Black High School Research Articles

From the Negro News Page to the Sports Page: Mary Garber's Influence on the Newspapers of Winston-Salem, N.C.

Mary Garber began covering sports in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1944. Garber's work as one of the first female sports journalists in the nation has been well documented. Another important part of Garber's legacy, however, has been largely ignored by journalism historians. Garber was the first white reporter in North Carolina to cover black high school and college sports in a meaningful way. Garber's work brought the news about black athletes from the segregation of the Negro News page to the equality of the Sports Section. It also changed the way stories about black athletes were written. This study takes an in-depth look at who Garber was, why she did what she did, and how she overcame several obstacles to desegregate the sports pages. It also examines newspaper coverage to gauge how her work impacted her newspaper, as well as others in North Carolina. The data show that her influence was vast and is still being felt.

“Thinking About Makin’ It”: Black Canadian Students’ Beliefs Regarding Education and Academic Achievement

Black Canadians share many aspects of the historical experiences of African Americans, but there are also important differences. One similarity between these two groups is the persistent academic underachievement of Black adolescents. Although this is a subject of widespread concern in both countries, it has received little empirical scrutiny in Canada. We address this shortcoming by examining the academic and achievement-related beliefs of Black high school students in two Canadian cities, Toronto and Halifax. Despite significant regional differences most participants believed that schooling could lead to success for them. Females’ attitudes and beliefs regarding education were more positive than those of males. Perceived parental values and support were strong predictors of participants’ attitudes and school marks; socioeconomic status (SES) and perceived peer support were non-significant correlates of academic outcomes. We discuss the results in terms of the germane US research, and highlight the implications of the findings for understanding diversity among Black Canadian youth.

BEYOND TEST SCORES: THE IMPACT OF BLACK TEACHER ROLE MODELS ON RIGOROUS MATH TAKING

Rigorous math has a positive impact on ultimate educational attainment and earnings, but black high school students enroll in advanced math classes at low rates. Curriculum choice is determined by prior academic achievement and expectations for future schooling, both of which can be influenced by role models. This article finds that increasing the percentage of math teachers who are black has a nontrivial, positive impact on the likelihood that a black geometry student will enroll in a subsequent rigorous math course. This race‐based role model effect occurs only for opposite‐sex student/teacher matches.

Good News! College Enrollments of Recent Black High School Graduates Are on the Rise

Good News! College Enrollments of Recent Black High School Graduates Are on the Rise

Coping With Stereotype Threat: Denial as an Impression Management Strategy.

Four experiments tested the hypothesis that people who are concerned with impression management cope with stereotype threat through denial. Consistent with this hypothesis, temporary employees threatened by a stereotype of incompetence (Study 1) and hostel-dwelling older adults (Study 2) were more likely to deny incompetence if they were high in impression management. African Americans (Study 3) showed a similar pattern of denying cognitive incompetence, which emerged primarily when they were interviewed by a White experimenter and had attended a predominantly Black high school. In Study 4, White students who expected to take an IQ test and were threatened by a stereotype of being less intelligent than Asians were more likely to deny that intelligence is important if they were high in impression management.

Body art among minority high school athletes: Decisional factors, satisfaction, and parental knowledge and consent

Because of a lack of information about several aspects of body art in adolescents, we profiled Hispanic and black high school athletes who had piercings or tattoos; assessed motivational factors for, and satisfaction with, body art; and determined if parents knew and approved of the procedures, and if professionals asked for parental consent.

Minority Enrollment Demand for Higher Education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities from 1976 to 1998: An Empirical Analysis

Introduction Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were established during the segregation period of U.S. history in response to the demand for education by Blacks who did not have access to White educational institutions. As a group, Blacks share a common historical experience of segregation that was characterized by relatively limited educational resources to meet the demand of the black population for higher education. Currently there are 103 HBCUs (53 private and 50 public institutions), representing approximately 3% of the total U.S. institutions of higher education and about 2% of the total U.S. college enrollment (National Center for Education Statistics, 1996). Collectively, these institutions have also been undergoing, over the past three decades, a declining share of black high graduates' enrollment in higher educational institutions. Despite federal desegregation policies, such a relative decline has not been compensated by a corresponding increase in HBCUs' relative share of the total population of non-Black high school graduates' enrollment in higher education. Although most HBCUs experienced enrollment growth during the periods of educational expansion in the U.S., overall their share of national enrollment has declined because of two factors: the increase in community colleges and the Adams court decisions desegregating higher education in the south (Hauptman & Smith, 1994). Table 1 shows that the total enrollment in HBCUs expanded by about 18.69% from 222,613 students in 1976 to 273,472 in 1998. Despite the modest increase in the number of non-Black students attending HBCUs, the level of diversity in terms of race and ethnicity has remained almost unchanged. Hence, Black students have consistently represented about 81% of the total annual enrollment at HBCUs during that period. Table 2 indicates that the total U.S. enrollment of Blacks 14 to 34 years of age in postsecondary educational institutional institutions increased significantly by 66% from 996,000 in 1980 to 1,640,000 in 1998. Consequently, the total Black enrollment in all colleges and universities rose from 9.78% in 1980 to 12.75% in 1998. However, as a group, HBCUs' relative share of the total Black enrollment in higher educational institutions declined from 18.18% in 1980 to 13.70% in 1998. In contrast, Black students' enrollment in other institutions of higher education, as a percentage of the total Black enrollment in the U.S., rose from 80.82% in 1980 to 86.3% in 1998. While Black students' enrollment in other colleges and universities rose by 76% from 805,011 in 1980 to 1,415,255 students in 1998, the enrollment of non-Black students in HBCUs rose only by 16.82% (from 42,568 to 49,727) during the same period. Several factors may have contributed to the decline of HBCUs' relative share of total Black student enrollment in postsecondary educational institutions, and there is no empirical evidence about their effects in the literature. The survival and growth of many HBCUs depend on their ability to maintain or improve their relative share of Black students, who traditionally represented their major source of enrollment. The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical analysis of the determinants of Black student enrollment in HBCUs. Such information may be useful for policy decisions. An overview of the factors influencing Black enrollment in higher education and a description of the methodological framework as well as the data used in this study are provided in the next section. Methodology and Data Collection The Determinants of Enrollment Demand The literature provides a large body of information on the various factors that have been influencing the demand for higher education by Black high school graduates in the U. S. Demographic trends affect the demand for higher education as well as the supply of high school graduates who attend the various postsecondary institutions. …

High stakes testing and distributive justice

Evaluation of high stakes testing regimes must consider not simply mean test scores, but their distribution among students. Taking high school graduation tests and black and white student populations to illustrate the argument, I identify two criteria of success: a larger proportion of black high school graduates and a narrower gap between the two groups. I evaluate various possible distributions against these criteria. I then consider the question of which students merit our focused attention, those students who are furthest behind or those with the greatest likelihood of passing the test given extra help. A medical triage analogy suggests we should help the former, but I show here that the analogy is misplaced.

The Substance of Things Hoped for: a Study of the Future Orientation, Minority Status Perceptions, Academic Engagement, and Academic Performance of Black High School Students

This study investigated the relationship between the Future Temporal Orientation (FTO) and academic performance of African American high school students. We hypothesized that the relationship between FTO and academic performance would be mediated by students’ perceptions of the usefulness of an education and their valuing of academic work and that the relationships between FTO and the hypothesized mediators would be moderated by students’ perceptions of school and societal inequity. The students (N = 334) completed questionnaires assessing their temporal orientation and educational attitudes, and GPAs were gathered from their transcripts. Results and post hoc analyses supported the existence of a three-step process: FTO was associated with perceptions of education usefulness, which was then associated with valuing academic work (a relationship moderated by perceived unfair treatment at school), which was then associated with GPAs. The significance of FTO development as a normative process and possible protective factor against depressed academic achievement are discussed.

Teammates On and Off the Field? Contact With Black Teammates and the Racial Attitudes of White Student Athletes1

The intergroup contact hypothesis holds that proximate, cooperative interactions on an equalized basis between Blacks and Whites can minimize Whites’ prejudice (Allport, 1954). This experiment investigated the effect of contact between White and Black high school teammates on White student athletes’ racial attitudes. Using the 1996 Social and Group Experiences (SAGE) survey (created by the authors and administered in the Fall of 1996) commissioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the results indicated a significant relationship between amount of contact with Black teammates in high school and racial policy support and affect, depending on the type of sport played. White student athletes playing team sports who had higher percentages of Blacks as high school teammates expressed more policy support for and greater positive affect toward Blacks as a group than did their counterparts playing individual sports. The role of athletic experiences in changing racial attitudes is discussed.

The MSEN Pre-College Program: What are the Costs and Benefits Based on Estimates of its Impacts on Black High School Graduates?

North Carolina's Mathematics Science Education Network (MSEN) pre-college program, which began in 1986, exposes predominantly African American sixth- through twelfth-grade students to mathematics- and science-based courses and careers. The state of North Carolina spent $414.42 per pupil per year (a total of $387,897) during the median four-year period that the 234 African Americans in the 1998-1999 graduating class were in the program. The cost of sending these students through the program for four years was weighed against the projected net benefits of those who are expected to enroll and/or graduate from college and work in North Carolina. Results indicate that it takes six to seven years for the estimated net benefits from the projected 38 college enrollees and graduates to exceed the program costs for their class. In fact, the net benefits of MSEN are likely to increase as long as the class members stay and work in the state.

Desegregation and the Historically Black High School: The Establishment of Howard W. Blake in Tampa, Florida.

This article examines a grassroots movement among African-Americans to reestablish Howard W. Blake High School, named for a historically black high school closed during the desegregation process in Tampa, Florida. The establishment of Blake High School was contentious, involving negotiations by multiple and conflicting interests—school officials, black leaders, alumni of the historically black high schools that had existed prior to desegregation, the federal judge overseeing the 1971 desegregation order, and civil rights leaders. Analyzing the debates over Blake's status as a magnet, its location, and its attendance zone, this article highlights the paradox of desegregation for African-American communities in Tampa. This case reveals the tension between the desire for community schooling and the consequences of resegregation.

Depressive Symptoms and Smoking among US Black Adults: Absence of a Relationship

Depressive symptoms play a major role in cigarette smoking among US White adults, but it is not known if this holds for US Blacks. Hence, the relationship between depressive symptoms and smoking was examined among 520 US Black adults sampled from 10 randomlyselected community census tracts. Results revealed no relationship between depression and smoking, but education levels did contribute; Black high school drop-outs were four times more likely than Black college graduates to be smokers.

White Fright: the politics of white youth identity in South Africa

In the 1990s, 'whiteness' in South Africa was open to multiple rearticulations. As white is politically (although not necessarily economically) unhinged from a position of privilege, it finds new paths and trajectories to follow. In this article, I examine how white students at a predominantly black high school in Durban remake and resuscitate whiteness. Using the strategy of resentment, white students negate and dismiss both the historical and contemporary position of their black classmates, instead recentring themselves as victims. As they survey their lives and futures, white students also plot routes of escape out of South Africa, taking refuge in a global whiteness that has many different facets. As white students elude and evade the boundaries of the nation-state in their quest for a secure, privileged whiteness, they lead whiteness to a global stage.

White Fright: The politics of white youth identity in South Africa

In the 1990s, 'whiteness' in South Africa was open to multiple rearticulations. As white is politically (although not necessarily economically) unhinged from a position of privilege, it finds new paths and trajectories to follow. In this article, I examine how white students at a predominantly black high school in Durban remake and resuscitate whiteness. Using the strategy of resentment, white students negate and dismiss both the historical and contemporary position of their black classmates, instead recentring themselves as victims. As they survey their lives and futures, white students also plot routes of escape out of South Africa, taking refuge in a global whiteness that has many different facets. As white students elude and evade the boundaries of the nation-state in their quest for a secure, privileged whiteness, they lead whiteness to a global stage.

Die verband tussen matriekprestasie en eerstejaarprestasie vir opeenvolgende innames aan dieselfde universiteit

Die verband tussen matriekprestasie en eerstejaarprestasie vir opeenvolgende innames aan dieselfde universiteit

Evocations and Provocations: States of Mind on Flags

A recent drive from Atlanta to a high school reunion in Danville, Virginia, prompted thoughts of its history in light of the storms over the Confederate flag which have swirled around South Carolina and now brew, with less intensity, in Georgia. Danville was home until departure for college in Atlanta, never to be hometown again. Thoughts arose about the reputation it had earned during the Civil Rights Movement. From the vantage point of maturity, latter-day thoughts of Ole Virginny have caused some consternation about myopia in younger eyes. The minor turbulence that beset that town was nothing compared to events at the seat of the Movement, Atlanta, adopted as hometown upon marriage there in 1960. Vistas for a new perspective of Danville came from much farther, freshly aroused by thoughts of the year 1959-1960, spent in England on a study-abroad scholarship. Ironically, an acquaintance, while attending Exeter University for a full year after a summer program at London University, with two white females from Averett College in Danville presented the stark canker of segregation: the only African-American (not our nomenclature then) student at the university, and one of a small group of Americans, takes classes with students with whom she could not in Virginia. Thus in 2000, the irony is compounded by the significance of the venue for the reunion of students from the one black high school in town: the new field house at Averett, on its satellite campus. That high school had been converted into a middle school with the advent of integration in 1967.

Oh, Do I Remember!: Experiences of Teachers during the Desegregation of Austin's Schools, 1964-1971

Oh, Do I Remember!: Experiences of Teachers During the Desegregation of Austin's Schools, 1964-1971, by Anna Victoria Wilson and William E. Segall. New York: State University of New York Press, 2001. 186 pp. $19.95, paper. Wilson and Segall trace the deliberate actions of the Austin, Texas Independent School District to avoid school desegregation from 1964-1971 through the experiences of teachers who were forced into the forefront of this volatile situation. They show how views and reactions differed between Black and White teachers as to their roles and responsibilities for enforcing the law of the land. Evidence is provided of support for resistance to the Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka Kansas decision from the unlikely sources of those expected to uphold the law-Texas state and national elected officials. Ultimately, the authors cite the loss of community and the closing of the town's Black high school among the many unintentional consequences of desegregation. Oh, Do I Remember! purports that segregation in Austin and throughout the United States was more than mere separation; rather the conveyance of the twin messages that anything touched by a Black was unclean (i.e. water fountains and courtroom Bibles), and the superiority of the White race. The logical result of such thinking led to legal exclusions, unequal economic and living standards, minimal political power, many forms of legal and illegal coercion, reduced social respect, restricted social mobility, and discrimination against Blacks as normal social behavior. Denial of a quality education was the most effective vehicle to perpetuate a caste system based on the social construct of race. The authors provide a chronology of resistance by the Austin Independent School District following each landmark decision regarding the schooling of Black children. The district's response to the Plessy v. Ferguson decision was similar to that of school districts throughout the South. Schools for Black children, where they existed, were substandard, students were issued discarded books from White schools, and child labor demands caused shortened school years for Black students. Nevertheless, the myth of separate but equal was legalized. Teacher shortages and the struggle over Black education curricula caused additional problems for Black schools. The Booker T. Washington vocational/ industrial model was opposed by the majority of Black educators who favored the liberal arts curriculum provided White students. The Northern philanthropists who concurred with the Booker T. Washington model preferred not to become a part of the dispute and withdrew their financial support. Blacks then became double taxed by having to pay for schools in general and then a self-imposed tax to purchase comparable educational conditions and opportunities for their children. The Austin school district responded to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision with even painfully slower progress. Little history of Austin's school desegregation exists. However, as discussed in Oh, Do I Remember!, a school desegregation plan was devised called teaching. Cross-over teaching was the involuntary assignment of Black teachers to White schools and the voluntary assignment of White teachers to Black schools. Of the 33 Black teachers and 52 White teachers who participated in Austin's cross-over teaching plan at the high school level, 18 were located and interviewed for this book. …

Marking standards and the differential predictability of the first-year university performance of different demographic groups

This study investigates the differential validity and differential prediction of the first-year university marks of two cohorts of students from historically white (HWS) and historically black high schools (HBS) with matriculation marks being the predictor. In agreement with results obtained elsewhere, a common regression line developed for the entire group underpredicted the university marks of HWS women and of HWS students as a group, and overpredicted that of HWS men and of HBS students as a group. To adjust for differences in marking standards, a procedure proposed by Elliott and Strenta (1988) was used. Because HWS women and HBS students as a group tended to prevail in leniently marked courses, as opposed to HWS men who tended to predominate in strictly marked courses, such adjustments reduced the over- and underpredictions for HWS men and women, respectively, but also increased the overpredictions for the 1996 HBS women and for the 1999 HBS men. For all groups, the correlation between matriculation marks and university marks were slightly higher following such adjustments. The effectiveness of the adjustment procedure was impeded by the very small number of students who took courses in more than one faculty. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol.15(1) 2001: 129-137

No Prospects for a College Education When Black High School Students Fear for Their Safety

No Prospects for a College Education When Black High School Students Fear for Their Safety