National efforts
Taylor commends the efforts to increase male enrollment and retention, but he says more is needed at the national level. The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans joined the Morehouse Research Institute in February to sponsor the Black Male Summit, which focused on education reform. Taylor is calling for national sponsorship of a program such as Five-Fifths to specifically address Black male retention and graduation. Studies are showing a male-female disparity in Hispanic college enrollment, so Hispanic-serving institutions are also taking steps to counter the imbalance. The latest Census Bureau information states that Hispanics make up 19 percent of all college students ages 18-24, up from 12 percent in 2008. Still, in 2009, Latinas earned 61 percent of all bachelor’s degrees earned by Hispanics.
Four years ago, California State, Long Beach announced its Men’s Success Initiative to boost male enrollment and to keep male students on track academically. California State, San Marcos held an educational leadership symposium last year to address the low attendance and graduation rates of young Latino men in college.
“Anecdotally, we’re seeing that there is a focus,” Taylor says. He suggests that the interventions need to start much earlier, in grades K- 8. “We’re trying to reverse the trend, and all sorts of initiatives were born with the idea of helping to reverse it, but there are not enough initiatives and not enough resources to really solve the problem.”
Article Appeared @http://blackstarjournal.org/?p=4075