Across America,Black boys in school districts that are often labeled as the transient population because of their mobility rate.
The mobility of Black boys from school-to-school is primarily connected to affordable housing and access to employment, economic development and transportation.
Frequent mobility of Black boys in schools results in lowered-academic performance.
The average family earning minimum wage spends 141 percent of their income struggling to meet basic needs – food, shelter, clothing. —Sherrod Brown
Many of these Black boys are called “test killers” because of their inability to retain learned information from changing school environments so frequently.
I believe the public perception was that we would see better performing schools and communities as a result of housing projects ending.
We did to some degree.
But how did this impact the hundreds of Black boys displaced and left further behind?
It lead to increase of Black boys in concentrated areas such as special education.
Researchers will attribute this to lower-income communities and external factors.
Regardless, the fact remains that we continue to fail Black boys in communities and schools.
Poverty is Still Pimping Black Boys!
Janet Currie’s article, Are Public Housing Projects Good for Kids?, looks at the impact of affordable housing on Black boys.
Poverty is already pimping Black boys, schools shouldn’t!
The article highlights that the benefits to low-income and affordable housing must include strategic steps towards community engagement that are then implemented to ensure that children and families have the ability to succeed.
Schools aren’t intentionally engaging all families and stakeholders
In order to ensure Black boys succeed their families have to be engaged!
School performance is impacted by community performance.
Communities that have high gang-related incidents, homicides and many other safety concerns are barriers for Black boys.
There are so many Black families that travel long distances for good schools and the right choice to educate their Black sons.
We must ensure that good schools are in every community and not just those have the means to attend them.
Remember, not all, but many Black boys come to school from living in poverty.
Jason has worked in education for over 15 years as a teacher, blogger and community advocate. He speaks and writes primarily about the need to improve education for Black boys, particularly increasing the number of Black male educators in schools. In addition to blogging here at EdLanta, Jason is also a featured writer at Education Post.