Chapter 2: Necessary Partnership: Mentoring and Academics

With regard to reaching African American males and steering them toward a positive mindset and overall success, I would venture to state that the educational system is at a crossroads, considering the cultural realities and plight of African American males. With statistics that show more of our inner-city Black males dropping out of school than graduating high school, it is imperative that new and innovative strategies are put in place to combat the maladies that plague our current educational system and overall society. With this concept as the focus, this chapter looks at best practices to determine whether a mentoring program is effective in regard to the academic achievement of African American middle school males. It is the determination of this author that not only is mentoring effective but it also has become necessary for African American male academic success. The chapter will investigate the effects on academic achievement of a group mentoring/achievement motivation intervention for seventh- and eighth-grade African American male middle school students from two schools in an urban school district.