The Education of Black Male Youth Lecture Series
This Lecture Series took place October 2006 through January 2007
The Education of Black Male Youth: What Steps Can School Leaders Take to Ensure the Success of Their Learners
October 18, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
Dr. Ronald Walker, Director and Founder of the Delores Walker Johnson Center for Thoughtful Leadership
Dr. Roger Harris, Headmaster, Boston Renaissance Charter School
Dr. Walker and Mr. Harris will introduce the five-part lecture series, discussing the inspiration and importance of the topic of “The Education of Black Male Youth.”
Dr. Harris has devoted 32 years to working with youth in Boston’s public schools. He has worked in traditional Boston public high schools and middle schools as a classroom teacher, administrator, athletic coach, and mentor, earning national and international recognition as an outstanding urban educator. His success with urban schools extends beyond our shores and has attracted the attention of educators in Sweden, where he has become a frequently invited speaker addressing issues related to Motivating and Successfully Educating Urban Students; Building Effective Educational Teacher Teams; Establishing Successful School-Business/Community Partnerships; and Developing Strong Home & School Relationships. In his current position at Boston Renaissance Charter School, Dr. Harris serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the largest charter school in Massachusetts and the largest single-site charter school in the nation.
Mr. Walker has dedicated over 30 years to improving public education, beginning as a classroom teacher at Sayre Junior High School in Philadelphia, PA. An Urban Fellowship for the Ford Foundation brought him to the Institute for Responsive Education at Boston University as a researcher and policy analyst. Returning to public schools, he served for several years in Massachusetts schools as an assistant principal and then a principal. Currently, he is the Associate Director of ATLAS Communities, a national comprehensive school reform design that has been implemented in over 100 schools across the country in urban, suburban and rural school districts.
Providing the Building Blocks of Success for Tomorrow’s Visionary Leaders
October 23, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
David Banks, Principal at Eagle Academy for Young Men, New York City
Mr. Banks began his career in education in 1986 in New York City’s Public School 167 as a teacher. After receiving his law degree in 1992, he left the Department of Education to pursue a career in law. His undying passion for children called him back to the Department of Education in 1995, where he served as an Assistant Principal at P.S. 191 in Crown Heights. He recently accepted a new principalship to be the founding administrator of The Eagle Academy for Young Men, the first all-boys public high school in New York City in over 30 years.
The Eagle Academy for Young Men is a nurturing institution where students, faculty and community work together to develop academic excellence, ethical behavior, and personal responsibility. The Academy was formed in conjunction with the One Hundred Black Men, Inc.
Challenges and Opportunities for Teaching and Preparing
Our Black Male Youth for the Twenty-First Century
November 15, 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer, Professor of Education and Psychology, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education
Dr. Spencer has been at the University of Pennsylvania since 1993. Prior to joining Penn GSE, she was a full professor at Emory University for 17 years. She also serves at the Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Development Program; the Center for Health Achievement Neighborhoods Growth and Ethnic Studies; and the W.E.B. Du Bois Collective Research Institute. In addition to her academic positions Dr. Spencer is a published author, editor, and practitioner who works with several agencies that provide mental health services to highly vulnerable youth.
Her adolescent-focused research addresses resiliency, identity, and competence formation processes of African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American, and Euro-American youth. The current emphasis on multi-ethnic youth evolves from her longstanding interest in the development of African-American, and particularly male, children and youth who grow up in low-economic resource families and communities.
Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males
December 11, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
Dr. Alfred Tatum, Department of Literacy, Northern Illinois University
Dr. Tatum is a renowned literacy expert, currently working in the Department of Literacy at Northern Illinois University. He also serves on the National Advisory Reading Committee of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Before joining NIU's faculty, Dr. Tatum was a senior program associate in the Center for Literacy of the North Central Region Education Lab. He also served as assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Maryland; director in the Reading Clinic at Buffalo State College in Buffalo, New York; and as a research intern for the Rainbow PUSH coalition in Chicago. Dr. Tatum’s career began as an eighth-grade teacher on the south side of Chicago, where he taught for five years.
A published author, his work has appeared in the three major journals of the International Reading Association. Among his works are "Breaking Down Barriers that Disenfranchise African American Adolescents in Low-Level Reading Tracks" and "A Road Map for Reading Specialists Entering School Without Exemplary Reading Programs." His new book, Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males: Closing the Achievement Gap, was published in May 2005.
Leadership Perspectives in Confronting the Disproportionate Representation
of Black Males in Special Education
January 10, 2007
Dr. Gwendolyn Webb Johnson, College of Education, Texas A & M University
Dr. Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at Texas A & M University. Aside from her teaching responsibilities, she is a well-known trainer in the areas of multicultural education, behavior interventions, collaborative teaching, and family and community involvement. Dr. Johnson has also published several articles and book chapters about her research and work in these important subject areas. Early in her career she was a teacher to students with behavioral disorders in Illinois and Washington DC.
When not engaged in professional pursuits Dr. Johnson is popular public speaker, having given presentations titled “Heroes and Sheroes -- Highlights of African American Leaders”; “Call and Response-Celebrating an Oral Tradition”; and “Developing Your Passion for Learning.”
