Disrupting Discourses of Failure: Counternarratives of Black Male Students and Academic Success at the Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men

• In Event: Roundtable Session 56
  In Roundtable Session: Urban Preparation: Black Males Moving From the South Side to Postsecondary Success

Abstract

Introduction
In the twenty-first century, African-American high school males in major cities continue to be “left behind” regarding the quality of their education. Providing schooling experiences that cater to their unique needs are lacking as evidenced in the abysmal failure of U.S. public schools to graduate them “college and career ready” (Schott Foundation, 2010). Urban Prep has received widespread media attention for its efforts at graduating and sending urban Black males to a 4-year college or university. This made the school an ideal site to better understand the factors underscoring its effectiveness. This study’s primary aim was to identify the strengths and challenges of Urban Prep for bolstering Black male student outcomes.

Methods
This case study employs a Critical Race Theory’s counter storytelling methodological approach (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002a, 2002b) to frame data collection and interpretation. The author was most interested in stakeholders often left out of the mainstream media’s stock story of Urban Prep. Data collection took place in Chicago, IL over six months. Ten participants comprised of two faculty members on staff during data collection, one administrator on staff during data collection, four former faculty members, and three alumni were recruited through snowball and convenience sampling methods. Participants were invited to speak about how they’ve experienced the academic and support programs of the school. Semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face and via the telephone. Themes of instruction, curriculum, academic supports, and conceptions of academic success across the data were catalogued.

Results
In general, “success” was reported in terms of graduation rates and college acceptance. However, conceptions of “success” varied widely. Generally, participants believed more attention to student performance on standardized tests over time was more telling about the quality of the school’s academic programs. On the contrary, the quality of academic rigor and the lack of academic preparedness for college was a site of contention. A common theme across the interviews emerged suggesting the danger of one-sided, superficial stories constructed about Urban Prep, its students, and its successes. Narrow perceptions and shallow accounts of the school’s accomplishments have had the greatest consequence on families interested in enrolling and those interested in creating similar spaces for Black boys in traditional neighborhood high schools.

Scholarly Significance
This paper complicates notions of success and failure in a single-sex school founded with the explicit intention to improve the life chances of Black boys who are statistically doomed because of where they were born. The literature is need of studies that offer balanced accounts of “school success”, the processes there in, and the role of student agency in achieving that success. Lastly, the paper explores the tensions of replicating this “model” school. The various stakeholder perspectives included offer a more ecological view of the strengths and challenges of the school’s academic approaches and instructional practices.

Author

• Brandi Nicole Williams, Syracuse University