Chapter 5: Closing Opportunity Gaps for Black Male Students Through School–Family–Community Partnerships

“For five decades, one of the most enduring debates in education has been on how to close the achievement gap between White students on one hand and Black and Hispanic students on the other” (Jeynes, 2011, p. 2). As such, research, scholars, private organizations and research institutions, and even the U.S. government, continue to explore ways to reduce the achievement gap (Jeynes, 2011). The educational statistics for male students of color remain dire, with Black male students not achieving high educational achievement in almost every measure of academic success including college-going rates, grade-point averages, placement in honors and AP courses, and standardized test scores (Bryan, Day-Vines, Griffin, & Moore-Thomas, 2012; Losen & Orfield, 2002; National Center of Educational Statistics, 2009). As distressing as this is, the areas in which male students of color top White students are quite robust. More Black male students, for example, are more likely to drop out from school, placed in special education classes, or be suspended or expelled from school than White students. (Gregory, Skiba, & Noguera, 2010). While some may believe older students are singularly subjected to these inequities, the number of suspensions for Black preschool students seems to be an alarming trend as well.