Why We Can’t Wait: A Guide for Black Student Achievement Programs

Abstract

Black student achievement is vital. There must be a focused national effort to establish and sustain Black Student Achievement Programs (BSAPs). The development of BSAPs centers on African American history, culture, language, knowledge, and values. This article describes Black Student Achievement Program standards and the components of service design, curriculum and instruction, scholar identity development, and social and emotional needs, connecting the home and community for Black students in K-12th grade settings. Educators can play a vital role in the efforts to build and sustain BSAPs at their school sites and school districts.

1. Why We Can’t Wait

“Why We Can’t Wait” is a book by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., published in 1964, focusing on the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The salient message of the book revolves around the urgency and necessity of immediate action in addressing racial injustice.

Dr. King emphasizes the need for a sense of urgency in tackling racial discrimination and inequality, advocating for nonviolent protest and direct action to bring about social and political change. The book discusses the importance of civil disobedience and the moral responsibility of individuals to stand against injustice.

Moreover, “Why We Can’t Wait” underscores the idea that the time for justice and equality is always “now”. Dr. King encourages people to actively engage in the fight against racial segregation and oppression, urging both African Americans and allies of different backgrounds to join forces and work towards creating a more just and equitable society.

The book serves as a call to action, emphasizing that waiting for gradual change is not an option when confronted with systemic injustice and the denial of civil rights. Dr. King’s message in “Why We Can’t Wait” remains relevant, advocating for immediate and persistent efforts toward social justice and equality for all—which includes educational justice!

2. Introduction: Placing an Emphasis on Black Student Achievement

We are in a time of heightened indecision regarding what curriculum, academic services, and teacher preparation will best serve and prepare students who have been marginalized, particularly children who are Black, Brown, and Indigenous. This impacts students whose families do not have access to the educational support needed to address critical gaps in opportunity and are faced with the reality of continued intergenerational economic and academic poverty. This comes at a time when America, as a nation, is as divided as it was before the Brown v. Board of Education case in Topeka, Kansas, in 1954. Disaggregated data from the Access Denied Report [1] and the NEAP data [2] tell us that Black students remain as the faces at the bottom of the well [3]. We have arrived at a place where addressing one group is understood as harming another group. Fueled by socio-political commentary, intentionally supporting Black students is now believed to be detrimental to others. We now face the legislative onslaught aimed at removing the very thing that could heal America’s educational debt [4]. In light of this, the authors would like to acknowledge the National Black Student Achievement Association for its bold, timely, and direct mission to place a national spotlight on Black student achievement and provide standards to guide school districts across the nation in doing so.

3. What We Need, but Only Some of Us Receive It

Education: even with the likes of Edward A. Bouchet, who earned a Ph.D. in Physics from Yale University in 1876, W.E.B. Dubois in 1895, who obtained a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and, in 1921, the first Black woman, Georgiana Simpson, who earned her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, the possibility for millions of Black Americans obtaining basic literacy was out of reach. From the end of the Civil War in 1865 to the 1954 landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision, education in America for most Black people, including children, was limited and inequitable at best and could engender a lynching at worst.

Today, America’s promise to educate all its citizens equally and equitably has not been fulfilled. The most recent post-COVID-19 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) report, effectively America’s Educational Report Card, informs us that all students fell behind significantly from missing in-person classroom instruction. Black children, however, fell furthest.

On 29 June 2023, the Supreme Court, the same body that in 1954 established that there was something fundamentally broken with the American way of educating Black children, voted in a 6–3 decision to curb affirmative action in higher education—ending a four-decade precedent that allowed colleges and universities to broadly consider applicants’ race in their admissions processes. At the same time, there is an all-out assault on K-12 public education with book bans, library closings, and curricular fabulations reinventing the history of slavery in the United States.

Thanks to society’s technological innovations of electric vehicles, rocket ships, and submersibles, Americans can go anywhere except to a school where an equitable education exists. The National Black Student Achievement Association (NBSAA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) body that singularly focuses on building capacity at school districts to intentionally develop services that foster intellectual, academic, social, and emotional success. We, in the tradition of the scholar and civil rights advocate, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, believe that “the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education”. This article will describe the National Black Student Achievement Program standards to support school districts with a research-based foundation to launch and sustain a Black Student Achievement Program.

4. Methodology: A Call for Black Student Achievement Program Standards

Of the more than 75 million students in the United States, 7.4 million are Black [5,6]. In response to a myriad of academic disparities, including systemic marginalization that has been maintained over time in the education system, school districts have developed Black Student Achievement programs. Programs such as these are needed to address the historical and chronic academic miseducation of Black children [7]. In 2021, the Los Angeles Unified School District cut one-third of its police officers and committed to supporting Black students. To support this mission, the Los Angeles Unified School District dedicated USD 36.5 million to launch a Black Student Achievement Program. Following this initial funding, USD 24 million was committed to supporting their Black Student Achievement Program in 2022. Howard County Public School System, West Contra Costa Unified School District, Compton Unified School District, and Riverside County Office of Education have initiated Black Student Achievement Programs. School districts across the United States, such as Howard County Public Schools in Ellicott City, MD, or Minneapolis’ MN School Districts Office of Black Student Achievement, and Denver Public Schools Black Student Success Team, are developing similar initiatives, targeted resources, programming, and support for Black student achievement. In the wake of an increase in service design for Black students, The National Black Student Achievement Association and the authors herein have developed program standards designed to be responsive to the academic, intellectual, social, and emotional needs of Black students.

The objective of this article is to provide the foundation for the Black Student Achievement Program standards through the process of a meta-analysis. This process of synthesizing existing research has informed the development of robust Black Student Achievement Program standards. Key factors that contributed to Black student achievement were identified through categorical analysis to inform the six constructs of implementation for Black Student Achievement Programs. Parameters such as publication date, study design, significance in the field, and relevance to Black student achievement were taken into consideration. This meta-analysis has provided insights into the factors influencing Black student achievement, facilitating the development of research-based standards for Black Student Achievement Programs. The meta-analysis is anchored by the personal narrative of a Black voice. This was infused in the article to promote and perpetuate the art of Black storytelling to embody the history, heritage, and culture of the Black experience in connection to the standards.

The Black Student Achievement Program Standards are designed to address six constructs of program implementation in Figure 1.

5. Objective: Centering African American Culture, Language, Knowledge, and Values

“He should know nothing but the will of his master and learn to obey it. As to himself, learning will do him no good, but a great deal of harm, making him disconsolate and unhappy. If you teach him how to read, he’ll want to know how to write, and this accomplished, he’ll be running away with himself.”

[8]

The Black Student Achievement Program Standards are developed to intentionally center Black students and African American culture in the classroom. The education system has adopted the perspective that African American culture is not a valid measure to respond to the needs of Black students in the classroom. As a result, African American culture has been erased from the learning experience for Black students [9,10]. For decades, the education system has been designed to dismantle the culture, knowledge, language, and values of African American culture, which have been maintained and reinforced by teachers in the classroom [11,12,13]. As a result, the development of Black Student Achievement Programs and their design must center Black students and African American culture in curriculum design, instructional delivery, and service design as demonstrated in Figure 2.

The centering of African American culture, language, knowledge, and values is paramount in the design of a Black Student Achievement Program and operates independently of policy or political stance. Since 2021, 43 states have introduced bills to halt districts teaching critical race theory or discussing racism in schools [14,15]. However, the political intent to exclude the Black perspective through policy in the education system is not new and has been structurally maintained to reinforce racism, marginalization, and oppression. In 1933, Carter G. Woodson wrote in The Miseducation of the Negro, “The so-called modern education, with all its defects, however, does others so much more good that it does the Negro, because it has been worked out in conformity to the needs of those who have enslaved and oppressed weaker peoples” [7]. The intentional centering of race reinforces African American cultural sustainability, in response to the idea that Carter G. Woodson expressed stating, “if race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated” [7]. The primary function of Black Student Achievement Programs is to acknowledge, maintain, and reinforce African American cultural sustainability and future opportunities through academic achievement. Setting epistemological goals, designing, and planning for those goals, and building services that center on African American culture, language, knowledge, and values are all needed as a foundation.

Standard 1: Service Design

• A boy is born in hard times Mississippi
• Surrounded by four walls that ain’t so pretty
• His parents give him love and affection
• To keep him strong moving in the right direction
• Living just enough, just enough for the city
—S. Wonder [16]. Living for the City

Stevie Wonder’s lyrics from his song Living for the City, written in 1973, strike a recurring refrain that so many Black children from rural towns to urban blighted neighborhoods in 2023 still face. This Mississippi, this Boston, this Detroit, this South Central, this North Nashville, or Little Rock is by design. Nearly every aspect is purposefully created. Black children missing from all levels of education was, and is, normal and accepted. With a little reflection, one can see all that happens is either by plan or failure to plan—by design or happenstance. Far too often, Black children are the direct recipients of one-size-fits-all education. When, in fact, equal design is not equitable design. In most cases, educational preparation and execution for Black students are not even equal.

The Service Design construct of Black Student Achievement Programs is foundational to establishing the professional development, budget, staffing, resources, and evaluation of services for Black students in preschool through 12th-grade settings. The development, implementation, and evaluation of the Service Design Standards should be guided by Black voices, who are students, teachers, administrators, and members of the community. The service design standards are:

• Standard 1.a Professional Development: Provide professional development and mentoring for teachers, administrators, and support staff on strategies to enhance Black student achievement.
• Standard 1.b Budget and Resources: Monitor budget, staffing, and resources to ensure that resources are consistently allocated to support Black student achievement.
• Standard 1.c Data and Communication: Review, assess, and share with teachers, administrators, support staff, and families data related to Black student enrollment, academic achievement, attendance, social–emotional learning, behavior, and progress toward graduation.

In the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) decision, many educators advocated for the structural experience of education to change to provide identical schooling experiences for Black and White students [17]. However, what is valued in African American culture is not present in curriculum content. The language spoken has a unique syntax and is not regarded as a valid form of “academic English”, and African American knowledge and ways of understanding are not integrated into instruction. The education system has been structurally developed to exclude Black voices and, therefore, Black students. A set of distinctive Service Design standards is called for to provide the structural elements to support Black student achievement. The design of services for Black students needs to be paired with fiscal resources, communication with all stakeholders, and professional development accompanied by the requisite understanding of African American culture, language, knowledge, and values.

Standard 2: Curriculum and Instruction

• ‘Damn I can’t wait ‘til they graduate.’
• But some of my ni**as will probably never make it
• The S.A.T. sh*t man I doubt they ever take it, ‘cause
• Instead of tryna send a ni**a to a tutor
• Them guidance counselors tryna introduce us to recruiters, it’s a set-up
—J. Cole [18]. School Daze

Going through school as a Black student, I often recall wanting to be understood, appreciated, and made to feel like I belonged. When I didn’t, someone in the neighborhood would. After all, Curriculum (what is taught) and Instruction (how it’s taught) are often based on the historical majority (read White) [19]. The cultural disconnect of the curriculum and well as the teaching methods have historically been disconnected from the lived experiences of Black students.

The Curriculum and Instruction construct of Black Student Achievement Programs is necessary to center African American culture, language, knowledge, and values by direct connections to content standards and grade-level content in preschool through 12th-grade settings. The Curriculum and Instruction standard is designed to acknowledge, value, and integrate Black voices and scholarship into learning experiences for all students in the classroom, not just Black students. Instructional experiences are intended to be integrated within and across content areas, for the duration of the school day, bell-to-bell. The goal of the Curriculum and Instruction standards is to reinforce and maintain African American cultural sustainability through Black Student Achievement Programs. The Curriculum and Instruction standards are:

• Standard 2.a Culturally Sustainable Curriculum and Instruction: Design curriculum and instruction that is culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining for preschool through 12th grade for Black students.
• Standard 2.b Integrated and Interdisciplinary: Design curriculum and instruction that is integrated into all content areas, for the total duration of the school day, for all students.

The role of curriculum and instruction is to be relevant, responsive, and culturally sustaining [20,21]. The education system has intentionally left out the voices of Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities in an attempt to “civilize” the “savages” and obliterate the ability for cultural sustainability to occur [22]. An integrated and interdisciplinary approach to the Curriculum and Instruction construct is necessary to counter the foundational development of a racist education system that was based on the assimilation sentiment that it was a “farse… to attempt teaching American citizenship to negroes… they could not understand it… they must get into the swim of American citizenship…become saturated with the spirit of it, and thus become equal to it” [22]. The Curriculum and Instruction standard aims to assist in the dismantlement of systemic racism that has been embedded in the curriculum and offer a pathway for educators to be antiracist [23].

Standard 3: Scholar Identity

• Ever since day one
• Somebody probably say you wouldn’t be nothin’
• I bet they told you this over and over again on repeat like a re-run
• Nobody ever told you you could live up
• To anything you want, don’t give up
• They rather tell you, you’re destined for failure
• That’s what they tell you
• But you just say
• What about Martin?
• What about Garvey?
• What about Rosa?
• What about Malcolm?
—A. Alsina [24]. American Dream

Before my shoulders hit the air and I could take my first breath, much of my life was determined. From conditions of poor prenatal care, and toxic environmental hazards in low-income homes and communities, to poor schools, and overpoliced neighborhoods. My identity and my life’s outcomes were etched into every breath I took. Would I be a baller, a gang member, a young absent father, an entertainer, or would I even live longer than 18? How did the right to an equitable education become an obstacle course of poor options? More importantly, what can be done to develop the identity of a scholar?

The scholar identity construct of Black Student Achievement Programs is included to counter the lack of emphasis on Black scholar identity development in the education system. Due to historical and contemporary factors that have influenced the home, community, school, and mentoring, Black students often view themselves as less engaged in the intellectual process or as scholars in formal education settings. American education as a system has intentionally not fostered this type of identity development to maintain oppression. The scholar identity standards are:

• Standard 3.a Scholar Identity Development: Develop scholar identity and agency with Black students through instruction.
• Standard 3.b Scholar Identity Bell-to-Bell: Develop scholar identity in all students, with targeted support for marginalized students, including Black students, for the duration of the school day.

Identity development occurs in relationship to race and the perspective one has as a racialized individual in society [25]. The scholar identity construct of the Black Student Achievement Program standards is designed to merge the identity development process with the view a Black student has of themselves as a scholar. Intentional identity development of Black students as scholars is necessary to close the current opportunity gap and to impact future generations of Black intellectuals [26,27].

Standard 4: Social-Emotional

• When I look at the world
• It fills me with sorrow
• Little children today
• Are really gonna suffer tomorrow
• (Oh!) What a shame
• Such a bad way to live
• Oh, who is to blame?
—M. Gaye [28]. Save the Children

Black lives, Black minds, Black bodies, Black, matters! The feeling I felt when I saw pictures of the bodies of Fred Hampton, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Emmett Till still sticks with me. The live images of the beating of Rodney King, the hunting and murders of Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Sean Bell, and Elijah McClain, the public execution of George Floyd, and the idea of Breonna Taylor dying while lying in her bed, and the too many to be named disastrous events that plague the Black community can have one living in a constant state of PTSD. “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” should never have to be a slogan. “I Can’t Breathe” should never have to be a T-shirt, or as Tupac once sang, “wishing for a mansion in heaven”, should never be a song. Then again, neither should a Black student feel as though they do not belong in a classroom or that somehow there are no tomorrows. The tragic truth is for students to believe education, such as Black Lives Matter, mental health professionals, administrators, teachers, families, and communities must address the social and emotional health of its most vulnerable population.

The social–emotional construct of Black Student Achievement Programs is essential to respond to the affective component that is required for student achievement to occur. This standard includes Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (TSEL) competency development to merge social values and emotional perspectives that are inherent in African American culture with social and emotional support. Positive behavior interventions and supports and restorative practices are included to be responsive to the African American student population, and the predisposition educators have to enact disciplinary measures disproportionately on Black students based on stereotypes and implicit and explicit biases [29]. This standard is centered on evidence-based case management to make data-informed decisions to positively impact the social and emotional stability of the Black student population. The social–emotional standards are:

• Standard 4.a Transformative Social and Emotional Learning: Incorporate Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (TSEL) competencies during instruction that respond to the social–emotional needs of Black students.
• Standard 4.b Positive Behavior Interventions, Supports, and Restorative Practices: Support the implementation of positive behavior interventions and supports and restorative practices that are designed to respond to the social and emotional needs of Black students.
• Standard 4.c Case Management: Provide evidence-based child welfare and attendance services, including advocacy and targeted case management, to improve social and emotional well-being and school stability for Black students.

Social and emotional learning cannot occur in isolation for marginalized students, as it is often informed by a mainstream perspective. The combined elements of culture, identity, agency, belonging, and engagement are necessary transformative factors to integrate into the service design for the social and emotional needs of Black students [30,31]. The role of the school counselor or psychologist in advocating for, implementing, and evaluating the social and emotional construct is an essential component of Black Student Achievement programs.

Standard 5: Home and Community

• One child grows up to be
• Somebody that just loves to learn
• Another child grows up to be
• Somebody you’d just love to burn
• Mom loves the both of them
• You, it’s in the blood
• Both kids are good to mom
• Blood’s thicker than the mud
—Sly & the Family Stone [32]. Family Affair

Like wealth, education is a currency that can and should be passed from one generation to the next. Unfortunately, too many Black families, like my own, inherited intergenerational poverty, poor schooling, and low-life expectations. Similar to teaching classes, courses, and degrees on financial literacy to build wealth, direct and sustaining programming efforts must be placed on student’s home life and the communities in which they live.

The home and community construct of Black Student Achievement Programs is a pillar of epistemological service design for Black students. This standard suggests Black Student Achievement Programs establish a Family Advisory Committee and a Student Advisory Committee to locally inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of services. Establishing these committees at the school site level with quarterly meetings will enable the school site to be responsive to its unique Black student population and their community. School district support is provided through professional development for families to connect the pedagogy from the classroom to the pedagogy that is occurring in the home. Additionally, this standard provides the catalyst for teachers to intentionally connect the knowledge, ways of understanding, and cultural and linguistic aspects of the home and community into curriculum and instruction. The home and community standards are:

• Standard 5.a Family Advisory Committee: Sustain productive connections with families to support Black student achievement by maintaining a family advisory committee at each school site.
• Standard 5.b Professional Development for Families: Provide professional development for families on Black student achievement.
• Standard 5.c Student Advisory Committee: Sustain a relationship with students to develop Black student achievement by maintaining a student advisory committee at the school district.
• Standard 5.d. Home and Community Curriculum Integration: Design curriculum and instruction to connect to the linguistic and cultural knowledge from the home and community across content areas.

Including the home and community in program implementation directly acknowledges and integrates an emphasis on the experiential knowledge and roots of Black students [33]. The home and community construct shifts the epistemological design of programming for Black students to lean on the voices in their homes and communities to challenge the mainstream (read Euro-centered/White) ideology that has been the source of educational service design [34]. This portion of the Black Student Achievement program standards celebrates the cultural wealth [35], informed decision-making, agency, and empowerment that is the Black community with the singular goal of supporting Black student achievement.

Standard 6: Partnerships

• Hold on, don’t fight your war alone
• Halo around you, don’t have to face it on your own
• We will win this fight
• Let all souls be brave
• We’ll find a way to heaven
• We’ll find a way
—J. Monae [36]. Americans

Growing up, I was told stories of trust. More who not to trust than who you could. I was told about having to be twice as good to get half as much. I was told not to “air dirty laundry” and what I did reflected on my race. I was also told to “do your dirt on your own”. Many of the messages given were about self-preservation and isolation. When, in fact, alliance, relations, and support are what is needed. Black students, particularly too many Black boys, find seeking help as a sign of weakness or exposure to ideas of ignorance. When, in fact, partnerships provide access. With this in mind, building a coalition to support Black student achievement and Black Student Achievement Programs is paramount.

The Partnerships construct of Black Student Achievement Programs has been developed to engage the Black public and private businesses and college faculty and staff in the community to support Black student achievement. Within this standard, a mentorship pathway is established to increase awareness of college and career readiness with Black-owned businesses and college faculty and staff within the community.

• Standard 6.a Black College and Business Advisory Committee: Sustain productive partnerships with public and private sector stakeholders that promote Black student achievement by developing a college and business advisory committee.
• Standard 6.b Community Mentorship and Career Readiness: Connect public and private sector Black stakeholders for students to foster mentorships to promote college and career readiness within the community.

Merging partnerships and mentoring models with an African American perspective facilitates the sustainability of cultural and historical roots in connection to college and career opportunities for Black youth [37]. Incorporating a Black Student Achievement Program framework that emphasizes the collectiveness of the Black community by encouraging mentorship with successful Black community members nurtures connectedness with others, a positive future orientation [26], and the empowerment of traditionally disenfranchised students in the conversation on college and career readiness [38]. The partnership construct of the Black Student Achievement Program standards counters the discrimination that has historically occurred in the execution of college and career readiness programming for Black students.

6. Conclusions

Black student achievement will not happen by itself nor by hope and prayer. In 1964, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a small but powerful book entitled Why We Can’t Wait. It outlined 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, it discussed the many movements of the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the lack of progress since the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. We say education can’t wait. Families, schools and communities, legislators, and you, all play an important role in the planning and implementation of the academic achievement of Black students. The outlook, largely due to poor academic success, is the same or worse for Black students. Immigration, multiculturalism, and the fight for rights by numerous groups in America have, once again, pushed Black students to the back of the bus.

This work is very intentional. It is needed more than ever. There is no debate over America’s long 240-year history of chattel slavery, failed reconstruction, more than half a century of Jim Crow laws, KKK terrorism, and government-sanctioned segregation in housing, employment, and education. None of this was by accident. It was by plan and design and has impacted over 12 generations of Black families. It was Congress who, before the Brown vs. Board of Education decision was initiated, approved the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Highway expansion, implemented largely between the late 1950s and the early 1970s, came at a huge cost to America’s Black inner-city families. In 1983, from the album Pink Houses, John Mellencamp sang about the conditions of Black people: “He’s got an interstate runnin’ through his front yard”. Although written in 1983, these are the current conditions under which Black families are exposed. This planning and design created food deserts, a lack of timely access to medical resources, no local employment opportunities, and a dearth of quality schools. All conditions exist today.

From the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, to the policing in many failing public schools, it is all by design. We must now and with purpose forge partnerships and support by donating or volunteering for organizations such as the National Black Student Achievement Association (www.blkstudent.org, accessed 1 August 2023) to plan, design, support, implement and sustain a national movement that centers on Black student achievement.