PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (August 5, 2020) – Two research centers at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) are focusing on current trends and educational changes affecting Black and Brown boys for their upcoming virtual summit.
The Texas Juvenile Crime Prevention Center (TJCPC) and the Minority Achievement, Creativity, and High-Ability Center (MACH-III) are hosting the Second Annual Summit on Improving the Outcomes of African American and Latinx Male Youth on Aug. 6, featuring educator, author, and entrepreneur Stedman Graham as the keynote speaker.
During the event, leading researchers plan to share data and viable tips on how families, schools, and communities can help young African American and Latino males survive and thrive in the current dual pandemics: COVID-19 and systemic racism.
“We have a broad target for participants, including educators, students, parents, policymakers, and all interested parties that support positive educational outcomes for African American and Latinx young males,” TJCPC Director Susan Frazier-Kouassi and MACH-III Associate Director Stella Smith said in a Q&A that was posted to the PVAMU website last week. “The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed and further exacerbated the disenfranchisement and disparities that already exist in public education. This summit will provide African American and Latinx young males, their families, communities, and schools with research-based information on the disparities and suggestions for where to go from there.”
The TJCPC and MACH-III Center decided to join forces a few years ago to see how they could help improve the lives of these two groups of boys, who have been the most disproportionately affected by society in the U.S.
“We first began discussing this idea a few years ago in Austin at a meeting with representatives from several organizations and institutions around the state of Texas,” the directors said. “We wanted to see what we could do to improve the educational outcomes of these young men. As we talked, we realized that one area where we, as research centers at a higher education institution, had the expertise to affect and support were the grassroots efforts of community organizations that are on the ground supporting our students who do not have access to support for program assessment and sustainability efforts.”
So, they formed the interdisciplinary partnership and planned the First Annual Summit on Improving the Outcomes of African American and Latinx Male Youth to provide stakeholders from the Houston metropolitan area an opportunity to meet, exchange ideas, and learn about processes for organizational development and sustainability.
“Texas State Senator Royce West (D) provided us with a charge to develop strategies to close the achievement gap for African American and Latinx male students in Texas,” said Frazier-Kouassi and Smith. “Responding to his charge were persons representing the Texas Education Agency, Texas Workforce Committee, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas Southern University, Prairie View A&M University, independent school districts, and other higher education personnel. This planning group met over several months to review an extensive body of research related to the root causes and the potential solutions.
With this year’s summit, the centers plan to do the same thing – find solutions to help these future generations and leaders.
“We want participants to leave the summit with a better understanding of the current trends, including police reform, school segregation, COVID-19. And also, the micro and macrosystems that undergird the challenges and opportunities for African American and Latinx young male success,” they said. “We hope that our participants will be inspired to continue to advocate for these students in new and innovative ways, because in the current dual pandemics of COVID and resurgent racism, it is critical to have a dialogue about challenges and strategies to support our African American and Latinx young males.”
Click here to visit the website for the summit.
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