Equity & Diversity

College Board Report Examines State of Minority Male Students

By Ian Quillen — January 29, 2010 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Male students who are members of minority groups continue to face overwhelming obstacles to pursuing their academic aspirations, according to a report from the College Board. The result, it says, is a little-talked-about “third America” that is predominantly male, largely incapable of contributing to society, and often destined to be incarcerated.

Members of Congress and educators warned of the consequences of failing to address those obstacles at a Capitol Hill forum last week, held in conjunction with the release of “The Educational Crisis Facing Young Men of Color.”

The report includes testimony from more than 60 scholars, practitioners, and activists convened by the New York City-based sponsor of the sat college-admissions test at four seminars called “dialogue days.” Each day was devoted to experiences of a particular group: African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, and American Indians.

The report emphasizes that the nation is approaching a point in the future—estimated to be 2050—when minorities will constitute a collective majority. While its findings about the educational plight of minority males aren’t particularly surprising, commentators said, the moment in history makes them particularly troubling.

See Also

For more on educating boys, visit the related Education Week blog, “Why Boys Fail.”

“It’s gotten to the point where we’re talking about, almost, a permanent underclass in this country, and that is a very, very dangerous development,” said U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which partnered with the Asian Pacific American and black caucuses to sponsor the Jan. 26 briefing. “And it comes at a time … when the hues and the tones and the colors of this nation’s face are changing. That population merits more attention now because of that demographic shift that is happening across this nation.”

The College Board report says the crisis it explores has been overlooked by much of society, but is shared by male students across minority backgrounds. Its common themes include a lack of male role models, a search for respect outside of education, the sense of a failing education system, poverty, language barriers, community pressures, and a loss of cultural memory.

“We have studied it exhaustively, the challenges facing black males and males of color in general, but we’ve been unable to execute a plan that changes the results,” said Sidney Ribeau, the president of Howard University, a historically black institution in Washington. “That’s what I think we need to be doing, and I think the College Board by convening individuals here has taken a very important step.”

Declining Educational Levels

The report notes that the U.S. Census Bureau projects that more than half the nation’s children will be members of minorities by 2023, and that members of minority groups are expected to make up 54 percent of the nation’s population by 2050.

Noting that only 26 percent of blacks, 18 percent of Hispanics, and 26 percent of American Indians complete postsecondary degrees—with the percentages even lower among men—the report warns that “the overall educational level of the overall American workforce will probably decline” into the foreseeable future.

“Sometimes we need to sort of revisit our own experiences and say, what was it that exempted us from that and helped me be here today?” said U.S. Rep Mike Honda, D-Calif., the chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. “Looking at the exceptions and those kinds of things, maybe we ought to pay attention to that. And I think [President Barack Obama] has something to say about that, too.”

The report points to programs it says have helped create such exceptions, including the Harlem Children’s Zone, which couples child and family services in that New York City neighborhood.

Roy Jones, the project manager of the Call Me mister program at Clemson University, in Clemson, S.C., sat in on a panel discussion and detailed his program, which recruits high school males from underprivileged communities to study education and return to teach at underprivileged schools.

Educators hoped the findings from the College Board report and their discussion would be a step toward fighting a crisis they say is largely overlooked for a variety of reasons. Those include a presumption that the educational process is tilted in favor of all males, or that issues facing each minority group are independent of each other. They also include, said several panelists, inadequate data for student achievement broken down along race and gender lines.

“Not only are we having trouble finding gender differences, or gender and race differences, and getting that information together,” said Luis Ponjuan, an assistant professor at the University of Florida, “but we even have trouble finding more specific information regarding subgroups within the ethnic groups.”

Then there’s the perception that not all minority groups face disadvantages. For example, said Robert Teranishi, an associate professor of higher education at New York University, Asian-American students could be categorized as a “model minority” because of their academic achievement.

“That’s inaccurate, misleading, and damaging,” Mr. Teranishi said, pointing to studies that find Asian-American students have high rates of academic dissatisfaction and depression, as well as the huge swath of ethnic variety within the term “Asian.”

“If there’s any conclusion that can be drawn about the population,” he said, “it’s that they’re an incredibly heterogeneous group, and there’s really no single narrative that can capture their range of educational experiences.”

A version of this article appeared in the February 03, 2010 edition of Education Week as Report Examines Obstacles for Minority Male Students

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Equity & Diversity Teacher, Students Sue Arkansas Over Ban on Critical Race Theory
A high school teacher and two students asked a federal judge to strike down the restrictions as unconstitutional.
2 min read
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs an education overhaul bill into law, March 8, 2023, at the state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark. On Monday, March 25, 2024, a high school teacher and two students sued Arkansas over the state's ban on critical race theory and “indoctrination” in public schools, asking a federal judge to strike down the restrictions as unconstitutional.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs an education overhaul bill into law, March 8, 2023, at the state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark.
Andrew DeMillo/AP
Equity & Diversity Opinion What March Madness Can Teach Schools About Equity
What if we modeled equity in action in K-12 classrooms after the resources provided to college student-athletes? asks Bettina L. Love.
3 min read
A young student is celebrated like a pro athlete for earning an A+!
Chris Kindred for Education Week
Equity & Diversity Girls Are Falling in Love With Wrestling, the Nation's Fastest-Growing High School Sport
A surging number of states have sanctioned the sport, with bolstering from various groups.
6 min read
Benton's Callie Hess, left, battles Plum's Saphia Davis, right, during the first found of the PIAA High School Wrestling Championships in Hershey, Pa., on March 7, 2024. Girls’ wrestling has become the fastest-growing high school sport in the country.
Callie Hess, left, battles Saphia Davis, right, during the first round of the PIAA High School Wrestling Championships in Hershey, Pa., on March 7, 2024. Girls’ wrestling has become the fastest-growing high school sport in the country.
Matt Rourke/AP
Equity & Diversity What's Permissible Under Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Law? A New Legal Settlement Clarifies
The Florida department of education must send out a copy of the settlement agreement to school boards across the state.
4 min read
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis answers questions from the media, March 7, 2023, at the state Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. Students and teachers will be able to speak freely about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms under a settlement reached March 11, 2024 between Florida education officials and civil rights attorneys who had challenged a state law which critics dubbed “Don't Say Gay.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis answers questions from the media, March 7, 2023, at the state Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. Students and teachers will be able to speak freely about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms under a settlement reached March 11, 2024, between Florida education officials and civil rights attorneys who had challenged the state's “Don't Say Gay” law.
Phil Sears/AP