Chapter 1: Black Males in Postsecondary Settings: A Rare Examination Across Institutional Contexts

In the United States, the educational pipeline to postsecondary educationfor Black males is, at best, a leaky faucet (Jackson, 2007). This great country prides itself on providing the best higher education institutions in theworld. Prospective undergraduate and graduate students work hard to prepare themselves for many years for the right to have access to a world-class education within these institutions. Oftentimes, many prospective students see their matriculation and subsequent graduation as a rite of passage to obtain access to the American creed of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This pursuit is so embedded in our society that our nation’s elementary and secondary schools are designed to prepare its students to enter these prestigious higher education institutions to become highly skilled workers or highly educated entrepreneurs (National Center on Education and the Economy, 2007).