Concerned about the plight of African-American men and boys, several philanthropic organizations have launched initiatives to improve opportunities for them to succeed. Some programs address the structural bias that leaves these men more likely to be incarcerated, jobless and disproportionately affected by other social disadvantages.

One of every 15 African-American men is in a U.S. prison or jail compared with one of every 36 Hispanic men and one of every 106 white men. Moreover, scores of African-American men are affected by chronic unemployment, lack of education, poverty and poor health outcomes.

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Last September, Kellogg sponsored "Too Important to Fail," Tavis Smiley's PBS report on health and education disparities among African-American boys. The foundation also funded a University of North Carolina project, the Promoting Academic Success initiative, which worked with families, schools and communities to improve academic achievement of African-American and Latino children in Lansing, Mich., and Polk County, Fla.

Under its America Healing Initiative, the foundation funds many organizations, such as the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, that engage in efforts to address the challenges faced by black males. One grantee, the Opportunity Agenda, recently released a report on perceptions of black males in the media. The report seeks to educate media makers, educators and others on how negative images of black communities perpetuate negative stereotypes.

Read more at BlackNews.com.

The state of public education in post-Katrina New Orleans was the topic of discussion at a June 19 forum at Dillard University sponsored by local and national Black journalist groups; the Orleans Parish Place Matters initiative; and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based research and policy institute. The forum featured a panel discussion by area education experts and presented sobering statistics on the impact demographics can have on accessing a quality education.

Held in conjunction with the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in New Orleans this week, the forum, entitled “Reforming Education in Post-Katrina Louisiana,” enlisted Dr. Lance Hill, of the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University, Kira Orange Jones, a member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), Eric Lewis, state director of the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), and Karran Harper Royal, a local education rights advocate, to discuss the effect recent education reforms have had on the city’s students and parents.

Read more at Louisiana Weekly.

The glass ceiling will shatter when the practices that support it have been eliminated from labor market hiring, firing and promotion decisions. Since women’s lack of educational credentials is seldom a part of this, the increased pursuit of higher education by young women in this dour economy is unlikely — by itself — to shatter the ceiling.

Young women and young men are both responding rationally to the current economic environment in which being previously unemployed puts one out of the running for many available jobs. Being enrolled in school is not considered being unemployed, so young women are right to think they may have better job prospects by the time they finish school and when the economy has improved.

Read more at The New York Times.

More blacks than whites believe their local public schools are getting worse, according to the 1999 National Opinion Poll results on education. Overall, both blacks and whites identified education as the most important national problem, but there were differences in views across age, income, and ideological lines. Both blacks and whites supported school vouchers and raising school spending, and both groups reported fewer incidents of violence at their local schools than the previous year. Both groups also supported statewide standards and tests, but more blacks than whites believed that such standards and tests are unfair to minorities.

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Dr. Brian Perkins, Chair of the National Black Caucus of School Board Members, a member of the New Haven, Connecticut school board, and a member of the faculty at the Columbia University Teachers College, reviews the education policy proposals of Senators McCain and Obama and argues for re-structuring and full funding of the No Child Left Behind Act.

The unprecendented scale and success of the Harlem Children's Zone Project in the closing achievement gap has elicited curiousity around the world. 

Arizona State University (ASU) is at once the youngest, largest and fastest growing of all major American research institutions, enrolling more than 69,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students on four campuses across metropolitan Phoenix.

Men of color face many challenges in achieving and maintaining good health. Their social circumstances and cultural norms, as well as the larger society’s discriminatory treatment of them, often engender in these men unhealthful responses. When social circumstances include poverty, limited education, and scarce employment opportunities, the impact on health can be especially harmful. This brief provides an overview of factors that influence the health and longevity of men of color in the United States, and makes policy recommendations for improving their health status.

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This background paper focuses on the status of black male students in higher education in the U.S. It examines public flagship universities in each of the 50 states, providing stark evidence of racial disparities in public higher education, particularly for black males. Its statistical analysis of college access, graduation rates, degree attainment, and black student athletes illustrates the extent of these disparities across the nation and “the need to strengthen the social contract between public institutions of higher education and black male citizens” through various reforms.

This background paper examines the status of American Indians and Alaska Natives in higher education, with an emphasis on issues that influence American Indian and Alaska Native men’s enrollment and retention in college. Given the dearth of research on the educational experiences of this population, the paper reviews the relevant educational statistics and explores possible reasons why so many American Indian and Alaska Native men are not reaching college.