver are immediate

and personal. Lipsky asserted that schools, as street - level bureaucracies play a critical

role in socializing students to the economic order and the opportunities available for

different strata of the nations' populous. He also noted that teachers make subtle

determinations about who is teachable and have significant influence over who will be

suspended. Lipsky stated that street - level bureaucrats must process large amounts of

work with insufficient resources and so they exercise their discretion to develop shortcuts

to cope with the press of responsibilities; as an outcome, they tend to be most interested

in processing work consistent with their personal preference. However, it is this whim of

personal preference in the education arena that raises concern about discrimination.

Eitle and Eitle (2004) suggest that discrimination is institutional, coded into rules

and regulations and obscured by the roles of teachers and administrators. Love (2004)

argues that the perspectives of the white majority are taken, usually unquestionably, as

factual and construed in terms of history, policies, rules, regulations, procedures and the

like, and the result is distinctively different experiences for African American children

when compared to their white counterparts. Other scholars go even farther by stating that

in the late 1800s and early twentieth century, the U.S. committed itself to universal public

schooling, and throughout this period whites have made every effort to confer on non-

whites inferior status because of race, which heralded the integration of the white

supremacist ideology into educational policies and practices (King, Houston &

Middleton, 2001). King, Houston & Middleton (2001) posit that the inferior education of

Blacks was legitimated by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896),

which espoused the "separate but equal" doctrine and caused racial apartheid to prevail in

U.S. schools until the 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education. In addition, much of the

school legislation enacted during the 1960s focused on assimilating students from diverse

backgrounds into mainstream culture (Spencer, 1998).

Policy Considerations and Examples

In the contemporary arena, government agencies and schools draft and rely

heavily on policies to remedy (or perpetuate) the nation's history of injustice. While

every student brings a set of preferred styles to the school, the school is equipped to

accommodate only a particular range of ways of being, knowing and doing (Trusty,

1996). If the efforts of the pre-civil rights and civil rights era were premised on the notion

that the white power structure could only be trusted to adequately educate African

American children if white children were being educated alongside Black students (King,

Houston & Middleton, 2001), then it stands to reason that new mechanism for sorting

students for established differential roles would have to be created within schools. These

mechanisms have erected themselves in the form of policies such as tracking, exit exams,

zero tolerance and the like. The following are examples of policy types.

Accountability -

Policies that criminalize Black and Latino students are processes of racialized

social control (Lipman, 2003). Thus, Lipman says that policies function to control

behavior and legitimate what is thought, said, and learned, framing even the social

identities that are allowed to emerge. As one type of policy instrument, accountability

policies have become quite popular. However, not all scholars view them in a positive

light. Lipman, (2003) contends that accountability policies are coercive and normalizing,

that is to the extent that accountability policies rely on standardized testing. Lipman

makes this claim because she says that accountability policies shift the burden of blame

from the state to the students who are recipients of substandard education. She further

argued that such policies teach students to blame themselves while simultaneously

legitimizing the policing of communities of color and eliminating the publicly financed

social benefits.

In reviewing the literature, Harris & Herrington (2006) found mixed results on the

effectiveness of government based accountability systems and concluded that most of the

reviewed studies do not directly consider the impact on race or ethnic subgroups. They

state that "Accountability generally starts with the assumption that the successful are

rewarded and the unsuccessful are punished, whether they be students, teachers, or

administrators" (p. 224). Harris & Herrington further state that there are essentially two

arguments heralded by accountability advocates, they are: 1) resources are sufficient

while efforts and expectations are low, and 2) limited resources inhibits adequate

performance in schools. However, Harris & Herrington noted that from an education

policy perspective, the achievement gap decreased during the standards movement when

academic pressures were on the students and the schools, but began to increase during the

accountability movement when punitive pressure supplanted the former. The researchers

further posited that there has been a tremendous increase in the resource capacity of

minority serving schools in the last half-century and this facilitated the reduction of the

achievement gap. Thus, Harris & Herrington conclude that government based

accountability policies places pressure on students and schools to improve but they have

no impact on equity.

If accountability policies put pressure on students to improve, how might such

pressure impact students who may already be disenfranchised from school, such as

African American males? Might educators perceive the influence of such policies as

positive on the persistence of Black males? While the notion of holding a student

accountable for his action has merit, the policy measure should be tempered and insure

that school systems adequately equip students with the tools necessary to succeed. In

addition, because accountability measures are increasing this policy area merits further

investigation.

Discipline -

African American students are disproportionately disciplined, experience high

dropout rates, and score lower on standardized measures of academic performance (King,

Houston & Middleton, 2001). Thousands of youth are excluded from schools through

"zero tolerance" discipline policies (Lipman, 2003). Eitle and Eitle (2004) suggest that

Black - white difference in suspension rates are not solely explained by differences in

student misconduct. They investigated the association between school district integration

levels and school level Black suspension rates, accounting for school contexts and

residential factors and found support for the notion that Black suspension equates to a

form of re-segregation. For example, between 1971 and 1982, Stevens (1983) found that

the number of suspensions in the Cleveland Public Schools doubled and more than half

the suspensions were for incidents that involved no violence or posed no danger to others.

He concluded that Black students were suspended more frequently and Black males

represented the highest rate at forty-five percent. Some scholars argue that the targeting

of African Americans intensified under "zero tolerance" policies, where suspensions

occur for minor, non-violent infractions and attendance issues (Lipman, 2003). In fact, if

African American students are suspended, their presences and influence is limited among

the white students in the school, and their education suffers. Moreover, if Black males are

more likely to experience this fate as the literature suggests, such stoppage will likely

have a negative impact on their persistence through high school.

Dropout -

Poor academic achievement is the strongest predictor of dropping out of high

school (Battin-Pearson, Newcomb, Abbott, Hill, Catalano & Hawkins, 2000). Students

who are engaged academically are more likely to graduate high school (Suh & Suh,

2006). Battin-Pearson, Newcomb, Abbott, Hill, Catalano & Hawkins (2000) state that

deviant behavior, antisocial peer bonding, and family poverty all increase the risk of

being a school dropout regardless of academic achievement. They found that being male,

African American, sexually active, and having low school bonds, lack of parental

educational attainment, and limited parental educational expectations were mediated by

student academic achievement, which means that dropout by the tenth grade reflects a

failure to insure academic success in earlier grades. Thus, they argue that dropout

prevention should focus on early academic success for at-risk students.

Similarly, Cassidy & Bates (2005) state that those most vulnerable to dropping

out are those labeled with learning disabilities and a host of other social, academic and

emotional risk factors that the system communicates as inherent problems in a school

setting almost identical to the mainstream, where rules and policies favor structure for,

and control of the mass rather than the needs of the individual. Because a students' lack

of motivation is a factor predictive of dropout, whereas academic aspirations,

organizational skills, and locus of control are factors most prominently associated with

high school completion, Suh & Suh (2006) argue that academic engagement has long-

lasting impact on educational attainment, even for adolescents who may drop out of

school. They note that school factors that typically have had significant impact on

dropout while students were still enrolled in high school include relationship with

teachers, peer network, and attachment to school. Suh & Suh present a model of what

school personnel can do to decrease dropout: 1) create practices that develops academic

engagement (both the emotional and aspirational nature of it) 2) foster organizational

skills, 3) facilitate internal locus of control, 4) help student build good study habits and

time management skills, and 5) promote future educational plans.

Promotion/Graduation Exit Exams -

Increased resource capacity and promotion/graduation exams appear to raise

average achievement and reduce the achievement gap (Harris & Herrington, 2006).

While they admit that it is inherently difficult to evaluate test-based accountability

programs, and while their analysis does not address the tendency to lower academic rigor

or notions of teaching to the test, Harris & Herrington (2006) state that

promotion/graduation exams seem to be the most promising initiative in terms of

reducing the achievement gap. They suggest that promotion/graduation exams in lower

grades coupled with a strong curriculum at the high school level makes a successful

strategy in closing the achievement gap. Some researchers found that African American

post high school wages are higher in states with exit exams (Dee & Jacobs, as cited in

Glenn, 2006). Further, John Bishop (as cited in Glenn, 2006) found that eight grade math

scores increased in states with high school exit exams and argues that the benefits

outweigh the harm done to students who do not earn diplomas. However, the harm that

occurs from any policy cannot be trivialized.

Although promotion/graduation exams have an overall positive effect on the

average student, not all students are positively impacted by them as large percentages of

the students held back as a result of the tests are placed in special education (Harris &

Herrington, 2006). Harris & Herrington found that promotion/graduation exams result in

the retention of more than 7000 students per year in the Chicago Public Schools, despite

students having had the opportunity to retake the exams. Further, high school exit exams

exacerbate achievement gaps (Dee, as cited in Glenn, 2006). Zabala, Minnici, McMurrer,

Hill, Bartley & Jennings (2007) argue that students of color are most acutely affected by

state exit exams and seventy-six percent of students of color reside in the twenty-six

states that require passing such exams, and this number is expected to increase to eighty-

two percent by 2012. They noted that gaps in pass rates of school exit exams have been

demonstrated between majority students and students with disabilities, English Language

Learners (ELL), African Americans, and Latino students. According to Thomas Dee and

Brian Jacobs (as cited in Glenn, 2006) students are more likely to drop out of school in

states with high school exit exams and the effect are stronger for African American

males.

States report differing purposes for using exit exams, including curriculum

mastery, college readiness, and employment preparedness (Zabala et al., 2007). These

differing rationales may account, in part, for the mixed results on the effectiveness of

high school graduation exams. Harris & Herrington (2006) contend that while

promotion/graduation exams as an accountability policy measure appears to be effective,

they offer caution and a reminder that the standards policy initiatives put into operation

during the 1980s were not unsuccessful, but simply failed to go far enough. Zabala et al.

(2007) suggest that intervention and remediation strategies for state exit exams being

conducted in their pilot studies are influencing curriculum and instruction at the high

school level, particularly for disadvantaged students, and they recommend further

research to evaluate the effectiveness of exit exams as a policy tool to improve instruction

and student performance.

Because the literature indicates that promotion/graduation exams are most

effective in reducing the achievement gap in the lower grades, and because African

American males are more likely to leave high school in states that require an exit exam,

the ways in which such exams are utilized and their impact on Black males in particular

warrant additional study.

Curriculum -

"Standards affect academic rigor that, in turn, drives achievement" (Harris &

Herrington, 2006, p. 217). Harris & Herrington suggest that content standards have a

positive impact on average achievement, particularly for minority students. Alexander

(2002) found that the institutionalization of high expectations through the implementation

of standards resulted in an increase in the share of class periods with core courses

devoted to general and advanced traditional curricula. He found that in big city schools,

the large minority and low-income populations are associated with smaller class periods

dedicated to advanced study. However, Davenport et al. (as cited in Alexander, 2002)

suggests that standards based reform is insufficient to prepare students in certain school

contexts for college, if preparation in advance courses is a necessary part of the process.

This is likely the case because schools can meet the requirement or expectation of

standards based policies through expanded curricular offering (putting more classes into

the schedule), but not necessarily advanced classes. Moreover, offering classes does not

mean that all students are prepared to take the advanced classes or if they are prepared

that they are encouraged to do so or supported in doing so.

There is, on the other hand, according to Nye, Hedges & Konstantopoulos (2004),

some evidence to suggest that reducing class size may be one intervention to close the

minority-majority achievement gap, and class size has appeal as a policy variable to do

this because it is under administrative control. They found that minorities benefit from

smaller class size more so than do white students at almost all grade levels examined in

reading and math, and boys benefit from small classes more so than girls in all grade

levels examined in both reading and math. The researchers noted that there appears to be

no gender difference to the benefit of small class size to minority students, whereas class

size has lasting differential benefits to reading achievement for minorities compared to

white students, but this effect does not appear lasting on mathematics achievement. Nye,

Hedges & Konstantopoulos concluded that class size can assist in the reduction of

racial/ethnic inequality on reading achievement as well as gender inequality on

mathematics achievement.

On a final note, to the extent that curricular reform is driven by national exams

our enthusiasm for results should be tempered. King, Houston & Middleton (2001) argue

that the reliance on standardized test to measure school success is untenable since there is

much research that documents the racial bias in these tests. And, although there is debate

on the matter, they assert that the emphasis on standardized scores subverts discussion of

educational equity and reinforces notions of white supremacy.

Dress/attire -

DeMitchell, Fossey & Cobb (2000) noted that dress codes in public schools

received a great deal of attention during the 1990s, and recorded more specifically that

between 1992 and 1996, twelve states enacted laws which allowed local school districts

to regulate student attire. Dress codes, though, have been contested as a violation of first

amendment rights, as they prohibit speech, both pure content and symbolic (Wilson,

1998). Courts have typically supported school officials in banning particular clothing

where evidence suggests that such attire is gang related (DeMitchell, Fossey & Cobb,

2000). However, open discussion on the matter that gang involvement is assumed to be a

racialized activity, thereby making the banning of such attire a race act needs to be had.

Wilson (1998) asserts that dress codes may be inherently biased as they tend to focus on

attire associated by African American gangs while ignoring dress worn by others, such as

white supremacist groups.

According to DeMitchell, Fossey & Cobb, courts have ruled in favor of dress

codes, against the equal protection clause, where the dress code served to 1) avoid

disruption and distraction in the classroom, 2) foster respect for authority and discipline,

and 3) conform students to community standards. Proponents contend that dress codes

contribute to the educational environment through the encouragement of discipline and

the enhancement of self-esteem and thereby helps reduce violence and prevent students

who are not involved in gang activity from being mistakenly so identified, but there is no

validity to the claim that dress codes reduce violence or improve academic performance

(Wilson, 1998).

While the charge can be levied that gang attire is perceived as intimidating and

offensive and thus should be controlled within the schoolhouse, it can be countered that it

is not the articles of clothing that threaten, but the young Black student, who is likely

male, in the attire who projects the tough guy, cool pose image who engenders fear. Laws

and policies may aim to reduce the level of fear and apparent threat by regulating

clothing and in so doing, miss the real opportunity to remedy the need for the hyper-

masculine stance. It is the equivalent of putting a band aid on a gash in the flesh; it is

insufficient and the superfluous remedy draws attention and increased frustration.

Dress codes that require uniforms seem likely to stand constitutional muster

(Wilson, 1998). Although, administration's punishment of speech (as presented in attire

or otherwise) with which they personally disagree, but where such disagreement is not

connected to legitimate standard or pedagogical concern should be constrained

(DeMitchell, Fossey & Cobb, 2000). In addition, constitutional protection is not likely to

be granted to a student seeking group membership identity or expressing individuality,

yet administrators must still justify the need for dress code restrictions in most legal tests

(Wilson, 1998).

The legal implication of attire policies is essentially that some free speech is

protected, except when there is a perception that the speech in question is related to gang

activity. And, because gang involvement is typically viewed as a largely African

American male problem, if such policies are aimed at Black males, do these policies have

a positive impact on their persistence through school, or do they further add to the

disenfranchisement from education?

Wrap Up

This chapter argues that the academic achievement of African American males is

limited and that low attainment negatively impacts high school persistence. Moreover,

this chapter connects low educational achievement and persistence of Black males to

educators' low expectations of them. The social orientation of educators underpins their

perspectives of students in the classroom and schoolhouse, and influences the facilitation

of policy.

Policy, in some crude fashion, can be described as the granting of privilege to

some while withholding said privilege from others. Often schools are charged with

supporting the public good, and to the extent that bearing up the economic system of the

nation is deemed a public good, schools will replicate policies (which themselves are

economic implements) to gird the economic system. Further, if as Manning Marable

(1993) contends that slave owners perceived that Black males posed a potential threat to

the entire system of slavery, it stands to reason that whites would have made every effort

to secure their economic position. To the degree that this is true over time, public and

educational policies would allow for the credentialing of some and not others, providing a

gate-keeping mechanism for access to social and economic resources.

Lipman (2003) connects the shift in U.S. education as preparation for the

segmented labor force and reinforces her notion that school is a sorting machine with

evidence of the school-to-work initiatives and new vocational academies of the 1980s.

Lipman charges that schools are places for the policing, regulation, and censorship of

African American and Latino youth. She acknowledges that official policy tends to be

multilayered, complex, and contested.

Rumberger & Palardy (2005) argue that efforts to redistribute resources will

likely fail at reducing the advantages associated with attendance at more affluent schools

because only school processes as defined by school policies and practices explain why

socioeconomic composition matters, meaning that after controlling for the effects of

school processes, socioeconomic composition had no significant impact on student

learning. At first glance this seems a strange conclusion because the authors posited in

the same article that parental influence over school policies and practices is garnered by

their economic position. Schools tend to be zoned to neighborhoods, and the influence

that high-income parents have in their schools in predicated on their having economic

resources to offer the schools and thereby maximize their economic and political

influence. So, family income matters most, and because family income within a

neighborhood constitutes the school's socioeconomic status, school resources do matter.

The authors may be correct then, if what they are contending is that school processes, as

influenced by the distribution of family resources may matter more on student

achievement within the school environment.

While student's aspirations, motivation and talent partially determine academic

success, it is public policies that affect individual decision thereby limiting college

admission, enrollment, and completion (Report of the Research and Policy Analysis

Subcommittee, 2002). Race, class, and political mobilization are intertwined with school

quality and ability to resist hegemonic policies (Lipman, 2003). Teachers can help redress

unequal societal relationships by creating alternative experiences in classrooms that

disrupt, rather than reflect inequities (Cassidy & Bates, 2005).

Unfortunately, far too many educators operate in and are rewarded by a system

wherein the goal is to transform students into people much like themselves, thus they are

viewed by students who hold differing worldviews as inculcators and assimilationists

who devalue the students' own ways of seeing and knowing the world (Trusty, 1996). So,

while the academic climate of schools can be altered by policies and practices that center

around the amount of homework completed, the rigor of coursework taken, and strategies

to improve student safety at school, it is less clear whether teacher expectations can be

altered or if teachers with low expectations for student learning would increase

homework or academic rigor (Rumberger & Palardy, 2005). Pollard (1989) advanced the

idea that there is a need to move beyond state and district antiracism policies and

advocated for building level school administrators to develop policies against racist acts,

to publicize such policies, and to aggressively follow-through to punish not only student

infractions, but teacher violations as well. Such a contention assumes that educators

possess racist perceptions and engage in prejudicial behavior in the performance of their

duties, and such activity is significant in occurrence that policy is required to curtail its

practice. This is a formidable assertion.

CHAPTER 3

METHODS

The literature indicates that the social orientation of educators is grounded in a

race context (Kaitlin, 2002; King, Houston & Middleton, 2001; Love, 2004) and this

orientation is in existence (consciously or unconsciously) as educators function in the

schools as "street-level bureaucrats," shaping the implementation of policies that affect

students (Lipsky, 1980). While all students may be adversely affected by underlying

negative perspectives held by educators in the school facility, African American males, a

group historically disadvantaged by race and gender, have particularly poor school

performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe educators' perceptions of

school policies and how school policies impact (positively or negatively) the progression

of African American males through high school. Further, this study purposed to examine

differences between educators' perceptions based on their role and race.

This quantitative study employed a cross-sectional survey design. A quantitative

method was selected to allow for a broadly based description of policies and policy

implementation, as opposed to a focus on a particular policy or single school. According

to Fraenkel & Wallen (2003) cross-sectional surveys collect information on a particular

population at a fixed point in time. This design was selected given the parameters of the

sample population and the need to collect data during a period of an academic school

year.

Surveys are intended to collect information that will describe particular

characteristics of a population (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2003). The cross-sectional design

was selected also because the intent was to collect current perceptions of educators who

work in schools with substantive percentages of African American males. The research

questions converge on the notion of differential perception of the academic state of Black

males and the impact of policies based on race and educator type.

Research Questions

The overarching questions of this study are: 1) what are educators' perceptions of

education policies and how such policies impact African American males? And, 2) is

there a difference between educators' perception of policy impact based on role and race?

Predictions and Hypotheses

Because the overall academic performance of the majority of Black males

continues to be poor in relation to other students, and because educators develop their

personal and professional identities in a racialized society, and because teachers and

administrators tend to have distinct roles with regards to policy, the following

predications can be made:

1. High school educators will have a clear perception as to the academic state of Black males -

• Educators will perceive that Black males are doing poorly academically.

2. The majority of policies that will be represented will be perceived by educators as having impact on African American male high school persistence -

• Educators will perceive policies and/or procedures to adversely affect the ability of Black males to persist toward high school graduation.

3. Perceptions of policy impact will differ by educator role -

• Teachers will be more likely to perceive a negative impact of policy on Black males, whereas administrators will be more likely to perceive a positive impact of policy on Black males.

4. Perceptions of policy impact will differ by educator race -

• Black educators will be more likely to perceive a negative impact of policy on Black males, whereas white educators will be more likely to perceive a positive impact of policy on Black males.

In order to test these predictions, the following research hypotheses are posited:

HI - Educators will perceive the academic state of African American males as being poor.

H2 - Educators will perceive each policy as having a negative impact on African American male persistence.

H3 - There will be differences in perception of policy impact based on educator role.

H4 - There will be differences in perception of policy impact based on educator race.

Research Variables

Information on educator's perceptions of education policies and the positive or

negative value that teachers and principals place on them were collected. Because one

objective was to be able to identify educator perception surrounding school policies,

education policy and educator perceptions are criterion variables and they form the core

of this investigation. The educator's race and role are predictor variables.

Participants

The targeted sample population was public high school teachers and

administrators who work in schools with substantial portions of African American

students (34% or greater). The rationale for looking at schools with large numbers of

Black adolescents is that issues which confront Black males are likely to have surfaced

and generated a critical mass and this would likely have triggered policy responses to the

unique needs of the population, whereas schools with a small African American presence

are more likely to address the issue on an individual basis. Educators at the school site are

the units of analysis. Teachers and principals are the ones closest to the students and are

the ones most likely to implement policies. They also are the ones most likely to

understand the problems and the ones most likely to ascertain the impact of policies.

Therefore, educators' perceptions are critical to understanding the issue of policy impact

because they are the closest to the administration of practices and procedures related to

them.

Procedures

Sample Selection

To identify schools, a stratified random sample was utilized. The population of

schools included all regular public high schools, as defined by the National Center for

Education Statistics (NCES), in the northeast and the District of Columbia. The dataset of

schools was drawn from the 2005-06 Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe

Survey Data made available through the Common Core of Data by the NCES. This

dataset provides information on all public elementary and secondary institutions in the

U.S. The dataset provided information on school enrollment by race/ethnicity makeup. Of

the institutions in the dataset, 476 met the criteria of regular secondary high school, in the

northeast and the District of Columbia, with an African American population of thirty-

four percent or greater. Fifty schools were randomly selected from the list of schools that

met the criteria. Names of educators were collected from school websites where possible

and directly from school administrative offices. After repeated tries to ascertain

information, names of educators were not obtained from eighteen schools in the original

sample of schools. Another random selection was conducted to replace the schools from

which lists of educators were not obtained. In the second round, names of educators were

not obtained for eight schools.

Once names of educators were ascertained, for each school the names were sorted

by educator type (i.e. teacher, administrator). Ten teachers were randomly selected using

a random number table from the list of teachers at a school. If there were more than three

administrators at a school, three were randomly selected. Where there were three or fewer

administrators, all were selected into the study.

Two filters were applied to the sample selection. The first relates to the selection

of schools, that being only one high school per school district was allowed in the

selection. The second filter pertains to the selection of teachers. Where it was possible to

identify, special education teachers were eliminated from the pool of teachers at a school.

The rationale for the first filter was to avoid the narrow focus of district specific policies

that would limit the ability to generalize the results of the study. The second filter was

applied to maintain a focus on the perceptions of educators who work with African

American males in the mainstream context.

Instrument Protocol

The research instrument was mailed to educators in forty-two high schools across

the northeast. The packet mailed to each educator included a letter explaining the study

(which also served as the consent form), the survey instrument, and a return-addressed,

stamped envelope. Respondents were asked to complete and return the survey as soon as

possible. Also, two reminder post-card notices were mailed. As a third reminder the

entire survey packet was mailed for a second time to each participant with another

reminder notice enclosed. Participants were instructed to discard the survey if they had

already completed and mailed the previous copy.

In total, five hundred thirty-eight surveys were mailed during the 2006-07

academic year and one hundred twelve were returned, representing about a twenty-one

percent response rate. There were three hundred sixty surveys mailed in the first semester

and seventy-nine were returned, representing a twenty-two percent response rate. To

increase the response rate and to replace schools for which lists of educators could not be

obtained, one hundred seventy-eight surveys were mailed in the second semester and

thirty-three were returned representing an eighteen percent response rate. The overall

response rate was approximately twenty-one percent (n = 112).

Measures

The survey instrument is a researcher-designed questionnaire based on the

literature review. Questions collect demographic information and educator perception

data, and attempt to identify specific policies that impact Black males. The survey

focused inquiry on the educator's views regarding policies and Black male outcomes.

The data collected was categorical with a few items represented in ordinal and interval

scales.

Fraenkel & Wallen (2003) state that survey methods best provide encouragement

to answer questions of a sensitive nature and allow for standardization of responses.

Given that race and gender issues tend to be emotionally charged, the survey design is the

ideal model for this study. This project capitalized on the standardization of responses

with close-ended questions. However, because perceptions are individually held, a few

short-answer questions were included to capture the varying views not accounted for in

the close-ended questions.

Fraenkel & Wallen also say that the response rate with this type of study is poor.

While they reported a nonresponse rate ranging from ten percent to ninety percent, they

suggested that a nonresponse rate greater than ten percent is substantial. Because of the

sensitive nature of this topic a substantial nonresponse rate was anticipated. To address

this issue, greater than five hundred respondents were targeted and reminder follow up

cards were distributed. A thirty percent response rate threshold was expected.

Instrumentation

To assess the validity of the instrument, the survey was piloted by distribution to a

convenient sample of thirty-eight secondary school educators in New York City and

Boston during the spring of 2006. Educators were identified through colleagues who have

relationships with specific schools. The cover letter explained the pilot study purpose to

test the instrument. Ten surveys were returned. As a result of the pilot, several items on

the survey instrument were adjusted to accommodate suggestions regarding the wording

of particular questions.

The instrument collects educator and school level demographics. The educator

demographic questions ask the respondents' classification (i.e. teacher, administrator),

gender, age range, length of time in current position, length of time as an educator, and

race. School level demographic questions include setting/location, socioeconomic status,

and size of student body.

The research questions are aimed at collecting information about the educators'

perception of the state of African American males in public high school education and the

impact of school policies on these males. One question itemizes nine common policies

and asks educators to identify if each policy exists at his/her school and to state his/her

perception of the effectiveness of each policy. This item also asks educators to note any

policy not provided in the list that may have an impact on Black male persistence. Two

other questions allow educators to note responses not provided in the list of possible

choices. One question is short answer, eleven are fixed responses on a four-point Likert

scale, one ten-point question is on a four-point Likert scale, and one is fixed dichotomies.

There are ten demographic questions and nineteen research questions, a total of twenty-

nine questions. There are four categories derived from the literature that comprise the

research questions: academic state, persistence, policy implements, and policy impact.

Academic State -

There are five questions pertaining to the academic state of African American

males. The purpose of the questions is to ascertain educators' perceptions regarding how

well or poorly Black males are doing at the high school level. Three of these question

type are on a four-point Likert scale. An example of this question type is below:

~ My concern for academic progress of Black males at my school is

Significant Large Moderate Small

Two of the questions in this category seek information on the type of policy strategies

that may help or hinder the academic performance of Black males. One example of this

type of question is:

~ In general Black males fare well at this school primarily because of

Administrative policies Classroom practices Other N/A

If a respondent identifies the item "other," space is provided for the respondent to state

her/his perception of the item that facilitates or hurts the academic performance of Black

males.

Persistence Levels -

There are four questions relating to the persistence of Black males. This category

measured educators' perception regarding the grade to grade promotion and retention,

dropout, high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment of African American

males. Two questions were on a four-point Likert scale. One example of this question

type is:

~ I am satisfied with the graduation rate of Black males at my school

Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree

One question in this category was on a three-point Likert scale and one question was

dichotomous. The three-point Likert question asked about the likelihood of Black males

dropping out of school compared to other populations at the school. The dichotomous

question inquired as to whether African American males are promoted or retained at rates

similar to other students enrolled at the school.

Policy Implements -

There are six questions in this category. These questions aim to identify policies

used by schools (as mentioned in the literature) and to ascertain educators' perceptions

about some proposed remedies to the perplexities of Black male academic performance.

One question type seeks input from educators on the types of policies that exist at their

schools.

~ Listed below are several policies. In the second column, circle "Yes" if you have this policy in your school or circle 'Wo" if you do not

This question type presents nine policies and provides space for educators to note specific

policies not mentioned. Two questions seek educators' feedback on race and gender

separation policy strategies. These questions utilize a four-point Likert scale. An example

of this question type is:

~ The "all Black male school/academy" is a good approach to the issues of Black male persistence

Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree

Three questions target information on educators overall perceptions about the

implementation and use of policy to address the academic challenges of Black males.

These questions use a four-point Likert scale. One example of this question type is:

~ The issue of Black male performance in my school is best addressed through implementing policy

Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree

Policy Impact -

Four questions address the impact of policies, both specific and general, on the

academic performance and persistence of African American males. One question

specifically addresses educators' perceptions of the impact of policies they identified on

the persistence of Black males. Examples of the policies listed are: discipline, attendance,

dress/attire, participation, promotion/retention, tracking, and graduation. This question,

for each policy type, is based on a five-point Likert scale. The question is worded as

follows:

~ For each policy circled "Yes," circle your perception as to the impact of this policy in aiding Black males' persistence through school

Extremely well Acceptable No Impact Not so Well Quite Poorly

There are ten policy types listed for this question, one item in the question is open for

educators to list a policy not stated. One question asks educator's views on whether the

aforementioned policies target the improvement of education for Black males. Two

questions seek to ascertain educators' perception of the harmful or favorable impact of

policies on African American males relative to other students at the school.

Fraenkel & Wallen define reliability as consistency of answers from one

administration of an instrument to another, meaning there must be agreement in the types

of answers the questionnaire generates from one respondent to the next. To explore this

issue, three of the four categories of inquiry were subjected to a reliability analysis.

Because none of the items in the "academic state" category have the same coding

scheme, meaning that the wording responses for each question in the category is

different, no item in this category were subjected to a reliability analysis. An alpha value

of 0.735 was yielded for two items in the "persistence level" category, demonstrating

high internal consistency. The other items in the category did not maintain the same

coding scheme. The five items in the "policy implement" category yielded an alpha value

of 0.261. However, the two items in the "gender separate school/classroom" subcategory

indicate high internal consistency with an alpha value of 0.719. The ten items in the

"policy impact" category have high internal consistency with an alpha value of 0.844.

Data Analysis

The returned surveys were compiled into the SPSS software program for analysis.

(It is important to note here that when the data was analyzed, item 16 was removed

because it was difficult to discern if educators interpreted the question as one that pertains

to race or one that inquires about gender.) Because this study attempts to describe certain

relationships and make inferences about particular perceptions of educators, an equality

of means test was used as the primary tool for data analysis. The t - test compares the

mean differences between two samples of a population (Gay, 1987). Further, the chi

square test was utilized, because it allows for the detection of relationships between

discrete variable where the values of such variables are provided as categories

(Weinberg, & Oltman, 1981). In addition, factor analysis, a correlation technique, was

employed because it allows for the exploration of related features between several

variables. Fraenkel & Wallen say that correlation research is associational and functions

to investigate relationships between two or more variables without efforts to manipulate

them. Such studies serve to explain or predict outcomes of behavior. For example, an

educators' perceptions of how Black males fare may be related to particular

characteristics of educators, types of schools, and the enactment of specific types of

policies. Finally, analysis of variance (ANOVA) as a computational strategy was used to

examine differences between group means. For instance, there may be differences within

racial groups based on gender or educator classification, or between racial groups as it

relates to their perceptions as to how Black males fare in high schools. This test will help

to identify the variation amongst groups.

Together, these statistical tests will help to ascertain the answers to the research

questions. Because educators are socialized in a race context in the U.S. (Kaitlin, 2002;

Spencer, 1998; Pollard, 1989), it is expected that difference regarding perceptions of

policy impact on Black males based on race can be expected. Also, because of the more

direct, hands-on role that teachers have with students and the role principals have in

administering and supervising the broader environment of the school, it is expected that

there will be differences between the perceptions of teachers and administrators as well.

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS

This study examined educators' perceptions of education policies and how such

policies impact African American males. The study further explored the relationship

between educators' perceptions and their role and race. More specifically, the research

questions that direct this study include:

• What is the perception of educators with regard to the academic state of African American high school males?

• How do educators perceive the impact of education policies on African American male high school students' persistence?

• Will there be a difference in educators' perception of Black male performance and persistence based on educators' role?

• Will there be a difference in educators' perception of Black male performance and persistence based on educators' race?

Table 1.

Respondents by State State CT DC DE MA MD ME NH NJ NY PA RI VT

Total

Schools 4 0 1 2 8 0 0 14 5 8 0 0 42

Respondents 14 0 5 1

20 0 0 37 11 24 0 0

112

The sample population for the study is educators in public high schools in the

northeast region of the U.S. with a thirty-four percent or greater African American

student body. Five hundred thirty-eight surveys were mailed during the 2006-07

academic year and one hundred twelve were returned from seven states (see Table 1),

representing a response rate of approximately twenty-one percent. Data were compiled

into SPSS software for analysis. The t - test was utilized to examine the relationship

among variables. At- test is a test of statistical significance that compares the mean

differences between two samples of a population (Gay, 1987). Because of the

dichotomous nature of some survey questions, a chi square analysis was used, and an

analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to assess the result of categorical factors.

A chi square analysis is a test of statistical significance that identifies relationships

between discrete variables and an ANOVA examines multiple populations to identify

difference or variation (Weinberg, Schumaker & Oltman, 1981).

Educator Demographics

Roughly sixty-nine percent of respondents were teachers and thirty-one percent

were administrators. The majority identified themselves as white (64.9%), while twenty-

seven percent identified as Black/African American and a small percentage identified as

Table 2.

Age Range of Educators

Age Range

22-27 28-35 36-45 46-55 55 <

Percent

8.9 20.5 22.3 32.1 16.1

Number

10 23 25 36 18

Hispanic (4.5%). Fifty-six percent were males (three respondents did not answer this

question). A little more than fifty-four percent are between ages thirty-six to fifty-five

and almost twenty-one percent are between the ages of 28-35 (see Table 2).

Twenty-five and a half percent of educators have been teaching for four to seven

years, while almost twenty-six percent have been teaching for more than twenty-five

years. Approximately thirty-five percent of educators are new to their current positions,

within the first to third year. More than three quarters of the survey respondents (86%)

answered the question pertaining to the range of Black students in their classes. Of those

responding, seventy-nine percent indicated that they teach classes that seat forty-one

percent or greater Black/African American students. Almost fifty-five percent indicated

that they teach classes of sixty-one percent or greater Black/African American students.

School Demographics

Fifty percent of educators are in schools located in suburban or mid-size cities,

while about forty-one percent are in urban/large cities. About fifty-one percent of the

schools are categorized as small and forty percent are classified as medium. Almost fifty-

five percent of the schools are considered by respondents to be low income and roughly

thirty-nine percent are identified as middle-income (see Table 3).

General Perceptions of Educators

This section presents survey data on educator perception of the academic state of

Black/African American high school males; educator perception about the persistence of

Black/African American male students; educator perceptions regarding the need for

policies to address African American high school boys; and educator perceptions of the

impact of policies on Black males.

Table 3.

School Setting School Population

School Type

Urban/Large City Suburban/Medium City Rural/Town

Percent

40.9 50.0 9.1

Number

45 55 10

School Size

Small (<1000) Medium (1000-2500) Large (>2500)

Percent

50.9 40.0

9.1

Number

56 44 10

Socioeconomic Status

Community Type

Low-income Low/Middle-income Middle-income High-income

Percent

54.5 6.4

39.1 0.0

Number

60 7

43 0

Academic State

There are four questions measuring educator perceptions about academic state of

African American males. Two of the questions (items 8 and 10) use a four-point Likert

scale. The other two questions (items 12 and 13) asked educators to select all responses

that apply. Frequency distributions were conducted for all items. Table 4 presents the

distribution of responses for the first two items and Table 5 for the later two. Most of the

respondents indicate that Black males at their schools are not doing well or are doing

quite poorly academically (66.6%). In addition to the perceptions of poor achievement,

approximately eighty-one percent of the educators expressed significant or large concern

for the academic progress of the Black males at their schools. Educators overall are

greatly concerned about the academic progress of black males and they perceive that

these students are not performing well in the classroom.

Further, where educators perceive that Black males fare well academically, they

believe the result is due to valuing classroom practices (36.6%) over administrative

policies (19.6%) and other practices (18.8%). In the "other" category, responses were

grouped and the top three groupings yielded five responses each. Educators included in

the "other" category caring practices of school adults, actions and influence of parents

and community members, and school support systems such as gifted and talented,

Table 4.

Perceptions of Academic State

Question

8. Academic State:

10. Concern:

Acceptable

36 33.3%

Large

89 80.9%

Poor

72 66.7%

Small

21 19.1%

Total

108 100%

Total

110 100%

Mean (s.d.) 2.74

(-617)

1.78 (-794)

tutoring, sports, and gender separate initiatives. However, it is important to note that

fifty-three educators (47.3%) indicated that this question item was not applicable,

suggesting either that Black males are not doing well as indicated in item 8, or that none

of the answer choices are applicable to why those Black males who perform academically

do so (see Table 5).

It is uncertain as to why a plurality of respondents chose the "not applicable"

category when there was a catch all phrase of "other." Could it be that they have no

explanation as to why Black males would fare well in school? If there are no explanations

as to why African American males fare well there can be no policies or programs

developed. Further, it is also unknown if this "not applicable" response would surface if

other racial and gender groups were the object of the question. Would the reason for

success for other groups be equally mysterious? Or, do educators believe the

circumstances confronting Black males at their schools to be so dire and bleak that any

African American male who does well is considered anomalous and thereby not regarded

in their perceptions of the group experience? However, another consideration (and one

that seems most likely to be the case) is that educators do not perceive the question to be

applicable because they do not believe that the majority of Black males at their schools

are doing well academically.

Table 5.

Perceptions of Influence and Outcomes

Question

12. Perform Because:

13. Failure Shown In:

Administrative Policies

22 19.6%

Grades GPA

72 64.3%

Test Scores

69 61.6%

Valuing Classroom Practices

41 36.6%

Dropout Rate

42 37.5%

Ability Track

26 23.2%

Other

21 18.8%

Grade Promotion

19 17.0%

N/A

13 11.6%

N/A

53 47.3% Other

12 10.7%

Participants could select multiple response items to the questions, therefore cumulative percents exceed 100.

On the item referring to evidence that Black males are not doing well, item 13,

educators cite grades/GPA (64.3%), standardized test scores (61.6%), dropout rates

(37.5%), and lower ability tracking (23.2%). It should also be noted that the "not

applicable" response to this question item is 11.6%. The respondents have a clearer view

of the measures that demonstrate the poor performance of Black males than they do of

those items that may explain why Black males do well.

A Pearson Correlation was conducted for the Likert scale question items in the

academic state category (items 8 and 10). The analysis yielded correlations at the .001

level of significance. The items in the category were significantly correlated with a

moderate correlation coefficient of -.452, meaning that there is a relationship between the

items in the category. The scale for correlation coefficients follows that used by

DeMitchell, Kossakoski & Baldasaro (2008) where a coefficient of 0-.2 is weak, .2-.5 is

moderate, and above .5 is strong. The data indicate that where educators perceive that

Black males are doing poorly academically speaking, they also tend to have great concern

for the academic progress of Black males.

In summary, educators believe that African American males are not doing well or

are performing poorly in school. Moreover, educators are concerned about the academic

progress of Black males to a large degree. Although almost half of the responding

educators did not see the question item as applicable, for those educators who believe that

Black males perform well, they believe Black males do so because of valuing classroom

practices. Finally, grades and standardized test scores are the primary measures in which

educators perceive that African American males demonstrate poor performance.

Persistence

There are four items that measure educator perceptions of persistence, and include

opinions of graduation rates, enrollment in higher education, promotion/retention rates,

and dropout rates (see Table 6). Almost sixty-one percent of the educators are dissatisfied

with the graduation rate of Black males at their schools and about seventy-six percent are

dissatisfied with the rate at which these students enroll in post-secondary institutions. The

data reveal that sixty-five percent of educators hold the opinion that Black males are

promoted from one grade level to the next at the same rate as other students and are

equally likely (47.3%) or more likely (41.8%) to dropout when compared to other

students at the school. The results show that although a large number of educators

perceive a problem with the dropout rate of Black males (41.8%), educators overall

believe that African American males are promoted between grade levels in a timely

fashion (65.0%). However, educators are dissatisfied with the high school graduation rate

and post-secondary placement rate of Black males. These results raise the question: Are a

substantive percentage of African American males passed along only to then be barred at

the gates at graduation? The respondents at a rate of almost two to one indicate that Black

males progress fluidly from grade to grade, yet forty percent believe that Black males

may also be more likely to dropout. If educators believe that Black males are promoted at

the same rate as other students, why are they dissatisfied with the graduation rate and

post-secondary enrollment rate of African American males? Are they equally dissatisfied

with the persistence rates of other students at the school?

Table 6.

Perceptions of Persistence

Question

9. Satisfied w/Graduation:

11. Satisfied w/PSE:

14. Black Males Are:

15. Dropout:

Agree

43 39.4%

27 24.5%

Promoted 67

65.0%

Less likely

12 10.9%

Disagree

66 60.6%

83 75.5%

Retained 36

35.0%

Equally likely More likely

52 47.3%

46 41.8%

Total

109 100%

110 100% Total 103

100%

Total

111 100%

Mean (s.d.) 2.64

(.727)

2.99 (.748)

Mean (s.d.) 2.31

(.660)

For the two Likert scale question items in the persistence category, items 9 and

11, the analysis yielded a high correlation at the .001 level of significance, where the

items in the category were significantly correlated with moderate correlation coefficients

of .581, meaning that there is a relationship between the items. (Because questions 14 and

15 used a two-point and three-point Likert scale respectively, they were not correlated

with the other items.) The result indicates that where educators are dissatisfied with the

graduation rate of Black males, they also tend to be dissatisfied with the postsecondary

enrollment rate of Black males. Therefore, the data suggest that there is a relationship

between educators' perceptions of low high school graduation and limited post-secondary

enrollment.

To summarize, educators are dissatisfied with the graduation rate and post-

secondary enrollment rates of African American males. Educators also believe that Black

males are promoted at the same rate as other students. Finally, almost fifty percent of

educators believe that Black males are equally likely to dropout as other students,

whereas about forty-two percent perceive African American males to be more likely to

dropout as other students.

Policy Strategies

Five potential policy strategies were offered to survey respondents. In taking a

detailed look at the items, the data reveal that more than half of the educators responding

to question 17 disagree or strongly disagree that the issue of Black male performance is

best addressed through implementing policy (see Table 7). However, more than half

contend that there is need for new policies regarding Black male performance.

Essentially, item 17 and item 19 raised the same question, one positively phrased and one

negatively phrased. The positively phrased question, which asks about whether the issue

of Black male performance is best addressed through implementing policy, was

supported by roughly forty-eight percent of the respondents. When the question was

reversed, stating that new policies were not needed, almost fifty-three percent disagreed.

It may be that educators do not believe that policies are the best way to affect African

American male academic performance because they do not believe that the policies

currently in use are effective and therefore they desire new policies to improve Black

male performance.

Table 7.

Perceptions of Policy Strategies

Question Agree Disagree Total Mean (s.d.)

17. Implement Policies:

18. Change School Adults' Action:

19. New Policies Not Needed:

25. Black Male School/Academy:

26. Gender separate classrooms:

49 47.6%

62 56.9%

51 47.2%

35 33.3%

52 50.0%

54 52.4%

47 43.1%

57 52.8%

70 66.7%

52 50.0%

103 100%

109 100%

108 100%

105 100%

104 100%

2.52 (.726)

2.29 (.842)

2.59 (.798)

2.83 (.882)

2.56 (.912)

What is even more interesting is that the data further shows that approximately

fifty-seven percent of participants agree or strongly agree that the best approach to the

issue of Black male performance is through changing the actions of adults at the schools.

The respondents prefer changing the actions of school adults over implementing a policy.

This leaves policymakers with a conundrum of how to change the actions of school adults

without the implementation of policy. Perhaps the use of social capital by school leaders

and/or college teacher preparation programs is the respondents preferred solution.

Educators may be signaling that what is needed is a culture involving professional values

rather than the mandate of a policy.

Further, it is noteworthy that the policy initiative of an all Black male school

gained support from only one-third of the respondents, but gender separate classrooms as

a plausible strategy to increase African American male persistence is evenly split.

Clearly, respondents do not support a Black male school/academy, but there is more

support for separate Black male classrooms.

Table 8.

Correlation of Policy Strategy Items

Implements 17 18 19 25^ 26

Educators (n = 103)

17. Policy — .189 -.112 18. Sch Adult — .335 ** 19. New Policy 25. Sep Sch 26. Sep Class ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Table 8 demonstrates that four of the five question items in the policy category

pertaining to strategy and implementation are related. However, question 17 is not

significantly correlated with the other four items in the category. The table above

suggests that where educators believe that the issue of Black male performance is best

addressed through the changed actions of school adults, they are also more likely to

believe that new policies are necessary to address matters pertaining to Black male

performance. Where educators believe that the issue of Black male performance is best

addressed through the changed actions of school adults, they also tend to believe that the

"all Black male school/academy" is a good approach to the issue of Black male

persistence. And, where educators believe that the issue of Black male performance is

best addressed through the changed actions of school adults, they are also more likely to

.048 .328 ** -.244 *

-.012 .353 ** -.179

.562 **

endorse gender separate classrooms as a policy strategy to improve Black male

persistence.

It is interesting and important to note that item 17 did not correlate to a

statistically significant degree with any other item in the category. It may be that those

educators who do not believe that policies are the best approach believe that some other

influence or measure will work to improve Black male performance. Further, where

educators did not perceive the need for new policies to address Black male performance,

they were less likely to endorse the "all Black male school/academy" as a viable

approach to persistence. The tenet holds because if one does not believe that new policies

are necessary, then one will not consign to an all Black male school as a policy strategy.

In addition, the data indicate that where educators oppose the approach of an "all Black

male school/academy" to address persistence they are also likely to object to gender

separate classrooms as a policy strategy to improve Black male persistence.

In addition to the perception regarding the usefulness of policy, educators

identified the nine policy items listed in question 20 as being implemented within

schools. Table 9 represents the responses to item 20 where educators indicated the

policies in existence at their schools. Attendance and discipline policies were the two

most common and tracking was the least common policy. Athletic/extra-curricular

policies as well as graduation policies were also fairly common, whereas promotion and

retention policies were less frequently practiced and were ranked just above tracking in

terms of their commonality of use within the schools of the educators surveyed. (For a

correlation of policy items in question 20, see Appendix II.)

In short, most educators do not regard policy as the best strategy to improve Black

male performance, but do believe that performance can be made better by a change in

school adults. Also, while educators overwhelmingly reject the "Black Male Academy"

as a remedy to performance and persistence, about half of respondents are willing to

consider gender separate classrooms. Further, the nine policy items identified are being

practiced in most schools with attendance and discipline policies being the most cited.

Policy Impact on Persistence

It was expected that in general, educators would perceive the majority of policies

as having negative impact on the school persistence of Black males. In fact, of the

policies identified, educators perceived the majority of them to have a positive impact on

Black male school persistence. Most educators viewed the impact of policies as

acceptable or as functioning extremely well.

Of those respondents whose schools possessed an athletic/extra-curricular policy,

approximately eighty percent perceived this impact as positive (meaning "acceptable" or

"extremely well") on Black male persistence (see Table 9). Similarly, the percentage of

educators who perceived the positive impact of policies held by their schools is as

follows: attendance - nearly forty-five percent; discipline - approximately forty-four

percent; dress/attire - about forty percent; graduation - almost fifty-five percent;

promotion - roughly forty-five percent; and tracking - about forty-six percent. Drop out

policies are perceived to have no impact (36.6%) or to have an overall negative impact

(40.2%) on Black male persistence. Similarly, retention policies are perceived to have no

impact 31% or are perceived to have equally negative (35.6%) and positive (33.3%)

impact on Black male persistence. Retention policies have the most mixed distribution of

responses as the data suggests that the policy is viewed as having both a positive impact

and a negative impact, or no impact at all.

Table 9.

Perceptions of Policy Effectiveness

Item 20: Policy

(A) Athletic/extra curricular

(B) Attendance

(D) Dress/attire

(E) Dropout

(F) Graduation

(G) Promotion

(H) Retention

(I) Track/ability grouping

(J) Other policy

Acceptable

81 77.9%

48 44.8%

47 43.9%

37 39.7%

21 23.2%

57 54.8%

39 45.4%

29 33.4%

30 45.4%

8 80.0%

No Impact

9 8.7%

23 21.5%

19 17.8%

27 29.0%

30 36.6%

19 18.3%

21 24.4%

27 31.0%

17 25.8%

Impact

Quite Poor

14 13.4%

36 33.7%

41 38.3%

29 31.3%

33 40.2%

28 26.9%

26 30.2%

31 35.6%

19 28.8%

2 20.0%

Total

104 100%

107 100%

93 100%

84 100%

104 100%

87 100%

66 100%

10 100%

Mean (s.d.) 2.00

(1.106)

2.83 (1.128)

2.94 (1.180)

2.91 (1.080)

3.17 (•991)

2.62 (1.109)

2.74 (1.170)

2.99 (1.105)

2.77 (.989)

2.30 (1.494)

On average educators believe that some policies of their schools are aimed at

improving the education of Black males and the range of this belief moves from a low of

twenty-four percent - tracking/ability grouping policies to a high of roughly fifty-four

percent - discipline policies (see Table 10). Seven of the ten educators (70%) who wrote

in a specific policy tend to perceive those policies as having a positive and favorable

impact on the persistence of Black males. The other policies that are perceived as having

favorable impact are athletic/extra-curricular participation (39.3%), attendance (21.4%)

and discipline (17.9%). Generally speaking, educators did not identify policies that are

clearly harmful to Black male persistence. Those policies that are perceived as having

somewhat of a harmful impact are discipline (17.0%), attendance (11.6%), tracking

(11.6%), and dropout policies (10.7%). Discipline policies and attendance policies were

seen as the top policies that were harmful and favorable. How and why both policy items

are somewhat harmful and to a slightly greater degree favorable is unknown.

Table 10.

Perceptions of Policy Aim and Impact

A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J.

Policy Type Athletic/x-curric Attendance Discipline Dress/attire Drop out Graduation Promotion Retention Tracking/ability Other policy

21. targeted at improving the education of Black males at my school

Yes 46.4% 51.8% 53.6% 33.9% 28.6% 44.6% 28.6% 25.0% 24.1% 6.2%

22. has impact

a more harmful on Black male

persistence than on that of other students

Yes 8.9% 11.6% 17.0% 8.0% 10.7% 7.1% 9.8% 9.8% 11.6% 1.8%

23. has a more favorable impact on Black male persistence than on that of other students

Yes 39.3% 21.4% 17.9% 10.7% 4.5% 14.3% 8.9% 6.2% 7.1% 4.5%

One guiding question was: are there policies directed at closing the race/gender

gap in educational persistence from high school to college? Item 21 provides some

insight and addresses policies targeting the improvement of education for Black males.

Further, as noted in Table 10, discipline and attendance policies are perceived by most

educators to be targeted toward the improvement of education for African American

males and therefore may be said to be directed at closing the race/gender gap.

In summary, Table 9 revealed that seven of the nine policies presented in the

research were perceived by educators to have a positive or marginally positive impact

when compared to a negative impact or no impact at all. Only two policies were

perceived as having a negative or marginally negative impact compared to a positive

impact or no impact at all. The following two sections will disaggregate the composite

data by educator role and race in effort to answer the research questions.

Perceptions Based on Educator Role

In addition to the question of educators' perception with regard to the positive or

negative impact of policies on Black male persistence, it was hypothesized that there

would be a difference between educator perceptions based on role and there would be a

difference between educator perceptions based on educator race. This section examines

the relationship between perception and educator role. Again, the results are organized

based on perceptions of academic state, persistence, policy implements and policy

impact. An assessment of the predictions made concludes the section.

Perceptions of Academic State

An equality of means test revealed that one item in this category was statistically

significant. The responses to item 10 differed by educator role and were statistically

significant (t = 2.193, df = 108, p < .05). While both teachers and administrators are

concerned about the academic progress of Black males, administrators are more

significantly concerned (see Table 11). The item was coded such that a low score equaled

higher concern.

While item 8 did not yield statistical significance, the data follows a similar

pattern to question 10. While both teachers and administrators perceive that Black males

do not fare well academically, administrators are more likely than are teachers to hold

that African American males are not doing well.

Table 11.

Perceptions of Academic State (by Role)

Role Teacher Administrator

8. Academic State: M 2.71 2.80

SD .656 .531

10. * Concern: M 1.89 1.54

SD .764 .817

* Significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Table 12 presents information to question item 12 and item 13 as disaggregated

by educator role. The data represents the percentage of the total sample number of

educators who responded to the stated policy item. The "total response" column

represents the percentage total for the particular policy item in relation to all other policy

item responses to the question. Item 12 explores what educators think are the reasons that

African American males fare well at their schools. Two reasons were offered

(administrative policies and valuing classroom practices), as well as an "other" category

for educators to note reasons that were not provided, and a "not applicable" option was

given as well. While responses to the "administrative policies" as an option were similar,

teachers were more likely to identify "valuing classroom practice" as the reason Black

males who fare well do so. In addition, administrators were more likely than teachers to

choose "not applicable." Further, teachers were less likely to select "other" reasons than

were administrators. The "other" reasons group into five subcategories: impact of school

adults (5 responses); parent/community involvement (5 responses); school supports such

as sports, tutoring, and gender separate classes (5 responses); curriculum (2 responses);

student confidence and esteem (2 responses).

Table 12.

Perceptions of Influence and Outcomes (by Role)

Percent of Educators

Adm Policies Value Practice Other Reasons Not Applicable

Grades/GPA Standard Tests Dropout Tracking Persistence Other Factors Not Applicable

Teach 20.7 40.2 41.5 41.5

61.0 59.7 38.9 24.6 16.8 9.0 14.2

Admin 17.1 28.5 60.0 60.0

71.4 65.7 34.2 20.0 17.1 14.2 5.7

All 19.6 36.6 47.3 47.3

64.2 61.6 37.5 23.2 16.9 10.7 11.6

While educators could select more than one item in this category, almost half the

administrators responding indicated that the question item was "not applicable." This

high percentage rate suggests that administrators do not believe that African American

males fare well at their schools and therefore the question is not applicable, or where

African Americans fare well at their schools, there is no plausible or identifiable

explanation and therefore the item is not applicable. Because the responses to item 13,

12. Perform Well:

13. Failure Shown:

which asks educators to identify the ways in which Black males are not doing well, does

not coalesce with a majority of responses in the "not applicable" category, it can be

inferred that administrators perceive that overall, Black male academic performance is

poor and question item 12 is not applicable to the broad spectrum of African American

males at their schools. Item 13 does not show any significant difference based on

educator role.

To summarize, while both groups of educators are concerned about the academic

progress of Black males, administrators are concerned to a more significant degree. Also

teachers are more likely to assert that valuing classroom practices are the reason that

those Black males who perform well academically do so.

Perceptions of Persistence by Position

There was only one statistically significant item in the persistence category when

the t-test was applied (see Table 13). Item 11 was statistically significant (t = 2.031, df=

108, p < .05) and inquired about educator satisfaction with high school graduation and

post-secondary enrollment of Black males. While educators were collectively

dissatisfied, administrators tended to more "strongly disagree" with the statement than

teachers (35.3% vs. 21.3% respectively), which indicates that administrators tend to be

more dissatisfied with the high school graduation and post-secondary enrollment rates of

African American males.

While none of the other items in the category were statistically significant some

marginal variation was shown. [Because it was a dichotomous choice, item 14 was

subjected to a chi square analysis.] On item 9, which asked educators if they were

satisfied with the graduation rate of Black males at their school, educators overall were

dissatisfied with the African American male high school graduation rate, but

administrators tended to be more than twice as likely than were teachers to "strongly

disagree" with the statement (14.3% vs. 6.8% respectively). A high score in the coding

equal higher disagreement, meaning higher dissatisfaction, and a low score means higher

satisfaction.

With regard to perception about the promotion and retention of African American

males, educators believe that Black males are promoted from one grade to the next at the

same rate as other students. However, administrators are less likely than are teachers to

hold this opinion (56.3% vs. 69% respectively). Moreover, administrators are more likely

than are teachers to perceive that Black males are retained more so than other students

(43.8% vs. 31% respectively). On item 15, the measure that examines educator

perception about dropout, there does not appear to be any meaningful relationship. The

higher the mean, the more likely is the perceived dropout.

Table 13.

Perceptions of Persistence (by Role)

Role Teacher Administrator

9. Satisfied w/Graduation: M 2.59 2.74 SD .701 .780

11. * Satisfied w/PSE: M 2.89 3.20 SD .764 .677

15. Dropout: M 2.32 2.29 SD .661 .667

Promoted Retained Total Promoted Retained Total 14. Black Males Are: n 49 22 71 18 14 3 T -

% 69.0 31.0 100 56.3 43.7 100

In short, while none of the items in this subcategory were statistically significant

by role some marginal variation was demonstrated suggesting that administrators may

perceive that Black males are retained more so than other students and administrators

may also be more dissatisfied with the high school graduation rate and postsecondary

enrollment rate of African American males.

Perceptions of Policy Strategies

Only one policy implementation item was statistically significant when analyzed

by educator role. The items in the category are coded such that a lower score equals

stronger agreement and a higher score means stronger disagreement. Item 18 differed by

educator role and was statistically significant (t = 3.052, df= 107, p < .01). The response

distribution shows that while administrators tend to more "strongly agree" that the best

approach to the issue of Black male performance is to change the actions of school adults

(see Table 14), there is also an inverse relationship in the administrator agreement and

teacher disagreement responses (41.2% and 42.7% respectively). Further, when the

response scale was collapsed, teachers seemed to be split in their perceptions, meaning

that they both agreed and disagreed almost evenly (49.3% and 50.7% respectively),

whereas administrators seemed to agree more overwhelmingly (73.5%) that school adults

can make a difference in the performance of Black males.

While there is no statistically significant difference with the other items in the

category, there were small variations in responses on the remaining four items when a chi

square analysis was applied. When the Likert scale categories were collapsed, question

17 showed that administrators are slightly more likely to "agree" that the issue of Black

male persistence is best addressed through implementing policy (52.9%), whereas

teachers are slightly more likely to "disagree" with the statement (55.1%). In addition,

administrators are more likely to "strongly agree" than are teachers (14.7% vs. 2.9%

respectively).

Table 14.

Perceptions of Policy Strategies (by Role)

17. Implement Policy:

18. ** Change School Adults':

19. New Policies Not Needed:

25. Black Male School/Academy:

26. Gender Separate Classrooms:

M SD

]

Teacher

2.61 .691

2.45 .827

2.63 .851

2.92 .900

2.63 .945

Role Administrator

2.35 .774

1.94 .776

2.52 .667

2.64 .822

2.39 .827

** Significant at the 0.01 level

The results of question 19 parallel those of the item discussed above. Teachers

were less likely to "agree" that no new policies are needed with regards to Black male

performance than were administrators (37.3% vs. 48.5% respectively). With the scale

category collapsed, item 19 revealed that administrators were marginally more likely to

perceive no need for new policies regarding Black male performance (51.5%), whereas

teachers were more likely to hold the opposite view (54.7%), suggesting that teachers

believe that new policies are required to address issues pertaining to Black male school

performance. Although teachers do not readily accept that policies are the best tool to

address the school performance of African American males, they hold somewhat that

new policies are necessary to address the matter.

Item 25 proposed a particular policy strategy, that of the "all Black male

school/academy," and revealed that administrators tended to "agree" that this is a viable

approach to the issue of Black male persistence more often than did teachers (39.4% vs.

19.4% respectively). While both groups of educators tend to "disagree" with the idea of

gender separate schools, teachers were more likely to "strongly disagree" than were

administrators (27.8% vs. 15.2% respectively). Similarly, when the scale category was

collapsed, teachers remained more likely to disagree than were administrators (72.2% vs.

54.5% respectively). Question 26 proposed distributing students into gender separate

classrooms and teachers were less likely to "disagree" with this policy approach than

were administrators (28.2% vs. 42.4% respectively). However, when the scale category

was collapsed, responses appeared to be more evenly split among both groups of

educators.

In summary, administrators are more likely to agree that school adults can make a

difference in the academic performance of African American males. There were no other

statistically significant items in the policy strategy subcategory.

Perceptions of Policy Impact

Because many of the respondents perceived policy impact in a positive manner,

the expected outcome was not supported. Both teachers and administrators tended to

view policies as having positive impact on Black male persistence through school. There

were ten items in question 20, which investigated the perceived impact of specific policy

items on the persistence of Black males. When the means test was applied, statistical

significance was revealed on two items: dropout and tracking (see Appendix III).

Statistical significance was yielded on item 20(e) which also showed variation by

educator type (t = -2.217, df= 80, p < .05) when the scale category was collapsed. On this

measure, administrators were more likely to view dropout policy as having a negative

impact on Black male persistence than were teachers (57.1% vs. 31.5% respectively).

Here again, administrators tend to believe that dropout policies aggravate the issue of

Black male school persistence. This item further suggests that teachers on average tend to

view dropout policies as having no impact, whereas administrators tend to view dropout

policies more negative in terms of impact.

Question 20(i) also yielded statistical significance, demonstrating difference

based on educator role (t = -2.311, df = 64, p < .05). Teachers were more likely to

perceive the impact of tracking/ability grouping policies as having "acceptable" impact

on Black male persistence than were administrators (44.9% vs. 17.6% respectively).

However, administrators were more likely to perceive "no impact" of tracking/ability

grouping policies on Black male persistence (47.1% vs. 18.4%). In addition, more than

half of responding teachers (55.1%) hold tracking policies in a positive light in terms of

their impact on Black male persistence, indicating that teachers hold tracking policies in a

more positive light than do administrators with regards to the impact on Black male

persistence.

Using the chi square statistical tool, one policy item was statistically significant

on question 21. (The chi square tool was used for questions 2 1 - 2 3 because the analysis

was between educators' selection or their omission of the policy items, see Table 15.)

The question item investigated educator perception about policies targeted at improving

the education of Black males. Educator perceptions regarding the targeting of promotion

policies varied by role and were statistically significant (x = 5.091, df= 1, p < .05).

While those educators responding to the policy item generally perceived it to be targeted

at improving the education of African American males, roughly forty-three percent of

administrators surveyed held this view, whereas about twenty-two percent of teachers

perceive that promotion policies are targeted at educational improvements for Black

males.

Table 15.

Perceived Policy Targets and Impact by Role (Affirmative Responses)

Athletic/Extra

Attendance

Discipline

Dress/Attire

Drop Out

Graduation

Promotion

Retention

Tracking/Ability

Other

Targets Improved Harmful to Favorable to L Education 22 Persistence 23 Persistence

Teach

50.6%

53.2%

59.7%

33.8%

26.0%

44.2%

* 22.1%

34.3%

23.4%

6.5%

Admin

37.1%

48.6%

40.0%

34.3%

45.7%

42.9% *

25.0%

25.7%

5.7%

Teach

6.5%

13.0%

15.6%

7.8%

10.4%

7.8%

14.3%

11.7%

2.6%

Admin

14.3%

8.6%

20.0%

8.6%

11.4%

5.7%

0.0%

5.7%

11.4%

0.0%

Teach

41.6%

20.8%

18.2%

9.1%

2.6%

11.7%

6.5%

3.9%

6.5%

5.2%

Admin

34.3%

22.9%

17.1%

14.3%

8.6%

20.0%

14.3%

11.4%

8.6%

2.9%

* Significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) • Neared significance at less than 0.06 level

Similar to the previous question, only one policy item on question 22 was

statistically significant. Educator perceptions differed regarding promotion policies and

the perceived impact is believed to be more harmful to the persistence of Black males

than to the persistence of other students (x2 = 5.545, df= l,p< .05). While fourteen

percent of teachers hold promotion policies as more harmful to the persistence of Black

males than to the persistence of other students, there was no administrator who indicated

this perception. Therefore, teachers are more likely than administrators to view

promotion policies as having a more harmful impact on African American male

persistence than on the persistence of other students.

There were no statistically significant policy items on question 23. The question

examined educators' views pertaining to specific policy items and whether the policy

items have a more favorable impact on Black male persistence compared to the

persistence of other students at their schools. Administrators tend to perceive most

policies listed as having a more favorable impact on the persistence of African American

male students than on the persistence of other students at the school.

To summarize, administrators tend to view dropout and tracking policies as

damaging to African American male high school persistence. Further, administrators are

twice as likely to contend that promotion policies are targeted at improving the education

of Black males and teachers are more likely to believe that promotion policies do more

harm to Black male persistence than to other students at the school.

Predications Regarding Educator Role

The overarching prediction made pertaining to educator type was that perceptions

of policy impact would differ by educator role. There were two basic premises or

assumptions: 1) teachers would be more likely to perceive a negative impact of policy on

Black males, and 2) administrators would be more likely to perceive a positive impact of

policy on Black males.

First, it was anticipated that teachers would be more likely to perceive a negative

impact of policy on Black males. As item 20 revealed, tracking was the only statistically

significant measure by educator type on the four-point Likert scale and in this case,

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teachers perceived the impact of ability grouping policies on Black males as positive. The

dropout measure became statistically significant when the response category was

collapsed, and while teachers were more likely to perceive dropout policies as having "no

impact," they were more likely than administrators to view them as having "acceptable"

impact on Black male persistence, meaning that teachers viewed the impact in a more

positive light. Moreover, teachers were less likely than administrators to perceive a

negative impact of policy on Black males on five of the nine listed items in question 20

when considering share percentages. Further, on question 22, promotion was the only

statistically significant measure, indicating that teachers were more likely to perceive this

policy type as negatively impacting Black males when compared to other students at the

school. However, administrators led in percentage points on five of the nine policy items

with perceptions of more harmful impact of policies on question 22, suggesting that

administrators hold a more negative view of policies, but insufficient policy items were

statistically significant to resolve the matter. The same is true for question item 20.

The second premise predicted that administrators would be more likely to

perceive a positive impact of policy on Black males. Again, on the tracking measure for

item 20, administrators were less likely to perceive a positive impact of the policy item

on Black male persistence. Administrators were less likely to perceive a positive impact

of five of the nine policy measures, in terms of share percentages. From another

perspective, teachers are more likely to view policies as having a positive impact on

Black males. Administrators led in perceptions of negative impact on question 20 for

eight policy measures with a range of 2-24 percentage points, with the most notable being

discipline (17 point difference) and dropout (24 point difference). Another way of putting

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this is that administrators seem more likely to hold negative perceptions of the impact of

policies on Black males. Here again, insufficient numbers of policy items were

statistically significant to resolve the matter conclusively.

Perceptions Based on Educator Race

The primary objective of this research is to study educator perceptions of policy

impact on African American males as influenced by role and race. This section examines

the relationship between perception and race, both in terms of the Black/white dyad and

the multicultural factor (or white/non-white dyad). The multicultural factor was used to

explore any nuanced difference that might occur in the grouping of all respondents of

color from those of their white colleagues. Again, the results are organized based on

perceptions of academic state, persistence, policy strategies, and policy impact, and

concludes with an assessment of predictions.

Table 16.

Perceptions of Academic State (by Race)

Race White Black

8. Academic State: M 2.69 2.93

SD .629 .521

10. Concern: M 1.80 1.57

SD .791 .679

Perception of Academic State

None of the four items in the academic state subsection were statistically

significant by educator race, and only one item neared statistical significance when a

means test was performed. Item 8 approached statistical significance with a probability

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value of 0.068, suggesting that Black educators may be more likely to perceive Black

male academic performance as poor than are white educators (see Table 16). The item

was coded such that a higher score equaled a perception of poorer performance. While

educators in general are inclined to say that Black males are doing poorly academically

speaking, Black educators are inclined to say this to a greater degree than are white

educators.

There were no noticeable differences in perceptions by educator race on item 10,

which examined perceptions of academic progress. Further, while not statistically

significant, item 12 revealed (see Table 17) that white educators are slightly more likely

than Black educators to believe that "valuing classroom practices" explain why those

African American males who do fare well in school do so, whereas Black educators were

marginally more likely than white educators to indicate "not applicable" when asked why

Black males at their schools fare well.

Table 17.

Perceptions of Influence and Outcomes (by Race)

12. Perform Well:

13. Failure Shown:

Adm Policies Value Practice Other Reasons Not Applicable

Grades/GPA Standard Tests Dropout Tracking Persistence Other Factors Not Applicable

White 20.8 40.2 19.4 44.4

66.6 68.0 33.3 22.2 16.6 11.1 13.8

Percent of Educators

Black 20.0 30.0 13.3 60.0

66.6 46.6 46.6 30.0 23.3 10.0 3.3

All 19.6 36.6 47.3 47.3

64.2 61.6 37.5 23.2 16.9 10.7 11.6

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Finally, while item 13 had no statistically significant variation based on educator

race, the lower response of Black educators on standardized test scores raises the question

about the degree to which Black educators may place confidence in standardized test

scores as a valid indicator of academic performance for African American students due to

the long standing perception that these measures are culturally biased.

In short, while there are no statistically significant measure by race in this

subcategory, Black educators may be concerned about the performance of African

American students to a larger degree, and white educators may be more likely to believe

that those Black males who perform well academically do so due to valuing classroom

practices.

Perceptions of Persistence

The chi square tool was applied to question 14 because the response items are

dichotomous. Item 14 was the only item in the persistence subsection to be statistically

significant by race (x2 = 7.775, df= 1, p < .01). The item investigated educators'

perceptions of promotion and retention of African American males (see Table 18). While

Table 18.

Perception of Retention (by Race)

14. * In my opinion, Black males at my school are:

Promoted

49 73.1%

White

Retained

18 26.9%

Total

67 100%

Black/African American

Promoted

11 42.3%

Retained Total

15 26 57.7% 100%

* Significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

in general educators are of the opinion that Black males are promoted from one grade to

the next at the same rate as other students, white educators are more likely to be of the

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opinion that Black males are promoted at the same rate as other students than are Black

educators. However, Black educators are more likely than are white educators to perceive

that Black males are retained more so than other students.

The multicultural factor was composed to explore nuanced difference that might

occur in the grouping of all respondents of color from those of their white colleagues.

When the white, non-white dyad was considered, item 14 was statistically significant (x

= 5.513, df= l,p< .05). White educators are more likely to perceive that Black males are

promoted at the same rate as other students, whereas educators of color are more likely to

perceive that African American males are retained more so than other students.

Perceptions of Policy Strategies

All five items in the policy strategy subsection were statistically significant when

the equality of means test was applied. The items are coded such that a lower score

equals stronger agreement. Table 19 presents educator agreement by race for all question

items in the subsection. First, item 17 was statistically significant (t = 2.350, df= 94, p <

.05), with a difference almost four-tenths of a score. The distribution shows that sixty-two

percent of Black educators believe that the issue of Black male performance is best

addressed through implementing policy while sixty-one percent of white educators

disagree with this notion.

At a difference of more than six-tenths of a score, item 18 varied by educator race

and was statistically significant (t = 3.809, df= 97, p < .01). The measure shows that

white educators are more likely to "disagree," whereas Black educators tend to more

"strongly agree" that the changed actions of school adults can be the best approach to

make a difference in the academic performance of African American males. Also, by

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almost half a mean score, item 19 was statistically significant by educator race (t = -

2.781, df= 96, p < .01). The data suggests that African American educators are more

likely to perceive the need for new policies pertaining to Black male performance than

are white educators. Therefore, Black educators tend to believe that policy

implementation and changed actions of school adults are the best measures to address the

school performance of African American males, and they further believe that new

policies are also needed to address the matter.

Table 19.

Perceptions of Policy Strategies (by Race)

Race

White Black

17.

18.

19.

25.

26.

* Implement Policy:

** Change School Adults':

** New Policies Not Needed:

** Black Male School/Academy:

** Gender Separate Classrooms:

M SD

2.67 .637

2.53 .775

2.48 .779

3.15 .702

2.74 .853

2.31 .806

1.86 .833

2.97 .823

2.11 .832

2.21 .819

* Significant at the 0.05 level ** Significant at the 0.01 level

An equality of means test (t = 6.242, df = 93, p < .01) also revealed that item 25

was statistically significant by more than a whole score, the largest difference of any item

in the category. Item 25 examined educator perception regarding the "all Black male

school/academy" as a strategy to affect African American male persistence. African

American educators endorse the "all Black male school/academy" as a policy measure to

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improve Black male persistence by approximately sixty-eight percent, while white

educators object to the notion by more than eighty-two percent. Finally, item 26 was

statistically significant utilizing the means test (t = 2.825, df= 92, p < .01) by more than

five-tenths of a score. The item investigated perceptions about gender separate

classrooms and the results found that sixty-two percent of Black educators view gender

separate classrooms in a favorable light whereas fifty-seven percent of white educators

hold an unfavorable opinion of the policy option.

Simply put, the data highlights that Black educators (and educators of color in the

broader sense) tend to believe that policy implementation and changed actions of school

adults are the best measures to address the challenges in the school performance of

African American males. And, they further believe that new policies are also needed to

address the matter. However, white educators tend not to share these opinions. Further,

Black (and other minority) educators tend to endorse the ideas of gender separate

classrooms and the "all Black male school/academy," while white educators tend to

oppose these notions. The difference between the responses of Black and white educators

is stark. Black educators tend to want to try a number of policy efforts to address African

American male performance and persistence issues (for example, implement new

unspecified policies, change behaviors of school adults, establish separate classrooms and

schools), whereas white respondents tend to not want to try any remedy.

To summarize, all of the items in the policy strategy subcategory were statistically

significant by race. The results show that African American educators are more likely to

desire the use of all of the suggested remedies to address Black male performance and

persistence. On the other hand, white educators tend to disagree that implementing

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policy, a change in school adults, and the addition of new policies are the best remedies

to address Black male performance and persistence, and they also object to the ideas of

the "all Black Male School/academy" and gender separate classrooms as viable solutions.

Perceptions of Policy Impact

None of the policy items in question 20 were statistically significant by race of

educator when the equality of means test was applied (see Appendix III). Black and white

educators tend to perceive the impact of many education policies as positive, meaning the

impact is viewed as "acceptable" or "extremely well" on Black male high school

persistence. However, while not statistically significant, white educators' responses to the

dress/attire policy item [20(d)] were almost evenly distributed across positive, negative,

and no impact responses when the scale response items were collapsed, whereas Black

educators were less likely to perceive that dress policies have no impact on Black male

persistence. Also, Black educators were slightly more likely than white educators to

perceive a negative impact of retention policies [20(h)] on Black male persistence (48.3%

vs. 31.4% respectively). Further, the opinions of Black educators with regards to tracking

policies [20(i)] seem equally divided amongst positive impact, negative impact, and no

impact at all, whereas white educators seem to perceive a more positive impact (47.6%).

Again, although none of the items were statistically significant, Black educators

lead in perceptions of negative impact on question 20 on six measures with a range of

three to seventeen percentage points, with the most notable being dropout (11 point

difference) and retention (17 point difference). Another way of putting this is that white

educators trailed in their perceptions of the negative impact of policies on Black males.

Attendance, graduation, and promotion policies were the only measures on which white

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educators lead with perceptions of negative impact on Black males with a five, seven, and

six percentage point lead respectively. In addition, white educators lead in perceptions of

positive impact for question 20 on eight measures with a range of two to fourteen

percentage points. The most notable perceptual differences where white educators lead

with notions of positive impact of policies on Black males are: athletic/extra-curricular

participation (11 point difference), dropout (11 point difference), and tracking/ability

grouping (14 point difference). Dress code was the only measures on which Black

educators lead with perceptions of positive impact on Black males with a 12 percentage

point lead.

None of the policy items were statistically significant on question 21, which

investigated educator perception about policies targeted at improving the education of

Black males, when the Black/white dyad was considered using the chi square tool (see

Table 20). However, while not statistically significant, roughly fifty-three percent of

white educators compared to about thirty-three percent of Black educators believe that

athletic/extra-curricular policies [21(a)] are targeted at educational improvements for

Black males. Further, item 21(i), when viewed as a multicultural factor, shows that white

educators are more likely to believe that tracking policies are targeted at improving the

education of African American males than are educators of color (x = 4.582, df- 1, p <

.05), and is statistically significant. Also, item 21(j), which investigates other policies, is

statistically significant as a multicultural variable and may be an artifact of a small

sample size.

Although none of the items to question 22 were statistically significant in the

context of the Black/white dyad, one of the policy items showed variation when a chi

109

square analysis was applied and is worthy of notation. First, Black educators were more

likely than were white educators to view retention policies [22(h)] as more harmful to the

persistence of Black males than to the persistence of other students. Overall, African

American educators seem more likely to view the policies listed as more harmful to

Black male persistence than do white educators. However, it is important to note that the

number of response cases is quite low.

Table 20.

Perceived Policy Targets and Impact - by Race (Affirmative Responses)

a. Athletic/Extra

b. Attendance

c. Discipline

d. Dress/Attire

e. Drop Out

f. Graduation

g. Promotion

h. Retention

i. Tracking

j . Other

21 Targets Improved

Education

White

52.8%

51.4%

56.9%

30.6%

26.4%

45.8%

23.6%

25.0%

30.6%

9.7%

* Significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Black

33.3%

53.3%

46.7%

36.7%

30.0%

40.0%

23.3%

13.3%

0.0%

- Neared

More Harmful to Persistence

White

6.9%

9.7%

13.9%

11.1%

8.3%

5.6%

11.1%

6.9%

9.7%

2.8%

significance

Black

16.7%

13.3%

20.0%

3.3%

20.0%

13.3%

10.0%

20.0%

0.0%

More Favorable to Persistence

White

37.5%

18.1%

12.5%

8.3%

2.8%

12.5%

5.6%

4.2%

5.6%

at less than 0.06 level

Black

40.0%

30.0%

10.0%

3.3%

16.7%

10.0%

3.3%

6.7%

0.0%

Only one item to question 23 was statistically significant as a Black/white race

measure. Of the respondents to question 23, Black educators were more than twice as

likely than white educators (x = 4.462, df= 1, p < .05) to perceive the impact of

discipline policies [23(c)] as having a more favorable impact on Black male persistence

compared to the persistence of other students. Thirty percent of Black educators versus

110

about thirteen percent of white educators perceive discipline policies as having a

favorable impact on Black male persistence compared to other students at the school.

In summary, none of the policy items in question 20 proved statistically

significant. However, other policy impact measures show that African American

educators are more likely to view discipline policies as more favorable and retention

policies to be more harmful to the persistence of Black males than to the persistence of

other students.

Predications Regarding Educator Race

It was predicted that Black educators would be more likely to perceive policy

impact on Black male persistence as negative, while white educators would be more

likely to perceive a positive impact of policy on Black males, but the results on this are

mixed. While there are perceived differences on a number of the question items based on

race, none of the policy effectiveness measures demonstrated statistical significance (see

Appendix III). However, although not statistically significant, Black educators lead in

perceptions of negative impact on six of the nine policy measures whereas white

educators lead in perceptions of positive impact on eight of the nine measures. Further,

none of the policy items for the measure regarding perceived harm to Black males more

so than other students at the school proved to be statistically significant (see Table 20),

suggesting that there is no race based difference in perceived harm of policies on Black

males compared to other students, although the retention policy item neared statistical

significance. Discipline was the only statistically significant policy item with regards to

educators' race based perceptions about policy helpfulness on Black males compared to

other students. Therefore, while there was only one statistically significant item on the

111

survey questions related to this prediction, there is variation related to the perceptions of

educators on the matter.

Other Demographic Variables

Nine demographic factors were analyzed (see Appendix III and IV). One factor,

the percentage of African American students at the school, while not specifically on the

survey, was a factor for selection into the study and merited examination. A statistically

significant relationship was found between perception and educator age, school size,

population of Black students, and gender.

Middle-aged and older educators tend to be most concerned about the academic

state of Black males. In addition, middle aged educators tend to be more optimistic that

new policies will benefit the academic needs of Black males, and those educators in

schools with eighty percent or more African American students seem most likely to

endorse the all Black male school as a policy remedy. The data raises questions about

why older educators are less likely to seek new policies. Further, it is certainly an

interesting note that educators in schools with the highest percentage of African

American students view attendance and discipline policies as targeting the educational

improvement of Black males. Moreover, this data raises questions about what educators

perceive to be the needs of Black males that such policies might address.

The data also indicates that educators in small schools are satisfied with the Black

male graduation rate, whereas educators in large schools tend to believe that Black males

are at greater risk of dropping out, and those educators with eight to fifteen years of

experience believe that Black males are retained more than other students at their schools.

These results suggest that there may be value in small schools for Black males. Further,

112

perception of policy effectiveness was affected by the age of the educator as well as by

the number of African American students in attendance at the school.

Finally, male educators were more likely than female educators to view drop-out

policies as having a more harmful impact on Black male persistence. And, male

educators tend to see athletic/extra-curricular and graduation policies in a favorable light

in terms of their impact on African American male persistence.

In summary, the data shows that educator age, school size, population of Black

students at the school, and gender, may affect the perceptions educators hold regarding

African American male high school performance and persistence.

Educator Comments/Open Ended Responses

Question item 24 provided educators the opportunity to indicate their thoughts on

what they believe should be done to improve Black male academic performance.

Seventy-four educators responded to this item. Three major themes emerged from the

responses. These themes include internal school factors, external school factors, and

internal student factors. Comments were grouped into subcategories within each theme

(see Table 21). Comments not easily grouped into the major categories were grouped into

an independent category called "other." Where educator statements fit multiple themes,

those comments were dissected into phrases and included in the theme areas were

appropriate. Educator recommended strategies for Black male school improvements

discussed hereafter are insightful and add meaningfulness to the quantitative survey data.

Factors Internal to the School

The category of internal school factors is the largest of the three theme areas, as

the majority of educator comments are coded into this category. There are eight sub-

113

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themes within this category. When asked their thoughts on what should be done to

improve Black male performance at the school, educators overwhelmingly suggest

mentoring programs and role modeling (21 responses), and revamping school

organization and policies (14 responses). The other items in this category include

academic supports (8 responses), accountability (6 responses), after-school and

alternative initiatives (6 responses), curricula (9 responses), professionalism and

professional development (8 responses), and race and gender programming (8 responses).

Mentoring: By-in-large, educators believe that young African American males

lack guidance and direction from viable role models, and it is especially believed that

modeling is needed from older Black males. Ten of the twenty-one responses in this

subcategory indicated that Black male role models can help to improve African American

male academic performance. The following quote from a white, male teacher in

Pennsylvania captures the sentiment of this recommendation:

We need more, strong, positive male role models to help lead and motivate our young black males. Our young black males see too few successful black male adults.

Educators further believe that adequate staff for such modeling is

underrepresented in the education pipeline. This perception was conveyed by a Black,

male administrator from New York State whose comments summarized the need this

way, ". . . mentoring programs and mentors, minority staff - now only about 10% of

staff." Another educator, a white, male teacher from Connecticut stated the need more

bluntly, "Aggressively recruit Black male staff, especially professional staff."

115

When disaggregated by role, race, and gender, educators were fairly close,

numerically speaking, in their perceptions of the need to create mentor opportunities to

improve Black male performance. While administrators and teachers each had ten

responses to the subcategory, the number represented approximately thirteen percent of

teachers and about twenty-nine percent of administrators. Therefore, administrators

appear more likely to recommend mentoring initiatives as a means to improve Black

male high school performance. Also, almost fifteen percent of white educators (n=ll)

and thirty percent of Black educators (n=9) view mentoring programs as a means to

improve African American male performance. These comments suggest that Black

educators are two times more likely than are white educators to perceive mentoring

programs as a viable mechanism to improve Black male academic performance. Finally,

eighteen percent of male educators (n=ll) and slightly more than eighteen percent of

female educators (n=9) hold mentoring as a plausible effort to improve Black male

performance.

Organization and Policies: Educators indicated that the way schools are

structured, the policies that exist, and the way those policies are administered can be

improved. First, educators perceive that schools are organized in a way that may not best

fit the needs of Black males. A New Jersey Black, female teacher recommended separate

schools for Black males and a white female teacher indicated that her school in

Connecticut is working to improve academic performance through block scheduling,

integrated courses and limiting the size of the school community. However, a white, male

teacher from New York State commented that what is necessary is:

116

Improved organization of school: running in a professional manner that students can rely on and trust. So much visible incompetence, confusion, and discipline breakdown decreases student attachment to school...

Here, this educator connected the organization of schools to the professionalism

of its faculty in executing their fiduciary responsibility. There are a number of

suggestions being made. The first suggestion is that substantive ineptitude exists in

schools. Second, Black males lack faith that school personnel have the knowledge and/or

skills to accomplish the educational goals needed. Third, Black males do not have the

confidence that educators have the best interest of African American males in mind in

their aim to accomplish educational objectives. And finally, such distrust fuels a collapse

of school policies, particularly discipline, which further disenfranchises Black male

students.

Because the structure of schools is so critical to student learning outcomes, it

stands to reason that four of the responses in this section specifically address the issue of

school organization and recommend policies and/or procedures to strengthen schools.

However, nine of the fourteen responses in this subcategory address the matter of making

school policies strict and/or consistently enforcing the policies that exist, with key focus

on discipline and athletic participation. The comments indicate that educators believe that

policies need to be uniformly applied, have more exacting consequences, and stringent

with regards to athletic participation. For example, a white, female teacher from

Pennsylvania stated:

Have a consistent policy with regards to grades. Students are permitted, especially black males (athletes) to work on a program called "passkey" to raise their GPA & grades (i.e. a student can fail English — > work on

117

Passkey {3 lessons} & pass the course without teacher approval). This policy has lead to students not performing in class & failing so they can work on passkey.

The response data disaggregated by educator role, race and gender showed

minor variation. Nearly six percent of administrators (n=2) versus about sixteen

percent of teachers (n=12) made comments and recommendations about school

organization and policies. This suggests that teachers are more likely than are

administrators to recommend school reorganization and policy enforcement as

means to improve Black male academic performance. The gap narrows slightly

when race is considered as only eleven percent of white educators (n=8) versus

twenty percent of Black educators (n=6) offered recommendations that fit into

this subcategory, suggesting that Black educators may be marginally more likely

to desire a reorganization of schools and to seek greater policy enforcement.

Further, eight percent of male educators (n=5) versus eighteen percent of female

educators (n=9) made comments in this subsection, which suggests that male

educators may be less likely than female educators to recommend firm policies or

school restructuring with regards to African American males.

Academic Supports: Tutoring programs are necessary tools for Black male

academic success. In fact four of the eight respondents in this category recommend

tutoring in some fashion. Further, educators suggest that tutoring be remedial, mandatory,

and funded by the state or federal government. Other support recommendations include

initiatives that acknowledge and celebrate academic accomplishments, numeracy and

literacy interventions, and monitoring of academic progress by educators and parents.

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Approximately four percent of teachers (n=3) versus about eleven percent of

administrators (n=4) recommended academic supports, suggesting that administrators

may be slightly more likely to make this type of recommendation. Responses by gender

group and race are quite similar. Both males and females each had four educator

responses in this subcategory, so there is not much difference between the two groups,

and both Black and white educators represented about seven percent each in this

subcategory (n=5 & 2 respectively).

Accountability: African American males need to be held responsible for their

school performance. The six responses in this category clearly convey this sentiment. For

example, a white, female teacher in Maryland stated:

Hold them to high accountability. Find ways to make them stay after when they are struggling.

Also, educators recommend setting high expectations as well as high standards for

behavior and grades. While only eight percent of the comments to this open-ended item

fall into this subcategory, the consistency of the accountability language is telling of

sociopolitical times. And, there does not appear to be any differences by educator role,

race or gender.

After-School and Alternative Initiatives: There are a number of initiatives that

educators suggested that are grouped under this subcategory. Educators recommend after

school activities and involvement in clubs as mechanisms to improve Black male

performance. A white male teacher in Maryland encouraged instilling a sense of school

pride and collaborative school events hosted out in the community. And, a Black male

teacher urged the creation of:

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. . . more opportunities for students to go to college, such as scholarships, field trips where they can get experience or learn something new

Curricula: Schools need to overhaul the curriculum in order to better

accommodate African American males. Educators recommend a focus on learning styles

as well as culturally diverse instructions. A white male teacher from Connecticut

captured these ideas when he recommended:

More attention to how learning styles differ. Match culture of classroom with young Black male culture.

Educators also recommend more relevant instructional materials and curricular

updates that facilitate fun learning. Twelve percent of the comments on this question item

fall into this subcategory. There were no emergent differences based on educator role,

race or gender.

Professionalism and Professional Development: Teachers need to be reeducated

with culturally competent pedagogy to be able to better address the needs of Black males.

Sensitivity training seems to be the paramount recommendation by educators. For

example, a white, New Jersey female administrator proposed:

Cultural awareness and sensitivity training for staff - professional development re: communication skills with students, parents and community - shared vision.

Professional development should also attend to learning style differences and

quality faculty/student interactions. In addition to effective in-service development on

issues pertaining to Black male adolescents, educators need to be more caring and less

threatened by African American males. As a Black female, New York administrator

pointed out:

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Those students need adults who aren 't afraid to show them "tough love." That means having compassion for whatever issues they may be dealing with, as well as to be firm when they need it. Most adults in this building fear Black males therefore they don't really help them.

While educator professionalism is alluded to in other sub-theme areas, this

subcategory addresses the matter directly. Administrators seem to be more likely than

teachers to recommend professional development as only two teacher comments fit into

this section, or put otherwise, seventeen percent of administrators versus almost three

percent of teachers. There were no major variations by educator race and gender.

Race/Gender Programming: Separate classes and programs for African American

males and specific conversations about race and gender at school can be productive

education tools for African American males. Six of the eight responses in this

subcategory recommend targeted race/gender initiatives. More specifically, educators

believe that rites of passage programs are necessary and recommend that such programs

teach tribal concepts, to include naming ceremonies, and involve aspects of the

performing arts. One educator in particular asserts that African American males need to

know and understand their personal and familial locution in world history, for without

such knowledge they wander aimless without purpose. While these grouped responses

show do not show difference by educator role and gender, there are major differences by

race and twenty percent of Black educators (n=6) endorse race/gender programming and

conversations, but only one percent of white educators (n=l) desires open conversations

about race.

Factors External to the School

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When asked their thoughts on what should be done to improve Black male

performance at the school, educators overwhelmingly suggested parent/family/home

involvement in the students' education (23 responses). This subcategory is the largest in

the category of external school factors, and it is the second largest of the subcategory

items across all theme areas. There are four sub-themes within the external school factors

category. The other subcategories are community (5 responses), culture (3 responses),

and jobs/economic development (3 responses).

Parents/Family/Home: Parents of African American males need to be involved in

their sons' education and in the larger school community. By-in-large, most of the

responses in this subsection indicate that educators primarily view the problem of poor

African American male academic performance as a result of the home environment and

as the responsibility of parents. A white Maryland teacher offered not only his

perspective on the matter, but also on the research project with these comments:

The entire society needs to look at the family environment, which I am convinced, is the most critical factor in determining the success or failure of any student. Your emphasis on school policies assumes schools can have an impact on student attitudes. I disagree.

What the teacher above suggests and what three other educators assert directly is

that there is a fundamental difference in the attitudes of African American parents from

other parents and the value they place on education. Although the references to the

aforementioned point are tacit in most of the comments in this subcategory, they are

clearly understood as such. Some educators' simply state "home background" or "it starts

at home," but the contention that there is something wrong with the families of these

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African American males is quite clear. As a mechanism to better support Black male

school performance, some educators recommend parental training and support. Four

comments align with this idea. While it is unknown who would conduct parental training

and on what parents should be trained, some educators believe that "more support for

parents who aren't able to assist their children achieve academically" is required, as

stated by a Black, New Jersey female administrator.

In addition, educators also believe that parents need to be held accountable. But,

to whom should parents be accountable and what form might such accountability take?

Educators do not elaborate on these issues. However, it can be assumed that

accountability in some way relates to involvement. While the majority of educators

believe that parents need to be involved in their child's education, there is little indication

as to how educators perceive such involvement should be demonstrated. One clear

recommendation on this note is for academic monitoring by parents.

When considering factors of educator role, race and gender in the

parent/family/home sub-theme area, the percentage of educator responses were quite

similar. Eighteen percent of teachers (n=14) and about twenty-six percent of

administrators (n=9) commented on the necessity of some form of change within the

family/home unit. Similarly, twenty-two percent of white educators (n=16) and twenty

percent of Black educators (n=6) made such comments, and about twenty-one percent of

male educators (n=13) and twenty percent of female educators (n=10) made statements

aligning with this perspective.

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Community: In addition to a strong, encouraging home environment, African

American males need positive communal networks. The five responses in this

subcategory, all from white educators, beseech change in community attitudes and values

toward education. Educators seem to implore greater community involvement in the

schools and recommend more community activities for Black males. A Maryland teacher

voiced his concern by stating:

There needs to be some means of changing the. . . neighborhood attitude toward school and learning. I do not know how this could be done, but without such change, the problem of black male failure in the school will persist.

While the comment above suggests despondency as do most in this sub-theme, a

New York female administrator suggests collaboration to address the challenges faced by

Black males, where community, parents, students and educators work together for viable

solutions. Her comments seem substantively different from the other responses in the

section because she offers a mechanism to find answers where most of the other

respondents simply propose community change without identifying how such change can

be brought about. There is no meaningful notation when educator role and gender are

considered.

Culture: The broader societal culture needs to change. An Asian teacher from

Pennsylvania recommends governmental intervention. She suggests that public policy be

developed to focus on child rearing, discipline, and the culture of the home. One teacher

recommends that educators acquire an understanding of Black male culture and thereby

modify the cultural contexts of their classrooms.

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While the notion of culture in the broader social sense and in specific contexts of

race, family, gender and school, occurs in the literature repeatedly, this subsection only

has three comments that fit. Further, none of the comments by administrators or Black

educators fit into this sub-theme area. The low number of responses in this category

raises questions about the degree to which educators in general may turn to cultural

remedies to school problems.

Jobs/Economic Development: Socioeconomic factors need to be improved.

Educators recommend allied relationships with employment agencies and school districts

to benefit Black males. Further, educators suggest making Black males aware of

processes for economic development. While these ideas are not fleshed out, they do

provide the basis for addressing the need for Black male employment challenges as is

pointed out in the literature. Here too, the limited responses categorized in this subsection

suggest that educators do not largely consider economic solutions in the education

African American males. None of the Black educator comments were coded into this

subcategory.

Factors Internal to the Student

The category of internal student factors is the smallest of the three theme areas,

and the few number of responses raises questions about the degree to which educators

believe that factors internal to the student are the most important ones to remedy the

challenges to Black male academic performance. There are two sub-themes within this

category. When asked their thoughts on what should be done to improve Black male

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performance at the school, educators suggest esteem, skill, and character development (2

responses) and self-motivation (4 responses).

Skill, Esteem and Character Development: A couple of comments could be

characterized as skill and esteem development related. Black males need better social

skills and self esteem development. One comment in particular makes both

recommendations. Although no particular social skill is identified for improvement, by-

in-large the Hispanic administrator attributes Black male academic performance to social

acumen. Despite the arguable nature of the recommendation, it does raise important

questions. For instance, what is being considered when educators asses social skills?

Moreover, how do social skills impact academic performance? The second

recommendation asserts a relationship between interpersonal skills and academic

performance. In the case of esteem, it can be argued that good self-esteem helps to

develop a strong self-confidence, which is necessary for appropriate risk-taking that

builds academic skills. Another educator also believes that schools should emphasize

character development.

Self-Motivation: African American males need improved motivation in order to

make academic progress. There are three teacher responses in this subcategory and the

two female comments call for Black males to develop internal fortitude, set achievable

goals, and stop blaming others. They further contend that Black males have already been

given many opportunities and educators have committed significant effort to African

American male success. One New Jersey teacher went so far as to say that the lack of

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self-driven behavior on the part of African American males makes educators' hard work

amount to a big zero.

Other Miscellaneous Comments

The other comments include those notations by educators that did not quite fit

into any of the other theme areas. The responses in this subsection also provide insightful

strategies that may help to improve Black male academic performance. There are various

statements made by respondents that represent beliefs or positions. An administrator

called for improving standardized test scores as a priority. Another suggested research at

the building level to address student needs and concerns. One teacher asked for a

background check and for counseling so that students could come to know their needs.

Another opined that children do not seem to value education. Yet another, a white, male

teacher from New York declared:

Policy [is] seen as guidelines or rules of a particular institution. The policies don't hinder success, but they don't help it. It is not the purpose ... The policy is there to protect the student body . . . the collective. It is not meant to inspire success or to teach about goals (which is needed)

This statement perhaps presents the educators perception of the study itself. One

educator stressed connecting in the minds of students that extra-curricular activities are

only extra-curricular and secondary to curricular expectations. A Black, female teacher

from New Jersey expressed the importance of communicating the relationship between

education and students' futures. And, a white male teacher from Delaware articulated the

need to "make academic success not equal to being an uncle torn."

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Another comment falls into the arena of education quality; the entire system of

education needs to be attended if Black males are to be adequately prepared to succeed at

the high school level. The comment is quite profound in its recommendation. The

respondent states:

. . . improved education at the lower levels. Students come to high school unprepared and in need of way too much remedial help. Students are passed along with few consequences for failing a class. They need to be held accountable for poor academic performance.

The recommendation being made here is sweeping, and it also appears conflicted.

While it can be agreed that African American males should share responsibility for their

educational investment, in the end this New Jersey, white, male teacher seems to rest the

burden exclusively upon the individual. If students are passed along with growing

academic deficits as they move through the education pipeline without adequate attention

to address their learning deficiencies, are the educators in the system not more so

culpable? It is with this notion of a compromise or failure of fiduciary trust that the

respondent begins his comments.

Summary

This chapter examined the survey data using three quantitative analyses:

Pearson's correlations, chi square, and a means test. In addition, a qualitative analysis of

item 24 was conducted to explore at the level of the phrase, the type of recommendations

that educators would offer toward improving African American male academic

performance. Using the research literature, the quantitative data was categorized into four

areas based on educators' perceptions. These areas are academic state, persistence, policy

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implements, and policy impact. The qualitative data was coded into four core themes,

which are internal school factors, external school factors, internal student factors, and

other factors.

The major findings of the quantitative portion of the study are that educators

perceive that African Americans males are not doing well academically and educators are

greatly concerned about the academic state of Black boys. Educators are largely

dissatisfied with the graduation rate of Black males and educators are also greatly

dissatisfied with the post-secondary enrollment rate of Black males. Moreover, there is a

statistically significant race based difference between educators' perceptions of grade

level persistence. White educators tend to believe that Black males are promoted at the

same rate as other students, whereas Black educators are more likely to believe that

African American males are retained more so than other students. Further, educators

differ by race on their perceptions of the use of policy, especially on the use of

race/gender separate implements as strategies to improve Black male performance. Black

educators are more likely to endorse such strategies and white educators are more likely

to oppose them. Finally, educators perceive many of the policies listed as having a

positive or acceptable impact on Black male performance. This is particularly true of

athletic/extra-curricular policies.

The key findings of the qualitative aspect of the research are that educators

recommend mentoring initiatives where older Black males (teachers, businessmen, and

community leaders) serve as role models for African American teenage boys. Educators

also believe that parents need to be more directly involved in their children's school

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experiences and they offer commentary on the matter. Educators further trust that a

refocus on school policies and organization can facilitate improvement in the academic

performance of Black males, and they are to be particularly keen on the message that

school rules should be consistently enforced. To a large extent, educators may perceive

the central remedies to improve Black male performance to be those internal to the

school. This is suggested by the large number of recommendation responses coded into

this theme area. Educators may be more likely to endorse such remedies because they are

directly within the realm of educators' control, whereas other factors cannot easily, if at

all, be affected by educators.

One purpose of this research was to uncover the policies that inhibit or facilitate

Black male promotion from one grade level to the next, as well as those that prevent high

school graduation and deter college enrollment. While there are no policies where a clear

majority of educators perceived the policy as having an adverse effect on the ability of

Black males to persist, about forty percent (40.2%) of educators perceive a negative

impact of dropout policies on the persistence of Black males, and almost thirty-seven

percent (36.6%) perceive no impact at all of dropout policies on the persistence of Black

males. Further, essentially two policies stand out with perceptions of favorable influence

on the persistence of Black males. Approximately seventy-eighty percent (77.9%) of

educators perceive that athletic/extra-curricular participation policies have a positive

impact the persistence of Black males. In addition, almost fifty-five percent (54.8%) of

educators perceive that graduation policies have a positive impact on Black male

persistence as well.

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Finally, in considering the predictions, the following research hypotheses were

posited and can be resolved. The first hypothesis stated that educators would perceive the

academic state of Black males as poor. This research found statistically significant

evidence to support this hypothesis. Second, it was hypothesized that there would be a

majority of educators who would perceive the impact of the policies on Black male

persistence as either negative or positive. This hypothesis seems inconclusive although it

was not proven. There is a clear majority perception on two of the nine policy measures.

Both athletic/extra-curricular policies and graduation policies are perceived by educators

to have a positive and favorable impact on Black males. However, there is no clear

majority on the other seven policy items. The third hypothesis stated that there would be

a difference in educators' perception of policy impact based on educator role. This

hypothesis is accepted because the tracking measure was statistically significant based on

educator role. Further, when response categories were collapsed the tracking measure

remained significant, the dropout measure became significant, and the discipline measure

neared significance. The fourth hypothesis stated that there would be a difference in

educators' perception of policy impact based on race. This hypothesis is rejected as there

are no statistically significant differences in educators' perceptions of policy measures

that impact African American male performance or persistence (item 20) when

disaggregated by race. However, the research did uncover statistically significant

differences in educator perceptions of strategies to address Black males performance and

persistence. Most notably, Black educators are more likely to endorse the implement of

policy, the need for change in school adults' attitudes, the creation of new policies, and

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the employ of separate schools and classrooms, whereas white educators tend to object to

all of these.

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CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION

In U.S. American society, the educational outcomes of African American males

seem generally consistent, poor, low, and limited. Black males tend to have lower test

scores, higher discipline rates, higher special education placement rates, higher dropout

rates, and lower high school graduation rates (Holzman, 2004; Smith, 2005, Statistical

Abstract, 2010). The overarching purpose of this research project is to explore educators'

perceptions regarding policies that inhibit Black male promotion from one grade level to

the next, as well as those that prevent high school graduation and deter college

enrollment. Thus, information is collected that depict educators' beliefs and perceptions

pertaining to what policies positively impact or adversely affect Black male persistence,

and how these policies shape the educational outcomes of African American males. One

clear objective of this study is to identify particular policies that influence how Black

adolescent males fare in high school settings from the point of view of the educators with

whom they work. One other intent of this project is to examine if there are differences in

perceptions within and across certain groups of educators with regards to the impact of

educational policies on African American males. The guiding question being examined

is: are educators' perceptions about Black males influenced by their role or their race?

Review of Findings

There are four statements that directed this study, which served as the basis for

the research questions. These statements are: 1) The majority of high school educators

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will have a clear perception of the academic state of Black males; 2) The majority of

policies that will be represented will be perceived by educators as having impact; 3)

Perceptions of policy impact will differ by educator role; and 4) Perceptions of policy

impact will differ by educator race. A review of the research findings related to each

statement follows.

Research Question #1: Academic State

The perception of educators with regards to the academic state of Black males is

clear. Overall, educators believe that Black males are doing poorly academically and

African American educators tend to be more likely to believe this than are white

educators. In general, educators are concerned about the academic progress of Black

males, and administrators are so to a more "significant" degree than are teachers. Further,

educators believe that grades and standardized test scores are the two leading areas in

which Black males demonstrate their low academic performance, and white educators are

more likely than Black educators to identify standardized test scores as a way in which

Black males show that they do not fare well. In addition, where Black males perform well

academically, educators perceive they do so because of valuing classroom practices.

However, administrators are more likely than teachers to attribute the cause for solid

academic performance to "other" reasons.

There are two core recommendations from educators' comments that are related

to the academic state of Black males. Educators urge parental involvement, particularly

with regards to monitoring of academic work, as the number one remedy to address

African American male school performance. And, seventy percent of the comments made

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in the parental/family involvement subcategory were made by white educators. The

second recommended improvement measure to Black male performance is mentoring

initiatives, especially those that can employ African American males to serve as role-

models. Interestingly, Black educators are two times more likely to suggest mentoring

and role modeling as a solution to African American male academic performance issues

than are white educators.

Research Question #2: Persistence and Policy Impact

By-in-large, educators do not seem to believe that the majority of policies

identified in this research have any significant impact on the high school persistence of

Black males. Although the majority of educators are dissatisfied with the high school

graduation rate of African American males as well as the post-secondary enrollment rate,

educators believe that Black males are promoted from one grade level to the next at the

same rate as other students. Further, educators appear confused on the matter of dropout

as some posit that Black males are equally likely to dropout as other students while still

other educators indicate that Black males are more likely to dropout than other students.

More or less, the majority of policies listed are marginally viewed as having an

"acceptable" impact on Black male persistence. Only dropout and retention policies are

marginally perceived to have "no impact" or an impact that is "not so well."

There are a number of policies directed at closing the race/gender gap in

educational persistence. For instance, athletic/extra-curricular, attendance, discipline, and

graduation policies are all perceived to serve such a goal. Educators perceive discipline

and attendance policies to be the most targeted at improving the education of Black

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males. However, the policies identified in this research are perceived to have varying

levels of effectiveness. Extra-curricular/athletic participation (77.9%) and graduation

(54.8%) policies are the only two policies wherein the majority of educators perceive a

positive impact on the persistence of African American males. Further, athletic/extra

curricular participation (54.5%) policies are perceived to have the most favorable impact

on African American males when compared to other students. Clearly, there is

considerable consensus that Black males benefit from extra-curricular/athletic

participation policies. Conversely, discipline, attendance, and tracking policies are

perceived as causing the most harm to the persistence of African American males

compared to other students. This is of particular importance because both policies are

perceived to be the most targeted at improving the education of Black males.

In addition, there are core recommendations from educators' comments that are

related to policies and their impact on Black males. In effort to remedy Black male

performance challenges, educators suggest consistent application of policies to all

students and the reorganization of schools. Eighty-six percent of comments in the

subcategory were made by teachers who believe that school reorganization and policy

enforcement are viable means to improve Black male academic performance. Such

recommendations indicate that educators believe that the organization of schools and the

application of policy have an adverse effect on African American male school outcomes.

Research Question #3: Perceptions based on Role

Administrators are more likely to agree, and to more strongly agree than are

teachers that the best approach to the issue of Black male performance is through

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changing the actions of the school's adults. In general, both teachers and administrators

tend to view the impact of policies on persistence as marginally positive. However,

administrators are more likely than are teachers to perceive a negative impact of dropout

and tracking policies on African American males. Further, administrators are more likely

to perceive that promotion policies are targeted at improving the education of Black

males and they are much less likely than teachers to perceive that promotion policies

harm the persistence of Black males when compared to other students. Therefore,

teachers do not appear any more likely to perceive a negative impact of policy on Black

males, nor do administrators seem to be more likely to perceive a positive impact of

policy on Black males. However, administrators are more likely to hold negative

perceptions of impact to Black male persistence on a few policy measures, such as

dropout and tracking.

Research Question #4: Perceptions based on Race

Black educators and white educators tend to hold differing views on the matter of

grade level persistence. White educators are more likely to perceive that Black males are

promoted at the same rate as other students and Black educators are more likely to hold

the opposing view, that Black males are retained more so than other students.

There are significant race differences in educators' perceptions of viable policy

strategies. Black educators are more likely than are white educators to agree that the issue

of Black male performance is best addressed through implementing policy. Moreover,

white educators are more likely than are Black educators to believe that new policies are

not necessary to address Black male performance issues. Therefore, Black educators tend

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to believe that implementing policy is the best strategy and new policies are needed.

Also, Black educators are more likely than white educators to believe that the best

approach to the issue of Black male performance is through changing the actions of

school adults. Most striking though is that Black educators more so than white educators

believe that the "all Black male school/academy" is a good remedy to the issue of Black

male persistence. Overall, both white and Black educators tend to view the impact of

policies on persistence as marginally positive. So, Black educators do not appear any

more likely to perceive a negative impact of policy on Black male persistence, nor do

white educators seem to be more likely to perceive a positive impact of policy on Black

males, statistically speaking.

Finally, while educators in general perceive promotion policies to be targeted at

improving the education of African American males, Black educators are more likely to

hold this view than white educators. Still, there does not appear to be a relationship

between educators' racial identity and educators' perception of policy effectiveness, from

a statistical perspective. [None of the policy measures in the questions that investigated

impact and effectiveness (items 20 - 22) showed statistically significant variation based

on race. And, the one statistically significant measure (item 23c) may have resulted from

the small number of response cases.]

Conclusions

Educators believe that African American high school males are not doing well

academically, and therefore have great concern for them. Moreover, educators identified

grades and standardized test scores as the primary ways in which Black males

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demonstrate low academic performance. Further, educators believe that mentoring

programs that utilize adult African American male role models and increased parental

involvement, especially in the monitoring of academic work will lead to improved school

performance for Black males.

Educators are conflicted on the issue of Black male high school persistence.

Although educators are dissatisfied with the graduation rate and post-secondary

enrollment rate of Black males, they do not believe that African American males are

retained more so than other students. Further, educators disagree about Black males'

dropout potential as some educators contend that African American males are equally

likely to dropout when compared to other students, whereas other educators assert that

Black males are more likely to do so.

Generally, educators hold a marginally positive view of the overall impact of

policies on African American male high school performance and persistence. Extra

curricular/athletic participation policies are most regarded by educators as having positive

and favorable impact on African American males. Discipline and attendance policies are

perceived by educators to be the most targeted at Black males and are among the top

policies to be perceived as causing the most harm to African American male high school

persistence when compared to other students. To address the challenges of Black male

performance, educators call for consistent application of policies to all students and for

the reorganization of schools.

Perceptions regarding policy impact differ by educator role. While the hypothesis

that teachers would hold a more negative view of the impact of policy than administrators

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was not demonstrated, the evidence shows that administrators are more likely to hold the

impact of discipline and tracking policies on Black males in a negative light. Thus,

administrators are more likely than teachers to view certain policies as having a negative

impact on African American males.

There are no differences regarding perceptions of policy impact based on educator

race. However, there are perceived differences on policy related outcomes and strategies

based on educator race. Black educators are more likely to believe that African American

males are retained more than other students. Further, Black educators are more likely to

contend that implementing policy is the best strategy and that new policies are necessary.

In addition, Black educators are more likely to believe that the changing actions of school

adults is the best approach to address African American male school performance and

they are more likely to support the "all Black male school/academy" as a viable remedy

to the problems of school persistence.

Implications

The results of this study confirm that educators are concerned about the poor

academic performance of African American males. Moreover, educators' perceptions are

consistent with the literature's indication of low school outcomes of Black males

(Holzman, 2004; Noguera, 2005; Smith, 2005), and raises questions about the ways in

which educators interact with Black males as a result of their perceptions of low

performance. Do educators treat African American males as deficient, incapable or

incompetent learners? Or, are Black males viewed as capable learners who can achieve

academic standards.

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Research suggests that poor performance may be spurred-on because Black males

perceive that school has no bearing on their lives and therefore there is no reason to

satisfy teacher expectations or to strive for social rewards (Cousins, 1999). If this is so,

then much of what is seen as poor educational outcomes may be interpreted as despair or

rebellion against an oppressive system, a process of defining and reacting that begins

early in the schooling experience. In light of the findings of other studies, this project

raises questions about the connection between African American males' limited academic

performance and the ways in which educators help students to identify the relevance of

class work to their daily lives.

Also, with regards to perceptions of persistence, how is it that educators in this

study express concern for the academic state of Black males and dissatisfaction with their

graduation rate, yet indicate that Black males are promoted between grades at the same

rate as other students? It seems implausible that educators would hold that African

American males are moving fluidly through the system only to smash into a wall in the

senior year and thereat fail to complete high school or move into post-secondary

institutions. However, this is what the data suggests! So then, what factors do educators

believe contribute to the failure to graduate? Further, if educators' perceptions about the

poor state of Black males' academic progress are accurate, why do they perceive that

Black males are promoted at the same rate as other students and are no more likely to

dropout than are other students? What factors shape these perceptions? Moreover, are the

perceptions grounded in reality? This research raises these questions, but leaves the

answers to future studies.

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Further, with regards to policy, clearly there is considerable consensus that Black

males benefit from extra-curricular/athletic participation policies. However, what does

such overwhelming support of this policy measure suggest? Do educators help to

perpetuate notions that African American males should pin their aspiration for success on

sports and entertainment? Does the volume of positive support for this measure underlie

fundamental belief or assumption about race, more specifically about Black males?

Educators in this research also believe that discipline policies target the academic

improvement of Black males, but educators in this study also believe that discipline

policies do harm to African American male performance and persistence. Why do the

educators in this study endorse discipline policies as having an acceptable impact on

Black male persistence? Consider that while it is true that administrators are more likely

to perceive a negative impact of discipline policies on African American male persistence

than are teachers, approximately forty-four percent of all educators in this study perceive

discipline policies favorably. Also, discipline is the number one policy identified as

targeting educational improvements for Black males as indicated by sixty survey

respondents, and is ranked third on the list of policies that have a more favorable impact

on the persistence of African American males when compared the to the persistence of

other students. Such positive conceptions of discipline policies may account for

indication in the literature that African American males are disproportionately disciplined

and experience the hazards of such discipline on their academic performance and life

outcomes (Ferguson, 2000; Hopkins, 1997; Noguera, 2005). Moreover, what is of

particular interest to this research is that even though discipline policies ranked at the top

142

of the list as that which has the most harmful impact on African American male

persistence when compared to the persistence of other students, only forty educators

made this claim. Because discipline and attendance policies are perceived to be the most

targeted at improving the education of Black males and are also perceived to cause the

most harm to the persistence of African American males when compared to other

students, it can be inferred that educators do not hold these policies as effective.

However, educator perceptions bend toward a marginally positive view of the impact of

each on Black males' persistence. The data here is inconsistent and merits further

research. Clearly there is some sort of disconnection with regards to the impact of

discipline policies and the race of the educator does not help to explain the matter.

In addition to the conflicted views of discipline, complexity in responses to the

study question items remain even when considering the role of educators in the schooling

of Black males. For instance, while teachers appear confused as to the effectiveness of

school adults on the academic performance of African American males, they do seem

unready to accept that policies are the best strategy to address Black males' school

performance, yet they believe somewhat that new policies are necessary to address the

matter. Regardless of any new policy approach, teachers are not willing to allow gender

separate schools as a policy measure to improve Black male performance or persistence,

despite the rationale behind the Black Male Academy, which according to Hopkins

(1997) is to address the problems of Black boys by teaching self-respect and approaches

to treating other people, providing positive Black male role-models, building self-esteem

and fostering a sense of community.

143

Regardless of policy challenges or confusion over the impact of school adults,

educators play a critical role in the development of African American males. Moreover,

the last sentence of the statement by the Black female administrator from New York

(Chapter 4-Results, p. 120-121) regarding the fear that educators have of Black males

may offer one rationale as to why Black males comment that there is lack of caring from

educators, as references in the literature suggest (Foster & Peele, 1999). If society has

traditionally treated Black males with fear and contempt, and the devaluing of

personhood is continually perpetrated within schools, it becomes somewhat easy to see

how many African American males dissociate with schools and identify with antisocial

cultures that stand in opposition to schools and the established social order.

It is no wonder then that study results show that African American educators tend

to believe that Black males can be best helped through the changed actions of school

adults. This research demonstrates that the race of educators is of some importance in

explaining perceptions of African American males. For example, Black educators are

likely to perceive that Black males are retained more than other student. Also, they tend

to believe that Black males can be most served through the implementation of policy and

the creation of new policies, especially one that authorizes a separate school to address

the unique needs of African American males.

However, the issue of race has more substantive implications, especially with

regards to fundamental beliefs that operate out of the purview of analysis. This study

found that educators' number one remedy to Black male educational performance is the

improvement of the parent/family/home unit, and seventy percent of the comments made

144

in the subcategory were presented by white educators. Grapple for a moment with the

sample statement from the white Maryland teacher (Chapter 4-Results, p. 122) about his

critique of the family environment and dismissal of the school as having influence on the

success of African American males, which is provocative on many levels. While one can

agree with him that parental influence in the education of children is critical, there is an

implicit belief about the parents of the Black males at his school that needs revelation. Is

it that they do not care? Or, is it that they are incapable or incompetent at parenting?

Whatever the belief, it led to an untenable conclusion making the unspoken belief system

inflammatory. Moreover, his disagreement with the notion that schools and their

personnel can influence the attitudes and performance of children is moot and begs the

question about his persistence as an educator. If educators have no impact on the

motivation of children and consequentially on their learning, then the entire enterprise of

education is pointless in fact. If the underlying belief system of this educator in the least

way pervades, especially amongst white educators, how it shapes perceptions, attitudes,

and interaction with Black males may be quite damaging.

Ferguson (2000) observed that educators contend that the difficulty of Black

males is that of dysfunctional families, more specifically a problem of incompetent

mothers who are inadequate at socializing masculinity. If the ills of Black male school

performance rest completely on the family, what then is the purpose of their continued

schooling? Stevenson and Ellsworth (1993) argue that the common belief that students

dropout due to personal deficiencies and/or family or cultural deprivation silences

critique of the school as a place of unequal opportunity. Ferguson declared that school

145

rules govern and regulate children's physical, verbal, and emotional expressions, a

sorting system for the sake of creating a hierarchy where a few Black individuals are

valorized and the majority stigmatized. Stevenson and Ellsworth further assert that when

rules have the potential to exacerbate problems or create new harms, then it becomes

necessary to reexamine the rules and their application. This then was the aim of the

current research project, to assess educators' perceptions of policy impact on African

American male high school persistence.

Recommendations

As did Hamilton (2006), educators in this study propose strong mentoring

programs to impact the academic success and persistence of Black males. And similar to

Evans (2005), educators in this research project also urge early intervention strategies be

employed both in school and out of school, to include after-school programs and parent

training initiatives. In addition, educators surveyed by this project further recommend

school reorganization to facilitate the persistence of African American males.

Because this study examined educators' perceptions and did not investigate

directly the impact of policy on Black male performance, it is suggested that such a study

be conducted. Further, future research should look more deliberately at the views of

special educators given the vastness of coding in U.S. schools. Future research should

also examine the perceptions of educators at "all Black male academies" and should also

consider how the views of educators change over time. In addition, a study should be

conducted to more closely examine the relationship between educator race and beliefs

about policy strategies in general, and gender separate schools in particular. Moreover,

146

because this study found a relationship between the racial composition of the school and

educator's endorsement of the "all Black male school/academy," future research should

consider why a larger African American enrollment increases the likelihood that school

educators will support a separate school for Black males as a policy strategy.

Further, it may be that the notion of masculinity is critical to understanding Black

males in the school context. Therefore, greater scrutiny should be given to the concept

and to the idea of Black male school socialization. A worthy question to be pursued

might be: what is the role of rebellion and resistance in the creation of academic

competencies for academically successful African American males? Nocon (2005) stated

that productive resistance helps students to negotiate with educators in open forum to

construct identity as capable learners and to co-develop new cultural rules and goals.

Unfortunately, not much of the educational resistance of African American males leads

educators to reconsider their orientation and instructional practices. So, how can

educators allow African American males to negotiate academic expectations and co-

create the rules that govern their classroom participation? Such a study would add

significantly to the knowledge base regarding race, gender, and school policy.

Finally, this study should be replicated with schools enrolling lower percentages

of African American students to explore if findings would be consistent. Also, the teacher

comments proved an insightful component to this project and a more specific qualitative

methodology may yield further insights into educators' perception about the schooling of

Black males. In addition, future studies should examine the views of African American

147

males with regards to their interactions with school adults and experiences with school

policies.

Limitations

Because the research sample was contained within the northeast U.S. and because

the survey response rate of this study is considered low, caution should be used in

generalizing the results. Additionally, caution should further be taken as some schools

opted not to provide lists of faculty, which can be interpreted as refusal to participate in

the study. For example, three schools in the Washington, D.C. area were identified for

participation in the study in the first round and another three schools in the second round

of selection. None of the District schools cooperated or provided lists of educators. One

D.C. administrator lamented that his school was constantly selected for a myriad of

studies and that it was increasingly difficult to focus on educating students, the purpose

of the school. Further, caution should again be taken when interpreting results as a

number of the institutions selected in the study were identified as charter schools.

Because of the reform nature of charter schools, perceptions in such an institution may

differ from those at the traditional public school.

148

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APPENDICES

158

APPENDIX I:

IRB Approval Document

|S$ UNIVERSITY of N E W H A M P S H I R E

April 24, 2006

Antonio Henley McNair Program, Stoke Hall 58 Fox Garrison Road Lee, NH 03824

IRB #: 3703 Study: Educator Perception of Policies that may Impact Black High School

Male Persistence Approval Date: 04/17/2006

The Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research (IRB) has reviewed and approved the protocol for your study as Exempt as described in Title 45, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 46, Subsection 101(b). Approval is granted to conduct your study as described in your protocol.

Researchers who conduct studies involving human subjects have responsibilities as outlined in the attached document, Responsibilities of Directors of Research Studies Involving Human Subjects. (This document is also available at http://www.unh.edU/osr/comDliance/irb.html.1 Please read this document carefully before commencing your work involving human subjects.

Upon completion of your study, please complete the enclosed pink Exempt Study Final Report form and return it to this office along with a report of your findings.

I f you have questions or concerns about your study or this approval, please feel free to contact me at 603-862-2003 or Julie.simpson(5)unh.edu. Please refer to the IRB # above in all correspondence related to this study. The IRB wishes you success with your research.

bulie F. Simpson Manager1

' t U / L l ^

cc: File Todd DeMitchell

Research Conduct and Compliance Services, Office of Sponsored Research, Service Building, 5 1 College Road, Durham, NH 03824-3585 * Fax: 603-862-3564

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* *

.3 56

* *

-.1 55

23 *

* .2

57 *

* .3

31 *

* -.1

-.3 35

* *

.0 08

-.0

.0 84

-.1

-.1 64

-.0

.0 48

28 *

* -.2

44 *

.0 07

-.0

.0 69

19 6*

-.0

-.0 83

-.0

.3 53

* *

-.1 79

62 *

** S

ig ni

fi ca

nt a

t t he

0 .0

1 le

ve l

(2 -t

ai le

* Si

gn if

ic an

t at

th e

0. 05

le ve

l (2

-t ai

le d)

20 a

20 b

20 c

20 d

20 e

20 f

20 g

20 h

20 i

20 j

20 a

A th

le ti

c/ E

xt ra

C ur

ri cu

la r

20 b

A tt

en da

nc e

20 c

D is

ci pl

in e

20 d

D re

ss /A

tt ir

e 20

e D

ro po

20 f

G ra

du at

io n

20 g

P ro

m ot

io n

20 h

R et

en ti

20 i

T ra

ck in

g/ A

bi lit

y G

ro up

j O

th er

E du

ca to

rs (

n =

82 )

.4 27

* *

.3 26

* *

.2 18

.2 84

.7 09

* *

.4 12

* *

.4 48

* *

.5 48

* *

.5 50

* *

.4 06

* *

.4 78

* *

.5 32

* *

.6 38

* *

.5 16

.6 20

* *

—

.4 98

* *

.5 94

* *

.6 37

* *

.5 28

* *

.5 57

* *

.8 02

* *

—

.3 22

* *

.5 41

* *

.6 71

* *

.5 17

.6 00

* *

.6 04

* *

.8 05

* *

—

.2 46

* .2

82 *

.4 33

* *

.4 90

* *

.4 06

* *

.5 26

* *

.5 95

* *

.5 39

* *

-.1 15

.0 38

.5 24

.4 80

.3 43

** S

ig ni

fi ca

nt a

t t he

0 .0

1 le

ve l

(2 -t

ai le

* Si

gn if

ic an

t a t

th e

0. 05

le ve

l (2

-t ai

le d)

APPENDIX III:

Educator Perceptions - Mean Responses (T-Test)

Role

M SD

Teacher

2.71 .656

2.59 .701

1.89 .764

2.89 .764

2.32 .661

2.61 .691

2.54 .827

2.63 .851

1.90 1.030

2.85 1.155

2.88 1.178

2.86 1.105

3.00 1.009

2.55 1.093

2.75 1.123

2.98 1.075

2.61 .996

2.50 1.604

2.92 .900

2.63 .945

Administrator

2.80 .531

2.74 .780

1.54 .817

3.20 .677

2.29 .667

2.35 .774

1.94 .776

2.52 .667

2.21 1.244

2.79 1.083

3.09 1.190

3.03 1.033

3.50 .882

2.76 1.146

2.72 1.279

3.00 1.186

3.24 .831

1.50 .707

2.64 .822

2.39 .827

Significant at 0.05 level ** Significant at 0.01 level ~ Neared significance at 0.07 level

161

8. Academic State:

9. High School Graduation:

10. * Concern:

11. * PSE Enrollment:

15. Dropout 1:

17. Implement Policy:

18. ** Change School Adults':

19. New Policies:

20a. Athletic/Extra Curricular:

20b. Attendance:

20c. Discipline:

20d. Dress/Attire:

20e. * Dropout 2:

20f. Graduation:

20g. Promotion:

20h. Retention:

20i. * Tracking:

20j. Other:

25. Separate Schools:

26. Separate Classrooms:

APPENDIX III (Continued):

Educator Perceptions - Mean Responses (T-Test)

Race

M SD

White

2.69 .629

2.61 .752

1.80 .791

3.01 .712

2.33 .696

2.67 .637

2.53 .775

2.48 .779

1.95 1.029

2.88 1.140

2.96 1.230

3.02 1.104

3.12 1.073

2.70 1.176

2.80 1.249

2.94 1.173

2.74 1.037

2.44 1.509

3.15 .702

2.74 .853

Black

2.93 .521

2.77 .728

1.57 .679

3.07 .868

2.33 .661

2.31 .806

1.86 .833

2.97 .823

2.29 1.357

2.86 1.125

3.07 1.033

2.82 1.020

3.35 .892

2.55 1.055

2.82 1.056

3.24 .951

2.94 .938

0.00 .000

2.11 .832

2.21 .819

* Significant at 0.05 level ** Significant at 0.01 level ~ Neared significance at 0.07 level

162

8. ~ Academic State:

9. High School Graduation:

10. Concern:

11. PSE Enrollment:

15. Dropout 1:

17. * Implement Policy:

18. ** Change School Adults':

19. ** New Policies:

20a. Athletic/Extra Curricular:

20b. Attendance:

20c. Discipline:

20d. Dress/Attire:

20e. Dropout 2:

20f. Graduation:

20g. Promotion:

20h. Retention:

20i. Tracking:

20j. Other:

25. ** Separate Schools:

26. ** Separate Classrooms:

APPENDIX III (Continued):

Educator Perceptions - Mean Responses (T-Test)

Multicultural

M SD

White

2.69 .629

2.61 .752

1.80 .791

3.01 .712

2.33 .696

2.67 .637

2.53 .775

2.48 .779

1.95 1.029

2.88 1.140

2.96 1.230

3.02 1.104

3.12 1.073

2.70 1.176

2.80 1.249

2.94 1.173

2.74 1.037

2.44 1.509

3.15 .702

2.74 .853

NonWhite

2.82 .594

2.70 .687

1.75 .809

2.95 .815

2.28 .599

2.25 .806

1.87 .801

2.79 .801

2.08 1.239

2.74 1.117

2.92 1.100

2.76 1.038

3.24 .867

2.47 .979

2.66 1.056

3.06 1.013

2.83 .917

1.00 .000

2.26 .891

2.26 .938

Significant at 0.05 level ** Significant at 0.01 level ~ Neared significance at 0.07 level

163

8. Academic State:

9. High School Graduation:

10. Concern:

11. PSE Enrollment:

15. Dropout 1:

17. ** Implement Policy:

18. ** Change School Adults':

19. * New Policies:

20a. Athletic/Extra Curricular:

20b. Attendance:

20c. Discipline:

20d. Dress/Attire:

20e. Dropout 2:

20f. Graduation:

20g. Promotion:

20h. Retention:

20i. Tracking:

20j. Other:

25. ** Separate Schools:

26. ** Separate Classrooms:

APPENDIX III (Continued):

Educator Perceptions - Mean Responses (T-Test)

Gender

M SD

Female

2.84 .601

2.68 .740

1.80 .833

3.04 .706

2.30 .591

2.56 .734

2.22 .841

2.66 .713

1.90 1.031

2.80 1.047

2.95 1.200

3.03 1.158

3.08 .996

2.60 1.072

3.03 1.052

2.94 1.043

2.76 .970

2.50 1.732

2.84 .949

2.36 .958

Male

2.68 .628

2.59 .716

1.75 .773

2.93 .772

2.33 .705

2.46 .738

2.32 .860

2.58 .850

2.05 1.176

2.86 1.210

2.97 1.189

2.87 1.057

3.23 1.020

2.61 1.161

2.53 1.217

3.04 1.160

2.79 1.031

2.17 1.472

2.86 .847

2.68 .880

* Significant at 0.05 level ** Significant at 0.01 level ~ Neared significance at 0.07 level

164

8. Academic State:

9. High School Graduation:

10. Concern:

11. PSE Enrollment:

15. Dropout 1:

17. Implement Policy:

18. Change School Adults':

19. New Policies:

20a. Athletic/Extra Curricular:

20b. Attendance:

20c. Discipline:

20d. Dress/Attire:

20e. Dropout 2:

20f. Graduation:

20g. ~ Promotion:

20h. Retention:

20i. Tracking:

20j. Other:

25. Separate Schools:

26. Separate Classrooms:

APPENDIX IV:

Educator Perceptions - Response Variations (ANOVA)

8. Academic State:

9. High School Graduation:

10. Concern:

11. PSE Enrollment:

15. Dropout 1:

17. Implement Policy:

18. Change School Adults':

19. New Policies:

20a. Athletic/Extra Curricular:

20b. Attendance:

20c. Discipline:

20d. Dress/Attire:

20e. Dropout 2:

20f. Graduation:

20g. Promotion:

20h. Retention:

20i. Tracking:

20j. Other:

25. Separate Schools:

26. Separate Classrooms:

df 104

105

106

105

104

100

103

100

101

100

F .340

.741

1.934

.237

1.152

.492

2.094

.056

.686

.699

.868

1.935

1.289

.474

.102

.072

1.415

.687

.803

.602

Urban 2.78

2.64

1.67

3.04

2.20

2.47

2.25

2.59

1.95

2.96

2.95

2.66

3.09

2.52

2.68

2.97

2.54

1.80

2.73

2.59

Setting

Suburb 2.73

2.70

1.81

2.96

2.36

2.59

2.22

2.58

2.12

2.82

3.04

3.09

3.32

2.72

2.80

2.98

2.97

3.00

2.88

2.47

Rural 2.60

2.40

2.20

3.10

2.50

2.40

2.80

2.50

1.70

2.50

3.17

2.71

2.44

2.75

3.14

2.67

2.00

3.10

2.80

: Significant at the 0.05 level ** Significant at the 0.01 level ~ Neared significance at the 0.07 level

165

APPENDIX IV (Continued):

Educator Perceptions - Response Variations (ANOVA)

8. Academic State:

9. * High School Graduation:

10. Concern:

11. PSE Enrollment:

15. * Dropout 1:

17. Implement Policy:

18. Change School Adults':

19. New Policies:

20a. Athletic/Extra Curricular:

20b. Attendance:

20c. Discipline:

20d. Dress/Attire:

20e. Dropout 2:

20f. Graduation:

20g. Promotion:

20h. Retention:

20i. Tracking:

20j. Other:

25. Separate Schools:

26. Separate Classrooms:

df 104

105

106

105

104

100

103

100

101

100

F .519

3.220

.748

.875

3.091

.024

.377

.666

.716

2.432

2.013

.075

.514

.254

1.328

.315

1.665

2.054

.888

1.552

Small 2.68

2.46

1.86

2.98

2.16

2.51

2.36

2.57

2.11

2.70

2.77

2.88

3.08

2.54

2.70

2.98

2.70

3.00

2.85

2.61

Size

Medium 2.80

2.81

1.67

3.05

2.42

2.52

2.21

2.67

1.88

2.86

3.05

2.97

3.21

2.70

2.66

2.94

3.00

1.33

2.86

2.64

Large 2.70

2.78

1.90

2.70

2.60

2.57

2.33

1.75

3.62

3.56

2.89

3.44

2.67

3.43

3.33

2.29

1.00

2.44

2.10

* Significant at the 0.05 level ** Significant at the 0.01 level ~ Neared significance at the 0.07 level

166

APPENDIX IV (Continued):

Educator Perceptions - Response Variations (ANOVA)

8. Academic State:

9. High School Graduation:

10. Concern:

11. PSE Enrollment:

15. Dropout 1:

17. Implement Policy:

18. Change School Adults':

19. New Policies:

20a. Athletic/Extra Curricular:

20b. Attendance:

20c. Discipline:

20d. Dress/Attire:

20e. Dropout 2:

20f. Graduation:

20g. Promotion:

20h. Retention:

20i. Tracking:

20j. Other:

25. Separate Schools:

26. Separate Classrooms:

df 105

106

107

106

100

105

101

104

101

102

101

F .508

.038

.053

2.467

.840

1.406

.730

.278

.402

1.862

.141s

.169

.580

1.201

.603

1.350

.593

.824

1.380

.867

Socioeconomic Status

Low 2.78

2.63

1.77

3.13

2.31

2.51

2.37

2.64

2.09

3.00

2.97

2.92

3.29

2.59

2.80

3.14

2.65

2.44

2.86

2.65

Low/Mid 2.83

2.71

1.83

2.86

2.00

3.00

2.29

2.57

1.83

2.29

2.71

2.67

3.00

2.00

2.20

2.50

2.80

1.00

3.33

2.71

Middle 2.67

2.64

1.81

2.81

2.35

2.48

2.17

2.52

1.90

2.68

2.95

2.94

3.06

2.74

2.73

2.84

2.93

0.00

2.71

2.42

: Significant at the 0.05 level ** Significant at the 0.01 level ~ Neared significance at the 0.07 level

167

APPENDIX IV (Continued):

Educator Perceptions - Response Variations (ANOVA)

8. Academic State:

9. High School Graduation:

10. ** Concern:

11. PSE Enrollment:

15. Dropout 1:

17. Implement Policy:

18. Change School Adults':

19. * New Policies:

20a. Athletic/Extra Curricular:

20b. Attendance:

20c. Discipline:

20d. Dress/Attire:

20e. Dropout 2:

20f. Graduation:

20g. * Promotion:

20h. * Retention:

20i. Tracking:

20j. Other:

25. Separate Schools:

26. Separate Classrooms:

df 103

104

105

104

103

102

100

F 1.131

2.339

4.414

.143

2.084

1.681

.998

2.853

1.584

.466

.287

1.081

.757

.473

2.702

3.152

1.358

1.616

.902

.769

22-27 2.40

2.30

2.40

2.90

2.40

2.60

2.30

2.70

2.10

3.10

3.00

2.67

3.50

2.50

3.25

4.00

3.12

2.00

2.67

2.33

Educator

28-35 2.82

2.39

2.14

2.96

2.00

2.86

2.36

2.48

2.25

2.59

2.73

2.47

2.88

2.45

2.20

2.67

2.27

0.00

3.09

2.68

36-45 2.75

2.67

1.46

3.08

2.54

2.46

2.17

2.87

1.88

2.91

3.00

3.05

2.50

2.81

3.14

2.73

1.50

2.62

2.33

Age

46-55 2.83

2.89

1.64

2.97

2.31

2.44

2.17

2.71

2.18

2.79

3.06

3.09

3.30

2.82

3.07

3.00

3.25

2.81

2.61

55 < 2.65

2.65

1.72

3.00

2.33

2.31

2.61

2.11

1.47

2.94

2.89

3.00

3.31

2.65

2.17

2.36

2.60

0.00

2.89

2.72

: Significant at the 0.05 level ** Significant at the 0.01 level ~ Neared significance at the 0.07 level

168

APPENDIX IV (Continued):

Educator Perceptions - Response Variations (ANOVA)

8. Academic State:

9. High School Graduation:

10. Concern:

11. PSE Enrollment:

15. Dropout 1:

17. Implement Policy:

18. Change School Adults':

19. New Policies:

20a. Athletic/Extra Curricular:

20b. Attendance:

20c. Discipline:

20d. Dress/Attire:

20e. Dropout 2:

20f. Graduation:

20g. Promotion:

20h. Retention:

20i. Tracking:

20j. Other:

25. Separate Schools:

26. Separate Classrooms:

df 103

104

105

104

103

102

100

F 1.594

1.509

1.280

1.718

.277

1.712

1.651

.687

.428

1.666

.823

1.323

1.010

1.171

1.346

.598

.705

.646

.680

1.062

1-3 2.55

2.55

2.09

3.09

2.20

2.80

2.30

2.64

1.80

2.55

2.40

2.62

3.50

2.10

3.00

3.25

2.70

2.00

2.60

2.11

Experience (in

4-7 2.57

2.39

1.96

2.75

2.25

2.56

2.50

2.64

2.15

2.96

2.93

2.61

2.86

2.41

2.91

2.47

1.50

3.00

2.57

8-15 2.92

2.81

1.73

3.15

2.33

2.72

1.96

2.63

1.93

2.48

3.00

2.96

3.26

2.84

2.73

3.23

3.00

3.25

2.67

2.52

years)

16-25 2.88

2.81

1.62

3.25

2.44

2.31

2.27

2.79

2.21

3.33

3.27

3.42

3.07

2.73

3.31

2.91

2.75

2.00

2.85

2.43

25 < 2.74

2.67

1.62

2.89

2.31

2.32

2.41

2.39

1.89

2.86

2.93

3.00

3.38

2.74

2.67

2.78

2.94

1.00

2.89

2.79

: Significant at the 0.05 level ** Significant at the 0.01 level ~ Neared significance at the 0.07 level

169

APPENDIX IV (Continued):

Educator Perceptions - Response Variations (ANOVA)

8. Academic State:

9. High School Graduation:

10. Concern:

11. PSE Enrollment:

15. Dropout 1:

17. Implement Policy:

18. Change School Adults':

19. New Policies:

20a. Athletic/Extra Curricular:

20b. Attendance:

20c. Discipline:

20d. Dress/Attire:

20e. Dropout 2:

20f. Graduation:

20g. Promotion:

20h. Retention:

20i. Tracking:

20j. Other:

25. Separate Schools:

26. Separate Classrooms:

103

104

105

104

103

102

100

.347

.265

.694

.166

.517

.632

.712

.797

.619

.750

.241

.614

2.046

.391

.680

.465

1.072

3.200

.313

.422

1-3 2.74

2.56

1.92

2.95

2.24

2.49

2.34

2.59

2.08

2.70

2.92

2.83

3.31

2.53

2.87

3.17

2.78

1.50

2.82

2.47

Time in

4-7 2.74

2.70

1.64

3.05

2.40

2.63

2.24

2.70

2.09

2.95

2.94

2.72

2.55

2.94

2.58

1.50

2.81

2.53

Position (i

8-15 2.78

2.63

1.78

3.00

2.32

2.41

2.17

2.47

1.65

2.72

3.06

3.18

3.62

2.67

2.94

2.93

3.17

3.50

2.76

2.65

in years)

16-25 2.33

2.50

2.00

3.00

2.00

2.67

3.00

2.00

1.67

2.33

2.67

2.00

2.50

2.00

0.00

3.33

2.67

25 < 2.80

2.80

1.80

2.80

2.20

2.40

2.00

3.40

3.00

2.40

3.20

2.60

3.00

2.60

3.00

0.00

3.00

: Significant at the 0.05 level ** Significant at the 0.01 level ~ Neared significance at the 0.07 level

170

APPENDIX IV (Continued):

Educator Perceptions - Response Variations (ANOVA)

Race of Class (by %)

df 1-20 21-40 41-60 61-80 81-100

8. Academic State:

9. High School Graduation:

10. Concern:

11. PSE Enrollment:

15. Dropout 1:

17. Implement Policy:

18. Change School Adults':

19. New Policies:

20a. Athletic/Extra Curricular:

20b. Attendance:

20c. Discipline:

20d. Dress/Attire:

20e. Dropout 2:

20f. Graduation:

20g. Promotion:

20h. Retention:

20i. Tracking:

20j. * Other:

25. Separate Schools:

26. Separate Classrooms:

.567

.118

2.183

1.030

1.045

1.209

1.161

.807

.687

1.361

1.149

.242

.368

1.552

.395

.119

.375

22.143

.760

.131

2.57

2.50

2.57

2.71

2.43

3.00

2.43

2.57

1.43

2.17

2.57

2.83

2.80

2.67

3.00

2.80

2.40

5.00

3.00

2.67

2.73 2.58 2.79 2.83

2.73 2.60 2.62 2.65

2.09 1.76 1.67 1.78

3.00 2.70 3.08 3.04

2.40 2.52 2.21 2.17

2.80 2.56 2.45 2.48

2.70 2.62 2.22 2.26

2.27 2.75 2.61 2.78

2.30 2.00 2.18 2.14

3.18 3.05 2.57 3.00

3.30 2.85 2.55 3.13

3.12 3.12 2.80 2.91

3.12 3.19 2.94 3.33

3.11 2.95 2.23 2.70

2.75 3.08 2.61 2.95

3.00 3.07 3.09 3.16

2.75 3.00 2.62 2.75

0.00 2.00 5.00 1.67

3.20 2.95 2.90 2.65

2.70 2.68 2.55 2.52

: Significant at the 0.05 level ** Significant at the 0.01 level ~ Neared significance at the 0.07 level

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APPENDIX IV (Continued):

Educator Perceptions - Response Variations (ANOVA)

8. Academic State:

9. High School Graduation:

10. Concern:

11. PSE Enrollment:

15. Dropout 1:

17. Implement Policy:

18. Change School Adults':

19. New Policies:

20a. ~ Athletic/Extra Curricular:

20b. Attendance:

20c. Discipline:

20d. Dress/Attire:

20e. Dropout 2:

20f. Graduation:

20g. Promotion:

20h. Retention:

20i. Tracking:

20j. Other:

25. * Separate Schools:

26. Separate Classrooms:

105

106

107

100

106

105

101

104

101

102

101

.750

.371

.235

.295

.185

1.058

1.523

1.468

2.977

1.725

.039

.394

.096

.257

.096

.268

.113

2.362

4.589

1.589

Blacks

34-56 2.69

2.62

1.81

2.96

2.32

2.58

2.41

2.50

1.84

2.73

2.94

2.95

3.14

2.65

2.75

3.05

2.80

2.00

2.96

2.65

in School (by %)

57-78 2.89

2.78

1.78

3.11

2.33

2.53

2.06

2.78

2.56

3.28

3.00

3.21

2.67

2.82

2.88

2.75

5.00

2.88

2.53

79-100 2.78

2.61

1.67

3.00

2.22

2.29

2.06

2.78

2.11

2.78

2.89

2.71

3.27

2.44

2.65

2.87

2.62

2.00

2.28

2.22

: Significant at the 0.05 level ** Significant at the 0.01 level ~ Neared significance at the 0.07 level

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APPENDIX V:

Survey Instrument

BLACK MALE PERSISTENCE THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL

For the purpose of this survey, the terms Black and African American, despite their traditional meanings, are used interchangeably and refers to all persons of African ancestry.

Policy is defined as those written rules and regulations enacted by the federal government, the state, the local school district, and your school.

Persistence is defined as normal progress 1) passing from grade to grade in high school, 2) graduating from high school with the same class the student entered, and 3) entering into post-secondary education.

EDUCATOR DEMOGRAPHICS

1. I am a: • teacher • administrator

2. My gender is: • Female ^Male

3. My age is within the following range:

• 22-27 yrs • 28-35 yrs • 36-45 yrs • 46-55 yrs • 56 or more yrs

4. I have been an educator for:

• 1-3 yrs • 4-7 yrs • 8-15 yrs • 15-25 yrs • more than 25 yrs

5. I have been in my current position for:

• 1-3 yrs • 4-7 yrs • 8-15 yrs • 15-25 yrs • more than 25 yrs

6. I self identify as:

• White • Black/African American • Asian • Native American • Hispanic • Pacific Islander or Alaskan Native

7. The percentage range of the Black/African American students in my class(es) is:

• l%-20% •21%^I0% •41%-60% •61%-80% •81%-100%

QUESTIONS

Please check one response for each question item.

8. Academically speaking, I would say that Black males at my school are doing:

• Extremely well •Acceptable • N o t so well •Quite poorly

9. I am satisfied with the graduation rate of Black males at my school:

• Strongly agree • agree • disagree • Strongly disagree

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10. My concern for academic progress of Black males at my school is:

• Significant D Large • Moderate • Small

11. I am satisfied with the rate at which Black male students in my school graduate and enroll in post- secondary institutions:

• Strongly agree D a 9 r e e Q disagree • Strongly disagree

12. I think that in general Black males fare well at this school primarily because of: (check all that apply)

• Administrative policies that address their needs • Classroom practices which value them • Other • N/A - Black males are not doing well at my school

13. It is my opinion that Black males do not fare well at this school as demonstrated by their: (check all that apply)

• Grades/GPA • Standardized test scores • Dropout rates • Lower ability track • Persistence rate to the next grade level • N/A - Black males are doing well generally speaking

• Other

14. In my opinion, Black males at my school are:

• Promoted from one grade level to the next at the same rate as other students • Retained within grade level more often than other students

15. When compared to other students at my school, Black males seem:

• Less likely to drop out • Equally likely to drop out • More likely to drop out

16. There is not a racial gap of learning amongst males in general (regardless of race) at my school:

• Strongly agree • a 9 r e e Q disagree • Strongly disagree

17. The issue of Black male performance in my school is best addressed through implementing policy:

• Strongly agree D a 9 r e e D disagree • Strongly disagree

18. The best approach to the issue of Black male performance in my school is through changing the actions of adults at my school:

• Strongly agree D a 9 r e e Q disagree • Strongly disagree

19. We do not need any new policies regarding Black male performance at my school:

• Strongly agree • agree • disagree • Strongly disagree

174

20. Listed below are several policies. In the second column, circle "Yes"if you have this policy in your school or circle "Ato" if you do not. In the third column, for each policy circled "Yes,"circle your perception as to the impact of this policy in aiding Black males' persistence through school (grade to grade and high school to college):

1-Extremely Well; 2-Acceptable; 3-No Impact; 4-Not So Well; 5-Quite Poorly.

Policy

A. Athletic/extra curricular participation

B. Attendance

C. Discipline

D. Dress/attire

E. Dropout

F. Graduation

G. Promotion

H. Retention

I. Tracking/ability grouping

J. List other policy not stated above that impacts Black male persistence.

School Has such a policy

Yes No

YES

NO YES

YES

The impact of this policy on Black male persistence in high school 1. Extremely well 2. Acceptable 3. No Impact 4. Not so well 5. Quite poorly

1 2 3 4 5

21. I believe that the following policy or policies (as identified in question 20) are targeted at improving the education of Black males at my school: (circle all that apply)

A B C D E F G H I J

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22. From my perspective, the following policy or policies (as identified in question 20) have a more harmful impact on Black male persistence than on the persistence of other students at my school: (circle all that apply)

A B C D E F G H I J

23. From my viewpoint, the following policy or policies (as identified in question 20) have a more favorable impact on Black male persistence than on the persistence of other students at my school: (circle all that apply)

A B C D E F G H I J

24. To improve Black male performance at this school, I think the following should be done:

25. I think the "all Black male school/academy" is a good approach to the issues of Black male persistence:

• Strongly agree • agree • disagree • Strongly disagree

26. Gender separate classrooms is one policy strategy that should adopted to improve Black male persistence:

• Strongly agree • agree • disagree • Strongly disagree

Please check one response for each question item.

SCHOOL DEMOGRAPHICS

27. The setting in which this school is located is considered:

• Urban/large city • Suburban/medium city • Rural/town

28. The size of the student population of this school can be classified as:

• Small (>1000) • Medium (1000-2500) • Large (<2500)

29. I would classify the community in which this school operates as:

• Low-income • Middle-income • High-income

End of Survey Thank You

If you would like a copy of this research, please enclose an address on a separate sheet of paper where the completed study can be sent.

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