This is the first in a series of profiles of young men who successfully navigated adolescence, academia and adversity to become interesting and productive citizens of the world. Their stories of what worked for them can offer inspiration to our sons as they contemplate their future, and to parents as we try to guide them along the way. GCP [...]
Here's an inspirational story for you, as reported in Yahoo! Sports: Braylon Edwards, who was a Cleveland Browns rookie in 2005, promised back then to give $10,000 in scholarships to 100 Cleveland area eighth-graders if they could graduate high school with over a 2.5 GPA and 15 hours community service. Of the 100 who were afforded the opportunity, 79 [...]
Here's an inspirational story from The Washington Post to savor along with your Thanksgiving leftovers: Coach Natalie Randolph, an African American believed to be the only woman currently coaching a high school football team in the country, led her Coolidge High School Colts earlier this week to the Turkey Bowl, Washington D.C.'s public school football championship. This was the [...]
GCP is dedicated to bringing you information about what educational programs are working for our children around the country. The University of Chicago's Urban Education Institute operates four charter schools on Chicago's South Side which have the express aim of sending their students (mostly African American from low income families) to college, and the schools are impressively achieving this [...]
GCP is keenly interested in promoting educational models and practices which have demonstrated success with our boys, particularly those that can be scaled up to impact the greatest number of children. As you know, much of the current education reform discussion revolves around how to effectively measure and improve teacher quality, whether standardized tests are the best way to [...]
In Part II of GCP’s interview with Dr. Pedro Noguera, Professor of Teaching and Learning at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, GCP asked Dr. Noguera for suggestions to help parents identify the best educational settings for their sons from pre-school to college. Pre-school Dr. Noguera noted that parents often look for the most [...]
Dr. Pedro Noguera is the Peter Agnew Professor of Teaching and Learning at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. Dr. Noguera is a nationally recognized expert on the best practices to narrow the achievement gap between African American and Latino students and White and Asian students. He has worked both with high poverty urban [...]
Michael G. Thompson, Ph.D. is a psychologist and school consultant who has made the study of boys and their development the focus of his career. He is the author or coauthor of many books on this subject, including, "It's a Boy!: Understanding Your Son's Development from Birth to Eighteen" (with Teresa Barker, Ballantine, 2008), the New York Times bestseller, [...]
Are Black and Hispanic college educated parents doing all that they should to help their children learn? Ask Dr. Ronald Ferguson, Harvard professor and director of Harvard’s Achievement Gap Initiative, and he will point to Table A8 in his book Towards Excellence With Equity: An Emerging Vision for Closing the Achievement Gap (Harvard Education Press, 2007), which justifies the [...]
Dr. Tammy Mann, Executive Director of the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute at the United Negro College Fund, leads the Institute’s efforts to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for African American children from preschool through college. While many of the Institute’s programs are gender neutral, she is acutely aware of the need to focus on boys. “On UNCF campuses [...]