Business school deans at historically black colleges and universities are teaming up with private industry to implement a rigorous high school program for African-American students who plan to go to college.
The project, which will receive $100,000 in start-up funding from the Ford Motor Co., will be piloted in a handful of schools to be selected by the colleges’ Business Deans Roundtable.
The Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies will supply a college-prep curriculum in academic knowledge, interpersonal and human-performance skills, and business concepts. It was crafted with the help of the Education Development Center, a nonprofit research organization in Newton, Mass.
“It really is focused on enhancing a student’s possibility of going to college and being successful in college,” said Barron Harvey, the business dean at Howard University in Washington. “It also would probably highlight for the students who’ve not given strong consideration to college more information about the skills they will need to succeed in higher education.”
Ford also worked with the National Council of LaRaza this past summer to introduce the curriculum in high schools with large Latino populations in Kansas City, Mo.; Lancaster, Pa.; Milwaukee; and Washington.
