“It’s good to see black men in the school,” a student’s mother told me during a recent Family Night at one of our high schools. Her son is beginning his second year with us. He’s had his share of challenges at his prior school, and he struggled a bit with us during his first year. But now he is seeing success.
This mom wasn’t attributing her son’s change in performance and attitude solely to the presence of black males. As she was quick to add in my presence, “Dr. White-Hood (our school’s director of academics and principal support) and his black women teachers were excellent..” So, she was not diminishing the black women and non-black educators that empower and guide the students that attend our Maya Angelou Schools. This mother couldn’t help but consider, though, that the presence of black men in our schools “makes a difference.” Researchers agree with this mother’s intuition. Findings from multiple studies suggest that the presence of black male mentors correlates with improved outcomes for black youth, particularly young black males.
The numbers of black men we have in our schools should help us realize this difference. This year we have two black male principals, nearly half of the middle school staff is black males, and at the high schools we have black male counselors, an assistant principal, deans, and teachers (including math and special education teachers). One of our two black male principals, Mr. Geddis, recently spoke about the impact of his position as an educator at the Maya Angelou Public Charter School – Evans Middle School Campus as featured as a part of the TEACH Campaign – an initiative of the United States Department of Education designed to raise awareness of the teaching profession and get new generation of teachers to join the ones who are already making a difference in the classroom.
What we know for sure is that these men are critical partners to their colleagues and crucial supports for our students. We also know there is value in this mothers’ intuition, and we have high expectations for the black male educators among us to make a difference in the lives of all of our students, and in particular, our black male students.