Study Shows Improvements For Minority and Low-Income Students Under NCLB
June 27, 2008
- An independent study from the Center on Education Policy indicates that all students, including black and low-income students, are performing better on state reading and math tests since the introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002. Yet in the face of this positive news, some members of Congress would like to give NCLB a rest, suspending its authority until agreement can be reached on reauthorization. The NCLB Recess Until Reauthorization Act (H.R. 6239) would thwart the progress made toward a future in education where all students are guaranteed the basic civil right of a quality education.
According to the Campaign for High School Equity, progress reported in this study demonstrates the urgent need to strengthen and reauthorize NCLB immediately, not let it become a stalemate in Congress. Students of color are more likely to attend high schools that are significantly re-segregated, under resourced, have fewer qualified teachers, and offer less rigorous courses. In turn, more than half of the nation’s 1.2 million dropouts are students of color.
Now is the time to strengthen America’s high schools so that all students graduate with the skills they need for college, work, and life. The Campaign for High School Equity is taking this opportunity to reiterate its call for the following federal policy reforms, as defined in the organization’s A Plan for Success: 1) make all students proficient and prepared for college and work; 2) hold high schools accountable for student success; and 3) redesign the American high school.
Michael Wotorson, director of the Campaign for High School Equity, is available immediately for interviews on this topic.
The Campaign for High School Equity is a coalition of national civil rights organizations representing communities of color. Members of the Campaign include the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, the National Council of La Raza, the National Indian Education Association, the National Urban League, and the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center. The Alliance for Excellent Education serves as the Campaign’s convener and coordinator.
Operation HOPE Partners With White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to Strengthen Financial Literacy
June 20, 2008
- Leading national financial literacy nonprofit, Operation HOPE (HOPE), announced today a new initiative with the White House Initiative (WHI) on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to infuse a baseline knowledge of financial literacy, or what HOPE calls “the language of money” and silver rights, into the student population on every HBCU campus nationwide.
HOPE’s key charge will be to initiate programming for HOPE’s new Banking on Our Future, College Edition for the student populations, and alternatively to provide Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) outreach for college and university adult administrative staff making $40,000 or less per year. HOPE Founder and CEO, John Hope Bryant, who also serves as Vice Chairman for the U.S. President’s Advisory Council for Financial Literacy, was instrumental in developing and initiating the program framework. “The number one reason that black and brown young adults drop out of college is not academics; it’s money. Having our hard working young people drop out of college over money is unacceptable, particularly in an era when education is the best way out of poverty, and the principal pathway into individual, family and even collective community prosperity in the 21st century,” Bryant said.
Bryant will headline a signature forum during “HBCU Week” in Washington, D.C. later this year where the partnership will be advanced. Bryant continued, “the important contribution of African-Americans throughout America’s history is undeniable. Through this partnership HOPE looks to help HBCUs advance even further as institutions of change, through ’silver rights’, our mission to empower underserved communities. Making sure these academic centers remain footholds in the community is critical; and increasingly a financial education is a critical component of a student’s academic education. If you don’t know better, you can’t do better,” he noted.
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed Executive Order 12232, which established a federal program “… to overcome the effects of discriminatory treatment and to strengthen and expand the capacity of historically black colleges and universities to provide quality education.”(1)
In 1981, President Reagan, under Executive Order 12320, established the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which expanded the previous program and set into motion a government-wide effort to strengthen our nation’s HBCUs. In 1989, President George Bush signed Executive Order 12677. This executive order established a Presidential Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to advise the president and the secretary of education on methods, programs, and strategies to strengthen these valued institutions.
In 1993, President William Jefferson Clinton signed Executive Order 12876. This executive order required that a senior level executive in each agency have oversight in implementing the order, and that the Office of Management and Budget be involved in monitoring implementation of the order.
On Feb. 12, 2002, President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13256. This executive order transferred the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to the Office of the Secretary within the U.S. Department of Education. Previously, the White House Initiative was housed in the Department’s Office of Postsecondary Education.
Most recently a White House Initiative of President Bush requested $402.8 million in fiscal year 2008 to strengthen institutions of higher education that serve high proportions of minority and disadvantaged students, which will include HBCUs. Also, by executive order, Bush has proclaimed September 7 - 13, 2008 as National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week.
There will be some 600 representative leaders from the national HBCU community, federal agencies, corporations, and foundations joining together to participate in discussions exploring issues of particular interest to the Black college community.
“We are very excited about the value of this initiative,” said White House Initiative on HBCU Executive Director Dr. Leonard L. Haynes III. “It will help thousands of HBCU students increase their knowledge and awareness of the importance of financial literacy.”
Founding of Historically Black Colleges and Universities celebrated
June 11, 2008
- The first digital collection of documents and materials chronicling the founding of America’s historically black colleges and universities is now available online at contentdm.auctr.edu.
“A Digital Collection Celebrating the Founding of the Historically Black College and University” includes more than 1,000 scanned photographs, manuscripts, letters and publications from 10 institutions designated as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).
The project, which was funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, represents the first collaborative effort by HBCU libraries to make a historical collection digitally available. The online collection, which is hosted by the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center, is the product of a partnership between the HBCU Library Alliance, HBCU institutions, the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) and Cornell University.
The contents of the collection date back to the early 1800s and include campus charters, student yearbooks, early campus architectural drawings, and a rich assortment of photographs featuring first presidents, graduating classes, famous alumni and churches, which often served as the first classrooms at several of these institutions.
“This is an excellent resource for scholars and others interested in understanding the importance of institutions of higher learning founded by African-Americans. It offers direct access to original documents and images chronicling the story of these institutions, which are usually only available to researchers by travel to the institutions themselves,” said Dorothy Autrey, chair of the history and political science department at Alabama State University.
“The HBCU digital library collection opens the door to an area of the African-American experience, which can now receive the study and attention it deserves — the amazing contributions of historically black colleges and universities in the general struggle of a people for freedom and equality.”
The online collection features materials from Alabama State University, Atlanta University Center, Bennett College for Women, Fisk University, Grambling State University, Hampton University, Southern University, Tuskegee University, Tennessee State University and Virginia State University.
Commentary: Despite Reports to the Contrary, Boys are Not Being Shortchanged in Our Educational System
May 23, 2008
Judge Greg Mathis, Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com
- Years ago, noticing that, in subjects like math and science, girls did not perform as well as boys, schools systems across the country implemented programs designed to address the special learning needs of female students. In recent years, some experts have claimed there is a decrease in male student achievement, blaming it on past focus on female students. Lawmakers, education leaders and the public cannot allow themselves to become distracted by this imaginary crisis.
According to a new report released by the American Association of University Women, boys are not being shortchanged in schools. In fact, standardized test scores for boys have remained relatively the same over the last dozen or so years.
Fewer Blacks Earning Degrees
May 9, 2008
Jayne Matthews, Baltimore Times
- Dr. Burnett’s words have proven to true for thousands of college graduates. For a small, but growing group of Africans Americans it was also the passport to the prestige of earning a doctoral degree and the economic power to enter the upper middle class.
However, after almost two decades of uninterrupted progress, the number of blacks receiving doctoral degrees has declined by 10 percent for two consecutive years. According to a report recently published in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, blacks earned 7.1 percent of all doctorates awarded in the United States in 2004 and 6.2 percent in 2006. Here is an excerpt from the article titled “Once Again, a Decline in Doctoral Degree Awards to African Americans.”
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