Progress for these students will be tracked in a “score card,” which will be published for the District and each school over time.
The plan was spelled out by Robert Simmons, an urban education professor whom Henderson hired last year to become the school system’s chief of innovation and research.
Simmons said his plan emerged from school visits, conversations with school and community leaders and students, as well as his own research focused on the experiences of young male African Americans.
In the District, 48 percent of black male students and 57 percent of Hispanic male students graduate in four years, compared with 66 percent of their classmates. Only about a third of black male students are proficient in reading and math, according to the DC CAS scores, compared with almost 60 percent of students who are not black or Latino males.
Simmons told the audience at Ballou that the school district is approaching the project with a focus on the strengths and potential of every student, rather than seeing a series of bleak data points.
“The boys are not the problem,” he said. “We are not doing enough to empower them, support and engage them.”
The funding will come from private and public sources. Henderson said she and the D.C. Public Education Fund are working to raise money outside the operating budget.
Bowser has made young minority men a priority at the start of her administration. She gave more than 100 boys Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope” to read over the winter break, and she hosted two Google Hangouts to hear their thoughts on the book and their ideas for change.
She said at the event Wednesday that mentoring programs were high on the boys’ wish list.
DeAndré Sellars, 16, was one of dozens of young black students dressed in suit coats and ties who attended. The junior at Phelps ACE High School said he would like to be paired with a mentor.
He and his siblings live with their great-grandmother, and he said that he has never had a father figure at home. “My principal is the first male role model I’ve had,” he said.