Minority Issues in Education
Promoting equity and excellence for all
The dynamics of the twenty-first century demand that we do a better job of educating all students. College Board Advocacy maintains a number of projects to address educational barriers and challenges faced by minority students:
Minority Male Initiative
This effort examines the decline of minority male participation and success in secondary and postsecondary education.
Through a series of "dialogue days," College Board Advocacy is convening academics, youth development professionals, K–12 administrators, and higher education administrators to identify issues around educating minority males, and to share effective practices in raising participation and performance of this target population.
A report on the outcomes of these conversations with specific recommendations will be released in early 2009.
Past dialogue days:
- African-American Males: April 23, 2008, Los Angeles, CA
- Latino Males: May 21, 2008, Chicago, IL
- Asian Males: September 18–19, 2008, San Francisco, CA
- Native American Males: September 22–23, 2008, Denver, CO
Latino Student Initiative
Latino students are the fastest growing population segment in our nation's public schools. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that about one in five public school students are Hispanic, and strong growth in enrollment is expected to continue (Fry & Gonzales, 2008). This demographic reality alone should make appropriate education of this population a nation priority: the future influence and significance of Latino youth cannot be overstated.
Latino resources
College Board Advocacy has assembled a number of resources to help educators better understand and serve this important group of students.
Latino Education: A Synthesis of Recurring Recommendations and Solutions in P–16 Education
Provides a summary of key action-oriented practices that successfully increase educational opportunities and success for Latinos.
Resources for Increasing Latino Participation and Success in Higher Education
A compilation of examples of successful strategies that have been implemented at colleges and universities across the United States.
Latinos and Higher Education: Snapshots from the Academic Literature summarizes key findings from more than 50 reports and other documents on topics such as educational context, high school preparation, college costs and financial aid, college pathways and the role of community colleges, and postsecondary institutional climate for Latino students.
Collaborations
We also collaborate with the following national organizations focusing on Latino issues:
- Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS)
- Chicano/Latino Intersegmental Convocation (CLIC)
- Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU)
- Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF)
- National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
- White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Report
"...educational policies and practices must be based on fact, not fiction, if they are to be of value to teachers, students, parents, and society as a whole."
— from "Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders—Facts, Not Fiction: Setting the Record Straight"
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) have come to be defined in contemporary America as the "good" minority that seeks advancement through quiet diligence in study and work and by not making waves—the minority that other American minorities should seek to emulate. In reality, AAPIs are a diverse group of various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds; no simple generalization can characterize the group as a whole. Furthermore, despite the "model minority" stereotype, AAPIs also face academic challenges and socioeconomic hardships.
To help dispel the "model minority" myth, College Board Advocacy released "Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders—Facts, Not Fiction: Setting the Record Straight " in June 2008 in collaboration with New York University's National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE). The report provides empirical data to refute prevailing fictions about this group of students, and explains how the "model minority" stereotype can be harmful: in assuming universal academic strength, teachers and counselors often do not extend help to their AAPI students to the extent they do other students.
