School–Family–Community Partnerships for Educational Success and Equity for Black Male Students

Abstract

Throughout the past decade, scholars have argued that the persistent achievement gap between Black male students and their White peers is a result of unequal and inadequate educational opportunities instead of inherent differences in their capability or character. School counselors can help support Black males by using equity-focused school–family–community partnerships that provide a strong network of support, resources, and increased educational opportunities—all of which contribute to positive academic outcomes and help eliminate barriers caused by systemic racism. In this article, we apply a step-by-step partnership process model to a case in which a school counselor used partnerships to advocate for Black students facing racism and educational inequities in a school district.

Keywords

achievement Black males opportunity gaps partnerships school counselors

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alexander

(2012). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The New Press.

American School Counselor Association. (2015). The school counselor and cultural diversity. ASCA position statements. https://schoolcounselor.org/Standards-Positions/Position-Statements/ASCA-Position-Statements/The-School-Counselor-and-Cultural-Diversity

American School Counselor Association. (2016). The school counselor and school-family-community partnerships. ASCA position statements. https://schoolcounselor.org/Standards-Positions/Position-Statements/ASCA-Position-Statements/The-School-Counselor-and-School-Family-Community-P

American School Counselor Association. (2019). ASCA national model: A framework for school counseling programs (4th ed.). https://members.schoolcounselor.org/publication-details?id=59acd430-3c86-e911-80e7-0003ff52730d

Arriero

E. K.

Griffin

. (2018). ¡Adelante! A community asset mapping approach to increase college and career readiness for rural Latinx high school students. Professional School Counseling, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759X18800279

Auguste

B. G.

Hancock

Laboissiere

. (2009). The economic cost of the US education gap. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/the-economic-cost-of-the-us-education-gap

Bailey

D. F.

Bradbury-Bailey

M. E.

(2010). Empowered youth programs: Partners for enhancing post-secondary outcomes of African American adolescents. Professional School Counseling, 14(1), 64–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759X1001400107

Baquedano-Lopez

Alexander

R. A.

Hernandez

S. J.

(2013). Equity issues in parental and community involvement in schools. Review of Research in Education, 37(1), 149–182. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X12459718

Barton

A. C.

Drake

Perez

J. G.

St. Louis

George

. (2004). Ecologies of parental engagement in urban education. Educational Researcher, 33(4), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X033004003

10.

Bower

H. A.

Griffin

(2011). Can the Epstein model of parental involvement work in a high-minority, high-poverty elementary school? A case study. Professional School Counseling, 15(2), 77–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759X1101500201

11.

Brent

J. J.

(2016). Placing the criminalization of school discipline in economic context. Punishment & Society, 18(5), 521–543. https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474516642858

12.

Brown Center on Education Policy. (2017). Brown Center report on American education: How well are American students learning? https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2017-brown-center-report-on-american-education.pdf

13.

Bryan

Day-Vines

N. L.

Griffin

Moore-Thomas

(2012). The disproportionality dilemma: Patterns of teacher referrals to school counselors for disruptive behavior. Journal of Counseling & Development, 90(2), 177–190. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-6676.2012.00023.x

14.

Bryan

Griffin

Kim

Griffin

D. M.

Young

(2019). School counselor leadership in school-family-community partnerships: An equity-focused partnership process model for moving the field forward. In Sheldon

Turner-Vorbeck

(Eds.), The Wiley handbook on family, school, and community relationships in education (pp. 265–287). Wiley.

15.

Bryan

Henry

(2012). A model for building school-family-community partnerships: Principles and process. Journal of Counseling & Development, 90(4), 408–420. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2012.00052.x

16.

Bryan

Henry

L. M.

Daniels

A. D.

Edwin

Griffin

D. M

. (in press). Infusing an antiracist framework into school-family-community partnerships. In Holcomb-McCoy

(Ed.), Antiracist counseling in schools and communities. American Counseling Association.

17.

Bryan

Williams

J. M.

Griffin

(2015). Closing opportunity gaps for Black male students through school-family-community partnerships. In Henfield

M. S.

Washington

A. R.

(Eds.), School counseling for Black male student success in 21st-century urban schools (pp. 75–98). Information Age.

18.

Bryan

Williams

J. M.

Griffin

(2020). Fostering educational resilience and opportunities in urban schools through equity-focused school–family–community partnerships. Professional School Counseling, 23(1). https://doi.org/ 10.1177/2156759X19899179

19.

Bryan

Williams

Kim

Morrison

S. S.

Caldwell

C. H.

(2018). Perceived teacher discrimination and academic achievement among urban Caribbean Black and African American adolescents: School bonding and family support as protective factors. Urban Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085918806959

20.

Carter

P. L.

Welner

K. G.

(Eds.). (2013). Closing the opportunity gap: What America must do to give every child an even chance. Oxford University.

21.

DiAngelo

(2018). White fragility: Why it’s so hard for White people to talk about racism. Beacon.

22.

Easton-Brooks

Davis

(2009). Teacher qualification and the achievement gap in early primary grades. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 17(15). http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v17n15/

23.

Epstein

J. L.

(1995). School/family/community partnerships: Caring for the children we share. Phi Delta Kappan, 76, 701–712. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172171009200326

24.

Epstein

Blake

Gonzalez

(2017). Girlhood interrupted: The erasure of black girls’ childhood. Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality.

25.

Ford

D. Y.

(2017). Desegregating gifted education for culturally different students: Recommendations for equitable recruitment and retention. In Decuir-Gunby

Schutz

P. A.

(Eds.), Race and ethnicity in the study of motivation in education (pp. 183–198). Routledge.

26.

Friedman-Krauss

Barnett

W. S.

Nores

. (2016). How much can high-quality universal pre-K reduce achievement gaps? Center for American Progress and National Institute on Early Education Research. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/early-childhood/reports/2016/04/05/132750/how-much-can-high-quality-universal-pre-k-reduce-achievement-gaps/

27.

Gershenson

Holt

Papageorge

(2016). Who believes in me? The effect of student-teacher demographic match on teacher expectations. Economics of Education Review, 52, 209–224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2016.03.002

28.

Ginwright

S. A.

(2011). Hope, healing, and care: Pushing the boundaries of civic engagement for African American youth. Liberal Education, 97(2), 34–39.

29.

Gorski

P. C.

(2016). Rethinking the role of “culture” in educational equity: From cultural competence to equity literacy. Multicultural Perspectives, 18(4), 221–226. https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2016.1228344

30.

Gorski

P. C.

(2011). Unlearning deficit ideology and the scornful gaze: Thoughts on authenticating the class discourse in education. In Ahlquist

Gorski

Montano

(Eds.), Assault on kids: How hyper-accountability, corporatization, deficit ideologies, and Ruby Payne are destroying our schools (pp. 152–176). Lang.

31.

Graves

(2011). School and child level predictors of academic success for African American children in third grade: Implications for No Child Left Behind. Race Ethnicity and Education, 14(5), 675–697. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2010.547849

32.

Gregory

Skiba

R. J.

Noguera

(2010). The achievement gap and the discipline gap: Two sides of the same coin? Educational Researcher, 39(1), 59–68. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X09357621

33.

Henderson

A. T.

Mapp

K. L

. (Eds.). (2002). A new wave of evidence: The impact of school, family, and community connections on student achievement. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory’s National Center for Family and Community Connection with Schools. http://www.sedl.org/connections/research-syntheses.html

34.

Henry

L. M.

(2014). Just love: A collaborative evaluation of a faith-based school-family- community partnership through the voices of children [Doctoral dissertation]. University of South Florida.

35.

Henry

L. M.

Bryan

(2021). How the educator–counselor–leader–collaborator creates asset-rich schools: A qualitative study of a school–family–community partnership. Professional School Counseling, 24(1_part 3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759X211011907

36.

Henry

L. M.

Bryan

Zalaquett

(2017). The effects of a counselor-led, faith-based, school–family–community partnership on student achievement in a high-poverty urban elementary school. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 45(3), 162–182. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmcd.12072

37.

Jacobson Chernoff

Flanagan

K. D.

McPhee

Park

. (2007). Preschool: First findings from the preschool follow-up of the early childhood longitudinal study, birth cohort (ECLS-B) (NCES 2008-025). National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008025.pdf

38.

Jeynes

W. H.

(2007). The relationship between parental involvement and urban secondary school student academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Urban Education, 42(1), 82–110. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085906293818

39.

Jeynes

W. H

. (2011). Parent involvement and academic success. Routledge.

40.

Kendi

I. X.

(2019). How to be an antiracist. Nation Books.

41.

Kennedy-Lewis

B. L.

Murphy

A. S.

(2016). Listening to “frequent flyers”: What persistently disciplined students have to say about being labeled as “bad.” Teachers College Record, 118(1), 1–40. https://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=18222

42.

Kim

J. S.

(2006). Effects of a voluntary summer reading intervention on reading achievement: Results from a randomized field trial. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 28(4), 335–355.

43.

Ladson-Billings

(2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in U.S. schools. Educational Researcher, 35, 3–12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X035007003

44.

Mezuk

(2009). Urban debate and high school educational outcomes for African American males: The case of the Chicago Debate League. The Journal of Negro Education, 78(3), 290–304.

45.

Moore-Thomas

Day-Vines

N. L.

(2010). Culturally competent collaboration: School counselor collaboration with African American families and communities. Professional School Counseling, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2156759X1001400106

46.

Morgan

P. L.

Farkas

Cook

Wilson

Hillemeier

M. M.

Schussler

(2017). Are Black children over-represented in special education? A best-evidence synthesis. Exceptional Children, 83(2), 181–198. https://doi.org/10.1177/0014402916664042

47.

Musu-Gillette

de Brey

McFarland

Hussar

Sonnenberg

Wilkinson- Flicker

. (2017). Status and trends in the education of racial and ethnic minorities 2017 (NCES 2017-051). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2017051

48.

Nagle

B. T.

(2013). Out-of-school time program test score impact for Black children of single-parents (Publication No. 3555482) [Doctoral dissertation, George Washington University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

49.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2018). 2017 mathematics and reading assessment. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/math_2017?grade=4

50.

Noguera

P. A.

(2003). The trouble with Black boys: The role and influence of environmental and cultural factors on the academic performance of African American males. Urban Education, 38(4), 431–459. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085903254969

51.

Owens

Simmons

R. W.

III Bryant

R. M.

Henfield

(2011). Urban African American males’ perceptions of school counseling services. Urban Education, 46(2), 165–177. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085910377430

52.

Parikh

S. B.

Post

Flowers

(2011). Relationship between a belief in a just world and social justice advocacy attitudes of school counselors. Counseling and Values, 56(1), 57–72. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-007X.2011.tb01031.x

53.

Pollock

. (Ed.). (2008). Everyday antiracism: Getting real about race in school. The New Press.

54.

Skiba

R. J.

Horner

R. H.

Chung

C.-G.

Rausch

M. K.

May

S. L.

Tobin

(2011). Race is not neutral: A national investigation of African American and Latino disproportionality in school discipline. School Psychology Review, 40(1), 85–107.

55.

Tatum

B. D.

(2017). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? (20th Anniversary ed.). Basic Books.

56.

Tervalon

Murray-Garcia

(1998). Cultural humility versus cultural competence: A critical distinction in defining physician training outcomes in multicultural education. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 9(2), 117–125.

57.

Thompson

H. A.

(2011). Criminalizing kids: The overlooked reason or failing schools. Dissent, 58(4), 23–27. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812208320.131

58.

Townsend

B. L.

(2000). The disproportionate discipline of African-American learners: Reducing school suspensions and expulsions. Exceptional Children, 66(3), 381–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440290006600308

59.

U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. (2014). Data snapshot: College and career readiness. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-college-and-career-readiness-snapshot.pdf

60.

Warren

M. R.

Hong

Rubin

C. L.

P. S.

(2009). Beyond the bake sale: A community-based relational approach to parent engagement in schools. Teachers College Record, 111(9), 2209–2254.

61.

Woolley

M. E.

Strutchens

M. E.

Gilbert

M. C.

Martin

W. G.

(2010). Mathematics success of Black middle school students: Direct and indirect effects of teacher expectations and reform practices. Negro Educational Review, 61(1-4), 41–59.