Equity & Diversity

Inside One School’s Approach to Educating Young Black Men

November 07, 2017 2 min read
Students walk between classes at Ron Brown College Preparatory High School.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Effects of Poverty and Trauma on Students:

The statistics for black males are as sobering as they are well-known. In America’s public schools, they are disproportionately suspended or expelled. They are among the least likely to graduate from high school and go onto college. And they are more likely than any other group to be incarcerated.

Upending those outcomes is the mission of Ron Brown College Prep, a citywide public high school that is now in its second year.

The school provides single-gender education. Its faculty is predominately African-American men. It has a CARE team of social workers, counselors, a psychologist, and other professionals devoted solely to the social-emotional needs of the school’s students.

At the center of the school’s ethos is restorative justice, which holds students accountable for their misbehavior by making amends with the peers or teachers they offend, rather than suspending or otherwise excluding them. Students regularly visit college campuses, take overseas trips, and meet high-profile leaders in city government, journalism, and other fields—opportunities for enrichment that are rare in low-income schools.

None of those interventions by themselves is unique, but perhaps unlike any other school, Ron Brown is betting on a robust investment in all of them that together, the school’s supporters believe can make a significant difference in the lives of its young men.

To dive deeper into the complex issues highlighted in our reporting on Ron Brown College Prep, we’ve curated a list of Education Week articles and Commentaries:

Single-Gender Education:

Monica Hopkins-Maxwell, the executive director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia explains the legal hurdles to opening single-gender schools in the public school sector.

Erin Pahlke, an assistant professor of psychology at Whitman College, discusses what research has shown so far on the effectiveness of single-gender education.

Single-Gender Schools Prove Best for Some Students
Study Finds Single-Sex Schools Benefit Some—But Not All
Black Boys’ Educational Plight Spurs Single-Gender Schools
Commentary: Why Science Doesn’t Support Single-Sex Classes

Restorative Justice:

VIDEO: Psychologist Explains How Restorative Justice Works in High School for Young Men of Color
A District That Ditched In-School Suspensions
‘Restorative Justice’ Offers Alternative Discipline Approach
Commentary: How We Stopped Sending Students to Jail
Commentary: Restorative Justice: The Zero-Tolerance-Policy Overcorrection

Black Male Educators:

Study: Black Students More Likely to Graduate If They Have One Black Teacher
Black Male Teachers a Dwindling Demographic
Commentary: Black Teachers Matter. School Integration Doesn’t
Commentary: Where Are the Black Male Teachers?

Effects of Poverty and Trauma on Students:

VIDEO: Teaching Empathy to Combat Trauma
Author: To Reach Struggling Students, Schools Need to Be More Trauma-Sensitive’
Commentary: Student Trauma Is Real. But Connection Can Heal.
Commentary: The Brain Science Behind Student Trauma
Commentary: Five Steps for Trauma-Informed Ed. Leadership

Grading/Social Promotion:

Districts Weigh Student Retention With Stigma of Being ‘Held-Back’
More States Retaining Struggling 3rd Graders
Commentary: There Is No Such Thing as Social Promotion

Compiled by Librarian Maya Riser-Kositsky.

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

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 Quiz Quiz: What Are the Challenges and Strategies to Diversifying School Staff?
Test your knowledge of recruitment strategies, the role of mentorship in retaining teachers of color, and more.
1 min read
Rose Chu, founder of Elevate Teaching, speaks about the value of teachers, encouraging people to be in the teaching profession and how to rebrand teaching so good teachers want to join the profession at the Edifying, Elevating, and Uplifting Teachers of Color conference in Minneapolis, Minn., on Oct. 20, 2023.
Rose Chu, the founder of Elevate Teaching, which seeks to build a teaching profession that serves diverse classrooms, speaks about how to rebrand teaching so good teachers want to join the profession at a conference in Minneapolis on Oct. 20, 2023.
Andrea Ellen Reed for Education Week
Equity & Diversity The Perception of Suburban Schools as White and Wealthy Needs to Change, Researchers Say
The student body of suburban schools roughly mirrors that of the nation. But a view of suburban schools as mostly white persists.
3 min read
Peggy Carr, Commissioner of the National Center for Education, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press about the National Assessment of Education Process on Oct. 21, 2022, in Washington.
Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press on Oct. 21, 2022, in Washington. She spoke at a Nov. 29, 2023, conference in Washington on the growing diversity of the nation's suburban schools.
Alex Brandon/AP
Equity & Diversity Race Is a Big Factor in School Closures. What You Need to Know
Districts are more likely to close majority Black schools, researcher says.
5 min read
Key in keyhole on wood door
iStock/Getty Images Plus
Equity & Diversity Opinion There's a Difference Between Equity and Equality. Schools Need to Understand That
Equity looks different depending on the situation, and it's not always straightforward. That can cause confusion.
15 min read
Images shows colorful speech bubbles that say "Q," "&," and "A."
iStock/Getty