"We Learn Through Our Struggles": Nuancing Notions of Urban Black Male Academic Preparation for College

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

Abstract

Objective
• Describe the instructional and social supports offered by Urban Prep from the perspective of the school’s alum
• Describe alumni’s perceptions of the utility of their academic preparation to achieve postsecondary success

Theoretical Perspectives
Academic preparation shows up as a chief predictor of college access and success (College Board, 2012; Perna, 2005; Tierney et al., 2009; Wimberly & Noeth, 2005). Students from low-income, urban communities of color continue to be underrepresented on college campuses and are least likely to access the resources needed to be college ready. In addition to the broader environmental risk factors associated with urban living facing young Black men such as gang violence and the lure of participation (Hagedorn, 1998; Harper & Associates, 2014), for example, there are numerous impediments to learning mediated at the school-level. These challenges include an influx of underprepared teachers to staff the most needy teaching assignments, fewer college prep course offerings, and unsafe schools (Adelman, 1999; Noguera, 2014; Roderick, 2003; Toldson & Lewis, 2012). Academically rigorous core curriculum, social relationships and space to build supportive social networks, and high school-university partnerships are some of the supports needed to ensure urban youth’s preparation for college (Adelman, 1999; Martinez & Klopott, 2005). Organizing instructional and social supports that respond to the specific needs of urban Black males is essential for minimizing the negative impact these challenges may have on their capacity to achieve admission to, and graduate from, a four-year college or university.

Methods
Urban Prep has been lauded for helping each of its 100% Black male students earn acceptance to a 4-year college or university. The study was conducted to better discern the impact of Urban Prep’s schooling practices on its graduates’ college retention and persistence towards graduation. Twenty alum from the school’s inaugural graduating class were recruited for participation four years after graduation. Adelman’s (1999) work emphasizes that noticing the material impacts of high school academic preparation requires engagement with students beyond high school. Hence, these young men were thought to offer important instructive insights of the effectiveness of Urban Prep’s efforts. Researchers employed a narrative methodological approach (Clandinin, 2007).

Data Sources
• Twenty one-on-one in person semi-structured, in-depth interviews (Patton, 2002). Each lasting between one and a half to two hours.

Results
Instructional Supports included:
• Teacher Availability
• Academic Expectations

Social Supports included:
• Community Building and Social Networking
• Personal Affirmation

Exploring a Relevant Problem/Scholarly Significance
These instructional and social supports parallel what scholars identify to be “protective factors” underscoring students’ resilience (Benard, 2004; Fergus, Noguera, and Martin, 2014; O’Connor, Mueller, and Neal, 2014; Truebridge, 2014). In other words, these factors of academic preparation function as buffers to the societal risks associated with the intersectionality of being Black, male, young, and urban in contemporary society. Broader interpretation of the data suggested that the social and cultural frames of reference employed by practitioners to assess the skills and academic capacities of these young Black men mattered most for negotiating interactions with them, and constructing academic experiences, that best prepared them for college life.

Author

• Chezare A. Warren, Michigan State University