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Purpose

Over the last 25 years, the social, educational and economic outcomes for Black males have been more systemically devastating than the outcomes for any other racial or ethnic group or gender. Black males have consistently low educational attainment levels, are more chronically unemployed and underemployed, are less healthy and have access to fewer health care resources, die much younger, and are many times more likely to be sent to jail for periods significantly longer than males of other racial/ethnic groups. On average, Black males are more likely to attend the most segregated and least resourced public schools.

If Black students did poorly in all schools, we would plausibly seek solutions to the problem of their achievement among those students themselves. The same would be the case if, in schools with majority Black enrollments, Black students did poorly and the other students did well. But in reality, Black students in good schools do well. At the same time, White, non-Hispanic students who attend schools where most of the students are Black and their graduation rates are low, also do poorly. The crisis of the education of Black males sits squarely in the middle of the crisis America faces as we work to create a world-class public education system that will support and maintain the values of a fair and equitable democratic society.

About the program

Schott began the Black Boys Initiative in 2003 with the initial goal of creating a movement to improve the educational experiences of black boys to ensure that they graduate from high school with the confidence to become successful members of society. Schott has held two scenario planning workshops with consultant Gerald Harris of Global Business Network and a number of educators, practitioners, and academics from across the country. The output of these two workshops led to the Cantigny Conference in May 2004. This conference, supported and hosted by the McCormick Tribune Foundation, focused on strategies for moving forward to change the trajectory of black boys in our country. Throughout the past two years of this work, Dr. Rosa Smith has placed articles on the subject in numerous local and national newspapers and journals, as well as spoken at a number of national conferences on the issue.

In the fall of 2004, Schott published a state report card on high school graduation rates across the states and published a full page advertisement in a number of newspapers. In addition, Schott joined a roundtable initiated by the 21st Century Foundation to discuss a collaborative on black boys. In 2005, Schott initiated The Schott Awards for Excellence in the Education of African-American Male Students, awarding three high schools in Ohio, and in 2007 bestowed the award on one Ohio and two New York high schools. In 2006, Schott published the 3rd edition of the state report card on high school graduation rates of black male students in US high schools.

In December of 2006, Schott published A Positive Future for Black Boys -- Building The Movement.  A summit of National education leaders asked: “What would it take to build a movement for Black boys and their education?” This report contains the conclusions from the summit.  In July 2008, The Schott Foundation published Given Half a Chance: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education for Black Males, which details the disturbing reality of America's national racial achievement gap. In conjunction with the release of this report, Schott launched an interactive and data rich website. In August 2010, Schott released Yes We Can: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males. Visit the website and find out more about the plight of Black males in public education.