Examines mentoring programs aimed at helping young African-American males.

A companion to the author's Success Factors of Young African American Males (1998), this study examines the historical, sociological, and psychological adversity that African American women have had to transcend. This volume contains case studies of young African American women. The young women share their experiences and insights and show how they have overcome considerable obstacles and persevered in obtaining a college education at an historically black college.The author compares, contrasts, and analyzes the comments of both groups, male and female, and their affect on each other. The book includes first-person narrations of young women, growing up in an inner city environment. From the voices and perspectives of college students, readers will become aware of the obstacles still plaguing black youth. Their individual interviews include accounts of violence, murder, poverty, unwed motherhood, prostitution, drug abuse, one-parent homes, and lack of role models.

This book will help educators rethink their expectations of and practices for developing the literacy skills of Black boys in the elementary school classroom. Tatum shows educators how to bring students’ literacy development into greater focus by creating an early intellectual infrastructure of advanced literacy, knowledge, and personal development. He provides a strong conceptual frame, with associated instructional and curricular practices, designed to move Black boys from across the economic spectrum toward advanced literacy that aligns with the Black intellectual tradition. Readers will learn how to use texts from a broad range of potential professions, across academic disciplines, to nurture social and scientific consciousness. The text includes guidance for selecting texts, reading supports, prompts for analysis, and examples of student work. Teaching Black Boys in the Elementary Grades counters the current obsession with basic and proficient reading and argues for adopting an exponential growth model of literacy development. Book Features: A multidimensional model that supports reading and writing development.Student writing artifacts that can be used as a model for teachers.Sample lessons with texts for use across the academic disciplines.A strong conceptual and curricular frame to support educators in their text selection.

Bringing unique perspectives from the field, this resource offers multiple perspectives on African American male achievement from top scholars in the field of urban education.

* How can teachers address the challenge of educating boys for life in the 21st century? * What aspects of schooling are particularly problematic for boys? * How do issues of class, race and sexuality impact upon boys educational experiences? This edited collection brings together leading researchers from Australia, United Kingdom and the United States to explore issues of boys, schooling and masculinities within the context of the current concern about the education of boys. The contributors draw on detailed empirical research to highlight some important issues that are not addressed in public debates about boys in the media. Chapter topics include international perspectives on debates about boys; teaching boys; programs for boys in schools; boys and risk taking; boys and discipline; boys and sexuality; Afro-American boys; indigenous boys in Australian schools; boys and reading; boys and maths; boys, dance and sport; boys and science; girls' talk about boys. The book will be important and compelling reading for all teachers concerned with the education of boys.

The contributors to this book write from their varying perspectives as educators, psychiatrists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and social workers to provide a broad, interdisciplinary view of the possible solutions to the different problems facing African American Men.

Rempson takes issue with those who lay the plight of African Americans on racism, not seeing it, today, as a major obstacle to black progress. Rather, he traces the origin back to what he terms the African American Garden of Eden. In it, W. E. B. Dubois outlasted Booker T. Washington and fathered a tradition which Rempson argues has produced a victim identity and an emphasis on the system rather than the self. Only black males offer a way out, he declares, because it is entirely “our black males who are keeping us down and curtailing our progress,” in contrast to black females, who “are doing OK.” They are plagued by what Rempson calls the African American Male School Adaptability Crisis (AMSAC). Their academic performance ranks at the bottom, alone, below black female students and below white, Asian, and Hispanic male students. In large urban areas, their high school dropout rate is 59 percent and, nationally, they lag behind in college attendance and graduation rates. The outcome, Rempson argues, is dysfunctionality and the existence of hedonistic norms which hinder family and community stability. But while black males are the problem, Rempson contends, it is nevertheless only they who can solve it because research and experience show that it takes males to bring up and change other males. Though intended for everyone, he therefore writes his book to his fellow advantaged black males and makes a passionate plea for them to step up and, with the help of black females and of the nation, take the lead. As their guide, he has formulated eight propositions. Arrived at through an examination of impressively extensive data from numerous sources and disciplines, they are a marked departure from the customary. Most strikingly, delicate matters, such as those which pertain to intelligence quotient (IQ) and culture, are openly confronted and dealt with. But, Rempson writes, “unless confronted, we will not solve our problems.” “Nor,” he continues, “can we solve them unless we cut the umbilical cord to white America. We have no right to expect it to be our savior; nor are we justified in perceiving it as our oppressor.” Forcefully and finely written, Rempson’s book is a singular and courageous contribution. Alone, his eight propositions make it a worthy read.

The plight of the Black male in American society has been well-documented by scholars and practitioners. Although Black males represent only 6 percent of the American population, they represent about 40 percent of the prison population; the number of Black males in prison and jail exceeds the number of Black males in higher education. The homicide rates for Black males were 72.5 percent per 100,000, nearly eight times higher than for White males. This bibliographic volume explores the extent to which American academia has addressed these problems. It will be an invaluable resource for researchers as well as practitioners in social service programs. In addition to more than 400 annotated publications, the book includes a selected list of works on the African American male and a compilation of doctoral dissertations. This publication will serve as a reference in public as well as academic libraries, human service agencies, government policymaking agencies, and in academic courses in gender and ethnic studies, criminal justice, and social psychology.