Does Anyone Care About Alarming Dropout Rates Among Black Men?

The federal government should require all colleges to create early-alert systems that flag students with low test scores, missing assignments, or spotty attendance. That would be one way, according to a report released on Tuesday, to curb the alarming number of minority men who drop out of college. [SOURCE]

The report, "Advancing the Success of Boys and Men of Color in Education," is the result of brainstorming by diversity researchers at seven higher-education institutions. It is aimed at building on the momentum of My Brother's Keeper, the Obama administration's effort to improve education and career outcomes for young minority men.

Black men lag behind their peers in other races when it comes to graduating from both two- and four-year colleges, according to federal statistics that track their completion through 2009 and 2012, respectively. Only a third of black male students graduated from four-year colleges within six years, compared with 45 percent of Hispanic men, 57 percent of white men, and 64 percent of Asian men.

For two-year colleges, the percentages who received a certificate or degree or who transferred to a four-year college over six years were 32 for black, 30 for Latino, 40 for white, and 43 for Asian men. But minority men aren't the only ones who would benefit from the changes the group is proposing.

The report makes 11 policy recommendations aimed at better preparing and tracking students as they progress from pre-school through 12th grade. In addition, it offers four that specifically relate to higher education.

Read the full Black Star Journal article.

White High School Dropout Has Same Chances of Getting a Job as Black College Graduate

Some have claimed that America is in a post-racial, color-blind era since the election of President Barack Obama. They tell us that the need for race-based affirmative action policies is long-gone. However, those of us in this 'village' beg to differ.

For example, when it comes to employment, a white high school drop-out has the same chance of getting a job as a Black college graduate. That fact alone highlights the level of bias still present in the U.S., but it doesn’t end there.

According to ThinkProgress, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census researched how race impacts education and employment and the result should disabuse anyone of the notion that the U.S. is even close to becoming a post-racial society. The study found that a Black man with an associates degree has the same chance of getting a job as a white man with only a high school diploma.  That is wrong on so many levels.

“At every level of education, race impacts a person’s chance of getting a job,” researcher Tom Allison told ThinkProgress.

This fact is evidenced not only by the overall unemployment rate, but the unemployment rate for Black millennials, which was 16.6 percent in May, as compared to 7.1 percent for white millennials.

What are all the factors contributing to a high unemployment rate for Blacks?

The study attributes the employment gap mainly to hiring discrimination, high incarceration rates for Black people, and African Americans’ lack of inherited wealth from past generations due to a long history of discrimination. Less inherited wealth results in low homeownership rates and high deficits among African Americans: While a college-educated white American has an average net worth of $75,000, a college-educated Black American has a net worth of less than $17,500.

There is a bright light though, considering that, according to Rory O’Sullivan of the Young Invincibles’, Blacks do much better when they obtain advanced degrees. As an example, “a professional degree gives a Black male a 146 percent larger increase in employment opportunities than his white counterparts.”

'Post-racial' my ass!

Related articles

• A Black College Student Has The Same Chances Of Getting A Job As A White High School Dropout
• White High School Drop-Outs Are As Likely To Land Jobs As Black College Students
• Race Matters: Blacks With College Degrees Are Twice As Likely To Be Unemployed As White Or Asian Graduates
• The Colorblind Millennial Generation and the Problem With Being Blind to Race
• Economist: Black Unemployment Stays High Because Blacks Don't Give Up Looking

Good News Tuesday: 13-Year Old Autum Ashante Heads to College

Soulclap to Your Black World for sharing this good news message with us.

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Autum Ashante is not your typical 13-year old. She’s a poet with a high IQ who has mastered three different languages, has a strong sense of her culture and is headed to college this fall. Shante is going to be a freshman at The University of Connecticut after being home schooled by her parents.

Her father, Ben, was able to put all of his time into educating his daughter. He’d retired early and also worked with teachers in the community to ensure that his daughter had access to a high quality education.

“What she’s doing is groundbreaking but this is not about vanity,” he said. “It’s about setting the tone for other Black and Latino children who will come behind her. They’re always being told they are underachievers. We want to show this can be done.“

The Ashante family isn’t just shining the light on themselves for personal reasons, they want to make it clear that their daughter is an example for all to see the potential of their own children. They fully expect their child to serve as a role model to African American and Latino children everywhere. Well, from first glance, it appears that this young lady can also provide a good example for many adults as well.

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This blog will continue to seek out Good News stories about people of African descent and share them with you each Tuesday. We need to tell the positive and upbeat information about OURstory. We can't depend on others to do it for us. Please pass along any Good News story that comes your way. In the case of bloggers ... we want you to join our Good News parade every Tuesday.

Empowering Leadership Alliances Seeks High School Students of Color Interested in Computing Fields

In conjunction with Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), the Empowering Leadership Alliance (ELA) is starting an initiative to reach out to high school seniors interested in computing fields before they matriculate on their respective university campuses.

ELA is an NSF-funded program that engages underrepresented minority (URM) students in computing disciplines at research institutions in a nationwide network composed of leading universities including Rice University, UC Berkeley, and UT Austin.

Their mission is to increase the number of students from groups with long-standing under-representation that receive undergraduate and graduate degrees in the computing disciplines.

We are asking villagers to inform minority high school seniors who are interested in pursuing computing-related fields about EL Alliance. Ideally they should register with the online EL Alliance registration form.

After students register, they will be contacted by ELA staff who will invite them to:

• Ask questions about computing or classes or university academic life
• Participate in university student-led teleconferences where college students would answer the high school students’ questions,
• Be matched with a current college student,
• Participate in mentoring teleconferences, among other possibilities.

We think that CSTA and EL Alliance can help bridge the fragile pipeline from high school through college and graduate school so that our nation can benefit from these future minority leaders in computing. If you have any questions about the EL Alliance, please contact Alice Fisher.