A Research Proposal For Public Community College

Trying to achieve your dreams and reach your full potential in a town that has little to no guidance for youth, especially African American men, is a daunting task. Too often, young men from my hometown are given limited options for their future. The education system made us feel as if we were only created to work in trade career fields, or sign our lives away for four to six years to the various branches of the United States Military. College was a luxury that many, including myself, thought would never be an option.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) are experiencing low retention rates with first generation college students. The students are not graduating within a four to six year enrollment period, and or are not returning after their freshmen year. As the American workforce looks to colleges and universities to fulfill the workforce pipeline with educated diverse workers, HBCUs are in the spotlight to produce qualified minority graduates. Moreover, HBCU’s are looking to refine their methods of inclusion and buy-in, this will in-turn manifest a higher level of retention amongst first generation college students.

Minority serving institutions have been an integral part of the education system in the United States since before the Civil War (LeMelle, 2002). Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have, for much of their existence, been criticized for the level of academic rigor, political context, and their social agenda have created controversy for generations. With that being said, HBCUs hold a valuable place in the landscape of US higher education institutions. The culture, history, and perspective that is taught and shared are unparalleled and cannot be replicated at a predominately white institution (PWI).

Over the years there has been a significant decrease in the percentage of African American male success in higher education. Not only does this effect society as a whole, but more importantly this effects the African- American community as well. The high percentage of uneducated African- American males will result in increased crime rate, shortened life span and overall hard life. However this epidemic can be stopped by looking at the contributing factors of why there is a decrease in African-American male success in higher education and how to change it. Throughout the paper I will be addressing the issues as to why there are not more black men in higher education, by looking at the contributing factors such as environmental

Minorities are a growing segment of the population. However, this group continues to be underrepresented in the area of post secondary education. Obtaining an advanced degree remains a likely predictor of future career success. The problem facing the minority student is that barriers persist which continue to hinder enrollment, retention, and graduation rates in institutions of higher education. These barriers must be identified and examined and solutions offered if college completion rates are to be increased for this population.

Community college is a great institution for students to start their educational journey. Especially when they do not have the funds or lack some of the prerequisite that a university would require. Community college was created to serve the community, traditional and non-traditional students with the best higher education and lifetime learning opportunities. The faculty and staff members at a community college is there to provide leadership in education while going above and beyond to recognize the needs of the students and the community by providing excellent educational programs and support services that are available to all who have the opportunity to take advantage of them. “Student services now include recruitment and retention, counseling, student activities, student health, financial aid, academic support, career centers, transfer centers, and supplemental services such as transportation, child care, and services tailored for specific populations of students” (Cohen, Brawer, & Krisker, 2014, pg. 209). My philosophy in fulfilling the role and mission of the community college, is to establish the mission, vision, goals and values to guide all students on their journey to strive to become successful both in school and in today’s economy.

The Hispanic/Latino community has been known to be underrepresented on college campuses, both at the community college and four-year university level. Factors such as low-income households, poor or harsh living conditions, under-educated parents, cultural and family commitments, and unfamiliarity with the college process, all serve as unfortunate barriers that keep Hispanic/Latino students from reaching the goal of attaining college degrees. Although these barriers keep many students from succeeding, many others overcome these obstacles and continue on their paths to creating a better future for themselves. They choose to look past the expectations that society has for them and break out of the stereotypical mold. However, Hispanic/Latino students face, yet, another challenge upon successfully making it on to a college campus... the challenge of graduating.

These days, a college degree serves as one of the few tickets into a socially and economically comfortable lifestyle. College itself, ideally, should vastly increase the knowledge, skills, and capacity for critical thinking in its students. However, in this racially imbalanced society, college is the culmination of a white-weighted education, and often ignores its own participation in long-standing racial injustices and inequities. Minority students are expected to jump headlong into white standards of behavior, without regard for the unique circumstances that render that expectation difficult, if not impossible, to meet.

R. "Success in These Schools? Visual Counternarratives of Young Men of Color and Urban High Schools They Attend." Urban Education 50.2 (2015): 139-69. Web. This article presents the current downside of black males being absent in higher education. The article shares the perspective that we must take a different approach by changing the narrative. This article is not long, and and it has several references to help me write a strong paper. I think it is a credible source because it aligns itself with many articles I've read in its nature. The argument is convincing because it denotes that counterbalances are needed in secondary education to create a better success rate for the black male student to enter into higher

Among the nation 's largest Division I universities, the graduation rate for black students was 44% in 2013, compared with 66% for white students (Marklein). This fact along with the article, A Letter to My Nephew, by James Baldwin from the stimulus material, sparked my interest. I began to research the general topic of African Americans in college. Baldwin wrote about the idea of white americans intentionally hindering the success of black americans. As he states that white americans did not expect african americans to aspire to excellence and made sure that african americans knew in as many ways as possible that they were worthless human beings. Researching more into this idea, I found a correlation between African American success

African American males in higher education have captured the attention of researchers; sadly, exhausted amount of research has focused primarily on the failing black male, while little has been done to address the problem. This paper focuses on factors that influence the perceptions and self-esteem of African American males in higher education, and explore why their educational achievements are overwhelmingly lower than any other racial/ethnic group. Specifically, this review focuses on how research in education or the lack thereof has contributed to this particular issue. The review of literature in this paper leads to two research questions: (1) What efforts if any have been directed to address the negative outcomes of black males in higher education? (2) What other external factors have prevented black males from achieving their objectives at a lower rate than any other racial or ethnic group? The following 10 reviews attempt to answer the above questions.

The current educational system discourages African-American and Latino men from succeeding in school. I believe that this is due to inequities in educational agency for African-American and Latino students. In my experience, male students are more susceptible to these problems regardless of socioeconomic conditions. Without the structure of a strong educational plan, many young men will seek detrimental habits to fill this void. Any sort of structure becomes a haven for anyone who is trying to navigate the world.

The article displayed an statistic on how the african american male student fall below all of the other subgroups.Also showing that it is an unequal amount of student who dont plan to enroll in college from high school at all leaving the number of african american males scarce in the higher education category. Once enrolled and moving through college these student typically faced hardships that other subgroups may not face in their day to day life. Anumba mentioned the “Critical Race Theory”, which examined african american experience and the their educational outcome. The article finalize with african american student are deserving of assistance completing the the educational process. Obligating society to alter the status quo and beliefs

Every community college plans for success by creating a vision and mission. The vision is the long-term goals of the college, and the mission is the work put in to attain that vision. The faculty completes the work that is put in everyday and is the most important piece in the college. To meet the vision of post-secondary educational success, the college will need professionals of the highest quality. For this reason, numerous studies have been done on the staff that fills the community colleges and how they are the core group that makes the college what it is. The faculty

The research that was done by the Strayhorn and Wood revealed studies on supportive relations for African American male students, academic achievement, and engagement practices. Adding their research to this research assisted in relevant literature research and findings. Scholars, such as Tinto assisted with exploring engagement practices. The unique experiences of African American males both in sociality and community college were emphasized within this research study. Many of the research studies within this study identified unique challenges, such as demographics, background, and stereotypes. Qualitative research and case studies presented more in-depth insight to the experiences of African American male