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About the Report
The Building Better Narratives in Black Education report is designed to provide tangible approaches to shift the narrative concerning Black educational reform in order to better engage communities around K-12 education and drive substantive policy changes for Black students.To do this, we build on the experiences of an array of Black voices on K-12 education. We hope individuals will be able to:
- Understand a diverse subset of the Black communities’ perspective on key issues such as:
- Standards
- Accountability
- Educational Options
- Educational Aspirations and Evaluations
- Assess best practices and promising strategies for Black students
- Implement the recommendations to help close the achievement and opportunity gaps and change the narrative in Black education reform
Executive Summary
Building Better Narratives in Black Education fundamentally changes the narrative and face of education reform to meaningfully include Black voices, leaders and initiatives that truly have equity and Black student success at the core. This is imperative as there is an education crisis for Black students in the United States. Recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results indicate that only 7 percent of Black students performed at or above Proficient on the 12th grade math exam in 2015, compared with 32 per cent of White students. African American students are less likely to meet ACT college readiness benchmarks than any other racial group and often lag behind on various indicators on the primary and secondary level. However, far too often the narrative has stopped there. While it is important to deconstruct and analyze inequities in the educational system, we have to move from solely deficit-based narratives to decisions to strengthen policies and conversations that fundamentally change the state of education for African American students. It’s time to build a better, more actionable narrative that represents the promise of education to drive equity.
UNCF, Education Post and the National Urban League each collected data on African Americans’ perspective on significant K-12 education issues, and this report synthesizes salient themes from these various data. Grounded in the lived experiences of the African American community, Building Better Narratives in Black Education provides tangible approaches to fundamentally shift the narrative concerning Black educational reform in order to better engage communities and reformers around an equitable K-12 education system.
Click here to read the full report, "Building Better Narratives in Black Education".
Contributors
UNCF
UNCF (United Negro College Fund) is the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports students’ education and development through scholarships and other programs, strengthens its 37 member colleges and universities, and advocates for the importance of minority education and college readiness. UNCF institutions and other historically Black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding nearly 20 percent of African American bachelor’s degrees. UNCF administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs. Today, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students each year at more than 1,100 colleges and universities. UNCF’s K-12 Advocacy Division seeks to give rise to a college-going culture where African American parents are knowledgeable about the college-going process and more African American students are academically prepared for college. The division engages and partners with national Black grasstops and HBCUs to help them understand the crisis in Black education, disseminates research to raise awareness of educational issues facing Black students and partners with and supports on-the-ground grassroots organizations. Learn more at uncf.org.
Education Post
Education Post is a non-partisan communications organization dedicated to building support for student-focused improvements in public education from preschool to high school graduation. The organization advocates world-class schools that support children to love learning, to be challenged and supported in the classroom, to have access to a range of enrichment activities, to be socially and emotionally strong and healthy, and to graduate from high school with everything they need to pursue the future they see for themselves. Learn more at educationpost.org.
The National Urban League
The National Urban League is a historic civil rights and advocacy organization dedicated to economic empowerment in African American and other underserved urban communities. Founded in 1910 and headquartered in New York City, the National Urban League impacts and improves the lives of more than 2 million young people and adults annually through direct service programs, which are implemented locally by 94 Urban League affiliates, serving 300 communities in 36 states and the District of Columbia. Learn more at nul.iamempowered.com.
