African American Students: Bridging the Cultural Gap before Closing the Achievement Gap

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African American StudentsBridging the
Cultural Gap before Closing the Achievement Gap

• Presented by Dr. H.E. Doc Holliday
• Assistant Professor Kennesaw State University
• hhollida_at_kennesaw.edu
• 678-797-2234 KSU
• www.edtransform.com

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Introduction Background

• Principal for parts of four different decades
• Worked in Ohio and Georgia
• Graduated thousands of students
• Worked at the college, high school, middle, and
  central office levels
• 40-50 of my assistants have moved into
  principalships, college level or central office
  leadership positions.
• Ph.D. from The Ohio State University
• Currently Assistant Professor of EDL at KSU
• Research centers on www.edtransform.com
• Improved SAT scores 43 points in one three year
  period
• Introduced Gender Education to Metro Atlanta
  Schools

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Purpose of This Seminar

• To Dispel Academic Myths Regarding African
  American Students
• To Review Cutting Edge Research and Common Sense
  Approaches That Work With African American
  Students
• To Clarify Challenges and Map Out Instructional
  Strategies To Close the Achievement Gap of
  African American Students in Public Schools

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What Is Achievement?

• 50 of Achievement is Attributed to Self Esteem
  Being Competent Confident
• 25 of Achievement is Attributed to IQ
• 25 of Achievement is Attributed to Opportunities
  Experiences

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Kids Dont Care How Much You Know Until They
Know How Much You Care Unknown Author

• Building Relationships
• Rebuilding the Human Spirit
• Setting Boundaries
• Killing them with Kindness

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Teaching

• The art of teaching is the art of assisting
  discovery. You can teach a lesson for a day but
  if you teach curiosity, you teach for a lifetime.
  Its too bad that the people who really know how
  to run the country are busy teaching school.
  When truth stands in your way, you are headed in
  the wrong direction. When teaching the love of
  truth, never lose the truth of love.

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Why Cant Low Income Minority Students Produce
Better Academically?

• Reason 1 We Teach Different Students Different
  Things.
• Reason 2 Ineffective and Poorly Trained
  Teachers Are In The Most Challenging
  Environments.
• Reason 3 Expectations Are Low. The Work
  Required In Not Rigorous At All (coloring, maps,
  handouts).

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What You Must Be Ready For

• Shocking Experiences How To Handle Them
• Be Cool, Calm, Collected, Capable, Confident,
  Caring, Consistent
• Do Not Cry, Cuss, or Complain

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Dr. Ruby Payne Research Charts

• What is Poverty?
• The Framework for Understanding Poverty
• Financial Physical
• Emotional Support Systems
• Mental Relationships
• Spiritual Knowledge of Hidden Rules

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Not Everything That Is Faced Can Be Changed, But
Nothing Can Be Changed Until It Is Facedby
James Baldwin
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Digital Immigrant Teachers

• Prefer slow and controlled release of information
  from limited sources.
• Prefer singular processing and single or limited
  tasking.
• Prefer to provide text before pictures, sounds,
  and video.
• Prefer to provide information linearly,
  logically, and sequentially.
• Prefer students to work independently rather than
  network and interact.
• Prefer to teach just-in-case (its on the
  exam).
• Prefer deferred gratification and deferred
  rewards.
• Prefer to teach to the curriculum guide and
  standardized tests.

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Digital Native Learners

• Prefer receiving information quickly from
  multiple multimedia sources.
• Prefer parallel processing and multitasking.
• Prefer processing pictures, sounds, and video
  before text.
• Prefer random access to hyperlinked Multimedia
  information.
• Prefer to interact/network simultaneously with
  many others.
• Prefer to learn just-in-time.
• Prefer instant gratification and instant rewards.
• Prefer learning that is relevant, instantly
  useful, and fun.

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7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen
Covey

• 1. Be Proactive
• 2. Begin with the End in Mind
• 3. Put First Things First
• 4. Thing Win-Win
• 5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be
  Understood
• 6. Synergize
• 7. Sharpen the Saw

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Love Being A Teacher

• The Mediocre Teacher tells,
• The Good Teacher Explains,
• The Superior Teachers Shows,
• The Great Teacher Inspires!

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The Campbell Middle School Story

• Why We Had To Change or Die
• Data was Obvious
• Sixty Minutes by Leslie Stahl (2003)
• 1400 Students
• 84 on Free and Reduced Lunch
• 44 Transient Rate of Students
• 25-30 Teacher Turnover Rate
• 70 of Students had no Father in the Home
• 2 of Parents Involved in PTSA
• 30 of Students Had Been Involved in the Juvenile
  Justice System
• 52 African American/35 Hispanic
• 20 of Students in Special Education Classes

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Learning Strategies That Work For Boys

• Friendly competition by groups/teams
• Family Group of fours
• Positive reinforcement
• Varied activities geared toward the male interest
• Manipulative/Hands on activities
• Graphic Organizers
• Assignments involving technology
• Promote Starting lessons on time
• Quick tension release activities
• Athletic themes for academic activities
• Rubrics

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Learning Strategies That Work for Girls

• Friendly competition by individual
• Shared time assignments with peers
• Family grouping of fours
• Allow flexibility in choosing writing topics and
  projects
• Rubrics
• Task oriented assignments
• Graphic organizers
• Note taking Writing assignments that offer choice
• Enjoy challenging quick moving structured classes
• Focused on task class discussions

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Learning Strategies To Avoid For Boys

• Large Classes
• Long Projects-KISS (keep it short and simple)
• Long note taking assignments
• Prolonged Group Work Assignments
• Negative Criticism
• Long Periods of Quiet Work
• Prolonged Teacher Lecturing
• Down Time before or during class

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Learning Strategies To Avoid For Girls

• Slow-paced Assignments
• Not willing to move seating arrangements
• Too much Group Work
• Too much Open Discussion Time
• Unlimited Amounts of Competition

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Other Strategies to Avoid for Both

• Pro-Longed Activities that have Few Breaks
• Eliminate Down Time Especially for Boys
• Unplanned Activities (Winging It)
• Worksheets Majority of Each Class

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Differences Between the Genders

• Males Females
• Extrinsic Learners Intrinsic Learners
• Impulsive Self-Motivated
• Fidgety Short Term Memory
• Abstract Reasoning Inductive Thinking
• Spatial Relationships Better Writers
• Deductive Reasoning Better Listeners
• Better in Math Better in Reading
• Movement Note taking skills
• Thrives on Competition Enjoys some Competition

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Mathematics Data
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Language Arts Data
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Why Do Students Act Out?

• Attention
• Power
• Revenge
• Fear of Failure

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Behaviors Interventions

• 1. Laugh when disciplined Understand the
  reason for the behavior. Tell the students three
  or four other behaviors that are more
  appropriate.
• 2. Argue loudly with the teacher Dont argue
  with the students. Use the four part sheet and
  have them write the answers to the questions.
  Model respect for students.
• 3. Inappropriate or vulgar comments Have
  students generate phrases that could be used to
  say the same thing.
• 4. Angry Response Respond in an adult voice.
  Discuss other responses they could have had.

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Behaviors Interventions contd

• 5. Cannot follow directions Write steps on
  board. Have them write on top of paper the steps
  needed to finish a task.
• 6. Physical fight Stress that fighting is
  unacceptable. Examine other options.
• 7. Harm other students, verbally or physically
  Tell students that aggression is not a choice.
  Have them generate options
• 8. Talk incessantly Have students write all
  questions on a note card two days a week. Tell
  students that each gets five comments a day.
  Build participatory activities into the lesson.

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What Does Good Classroom Management Look Like?

• On the first day make sure that each student
  feels like he or she belongs Roxann Rose
• Freedom with Limits
• Shared Responsibility
• Structured Choices
• Self Discipline Encouraged
• Mutual Respect
• Teacher As Student
• Result Equals Cooperation Responsibility

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Dare To Be Different Relevant
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Questions Answers

• Contact Information
• Dr. H.E. Doc Holliday
• Kennesaw State University
• 678-797-2234 KSU
• 770-499-8340 Home
• hhollida_at_kennesaw.edu
• www.edtransform.com