Program motivates young blacks to excel in school

Lucas L. Johnson II

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Justin Blackburn is only 13 years old, but he knows what he needs to be competitive later in life:

“There’s no doubt in my mind college can give you an advantage,” he said. “If you want to be a lawyer or a doctor, it gives you that opportunity.”

But studies show that black teenagers like Justin often don’t see themselves as strong students, or imagine ever going to college.

The Scholar Identity Institute, a new summer program at Vanderbilt University, is aimed at changing that self-image and closing the achievement gap between white students and minorities.

Justin was among roughly 100 students who participated in the summer institute, which motivates young black men to do well in school and strongly consider going to college.

There are a number of initiatives aimed at closing the test-score gap between whites and minorities, but the focus of the Vanderbilt program is to take academic research and put it into practice.

The teens — mostly between 13 and 15, ranging from special education to honor-roll students — are taught self-confidence, self-awareness and self-control as ways to overcome peer pressure and other distractions.

“We’re teaching them to be more resilient in society,” said Dr. Gilman Whiting, an institute founder who has done nearly 20 years of research on low-achievement among black males.

The program identifies nine “constructs” of a scholarly black student: a belief that a black man can control his own destiny; a willingness to make sacrifices; setting long-term goals; self-awareness; the need for achievement being greater than the need for popularity; academic self-confidence; racial identity and pride; a belief that being smart doesn’t conflict with being masculine; and a notion called “self-efficacy.”

Instructors at the institute say self-efficacy — which includes self-confidence, personal faith and a sense of responsibility — is the most important of all the constructs.

“It’s like the little engine, ‘I can do it,”‘ said Dr. Donna Ford, co-founder of the institute and chair of education and human development in the department of special education at Vanderbilt. “No matter how many problems I face, no matter how many times I haven’t succeeded thus far, I can still do it.”

The achievement gap between blacks and other ethnic groups has persisted for years.

Recent results of the ACT exam, which measure students’ readiness for college-level work, show the average score for black students was 17.1, while whites scored 22 on average.

Even black students who took a full core curriculum — including four years of English and three years each of math, science and social studies — were outscored by white students who had not, according to the results.

Ford says statistics like that are unacceptable and said one way to improve the scores is to make sure minority students “have the right attitude” while they’re in high school.

For instance, instructors encouraged students to ask questions if they don’t understand a subject and to sit at the front of the class, not in the back where they’re likely to be distracted.

Whiting told the students to take class as seriously as they would a concert of their favorite performing artist.

“You think those people performing care about you,” he said. “They’re just there to take your money, entertain you and then they’re gone. These teachers are spending hours in front of you, and you’re going to take the cheapest seats in the room. That’s not good sense.”

A recent study by Public Agenda, a nonpartisan opinion research group that tracks education trends, showed most minority students want to attend college, but many lack confidence they will succeed there.

Only 49 percent of black students believe they will have the skills needed to succeed in college by the time they graduate from high school, the study showed, compared to 56 percent for Hispanic and 68 percent for white students.

Black students lack confidence, Ford said, because many of them are attending financially strapped schools that can’t afford the resources to prepare them for college.

“If they go to a college that’s synonymous with rigor, they realize they’re not prepared,” she said.

Danette Gerald, senior research associate with The Education Trust, an advocacy group for poor and minority children, said many minority students fall through the cracks once they get to college.

“These may be first-generation students,” Gerald said. “They need to have faculty and staff who are supportive and will make sure they’re engaged in the classroom and participating in college activities so they won’t feel isolated.”

Hill Harper, co-star of the hit television show “CSI:NY” and author of the book “Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny,” said black students need a good education in the same way an architect needs a solid foundation for a building.

“If the foundation isn’t strong enough, no matter how good the blueprint, no matter how good the framework, the building will collapse,” Harper told The Associated Press following a recent book signing in Atlanta. “We have to build a foundation of education, and college is an essential piece.”

(Associated Press)