The goal of our education work is to help students achieve academic success. As we move deeper into the 21st century, post secondary education is essential to meet shifting demands. The national high school graduation rate is 78.2%. In the mid south states graduations rates are lower than the national average-Mississippi 63.8%, Louisiana 68.8%, and Arkansas 75%. Currently, roughly 1 in 5 students do not graduate high school with their peers. Moreover, nationally, only 52% of Black males graduate from high school in four years. We believe an early focus on high school graduation and college preparedness will engage students and provide much-needed jump starts to career paths. . Ensuring that high school students are prepared to enter college is critical not only to the students success, but to economic success for our region.
As we examined indicators of math and reading test scores and graduation rates, the results led to identifying critical skills required to ensure the effectiveness in improving outcomes for boys and young men of color. These outcomes helped defined our brand, “Males of Color: Cultivating Leaders for Today and Tomorrow” initiative. The purpose of this initiative is to assess and address the disparities faced by males of color.
The initiative, Males of Color: Cultivating Leaders for Today and Tomorrow supports efforts such as tutoring, coaching, career development to help improve academic performance in addressing high school graduation rates, college preparedness and career readiness. We believe by investing in these efforts will help move the needle in ensuring that students are academically prepared for the future. The overall goal is to identify challenges and implement successful strategies that provide academic and social support needed to be successful in high school and beyond. The grant will service 10th – 12th grade males of color. Measuring the results of our work is critical to understanding how well our strategy is working and whether the Foundation is reaching individuals, organizations, and communities that most need our help. Over the course of three years, an evaluator will track and monitor the progress of the work to identify best practices and lessons learned that can be replicated in new communities.
Improving educational outcomes will require efforts on many levels. We know that no one entity can bring about this change, but a collective effort of administrators, teachers, parents and communities is critical to ensuring that more of our students are progressing. We have found that various collaborations and partnerships are needed to be effective.
The Foundation’s commitment to the academic success of our youth is long-standing. Our current and future commitments are geared toward supporting activities that provide students with skills and experiences they need to succeed. Much of the foundation’s work is interconnected and critical for the transformation of education and learning, education has the power to move metrics across all of our priority areas: community development, health and wellness, and wealth building.