Young
men of color experience many obstacles to success in the United States.
In particular, institutions throughout the educational pipeline
struggle to enroll and graduate Black and Latino males at rates equal to
their peers.
The second brief of ACE’s Center for Policy Research and Strategy’s Viewpoints series
aims to help educators and policymakers better understand the
challenges these students face and give them tools to address those
challenges. “The
Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color: Cross-Sector
Collaboration as a Model for Improving Educational Outcomes,”
(1 MB PDF) describes a promising initiative that leverages a statewide consortium
of partners in Texas to increase awareness and collaboration, support
program and policy development and showcase models of best practice to
impact the experiences of boys and young men of color throughout the
educational pipeline.
Authors Victor Sáenz, of The University of Texas at Austin (UT), and
Luis Ponjuán, of Texas A&M University, provide a “Blueprint for
Action,” with key principles for action steps that educators and leaders
can take to support Black and Latino men in postsecondary institutions.
The blueprint addresses three main components for creating and
sustaining programs for male students of color:
- Planning and development
- Resource development and sustainability
- Outreach and communication
The consortium represents a strategic research partnership between
the two state flagship institutions—UT and Texas A&M—along with
school districts, community colleges and four-year institutions across
the state.
Some key findings of the Consortium’s research also include:
- Awareness of challenges for male students of color is limited:
Because institutions are often focused on a larger narrative of overall
student success, they may also be less focused on specific groups of
students, such as males of color with more complex profiles.
- Institutional commitment exists, but mostly in silos:
There are many champions and institutional agents for male students of
color at postsecondary institutions, but many exist in institutional
silos and they rarely collaborate across the institutions.
- Students want more faculty and staff diversity: Male
students of color strongly believe that their respective institutions
need to have a deeper commitment to recruiting and retaining faculty
members and administrators from communities of color.
To read the full report, click here (1 MB PDF).
The findings from this research will be also be highlighted in a session March 14 at ACE2016, ACE’s 98th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, “Evidence-based Practices for Enhancing the Success of Males of Color.”