Alexa McCaskill-Thornton
March 28, 2012
PSYC 3520- Course Paper
Promoting Higher Educational Systems among African-American Students in the U.S
Within the last two decades, education among African-American students in the United
States has plummeted significantly compared to their counterparts, Asian-Americans and
European-Americans. According to the most recent statistics, Gordon (2006) presents that of
black sixteen to twenty-four-year-olds, thirteen percent have not earned a high school diploma or
GED, and seven percent of white young people are without high school credentials. This
difference is of great significance in a country heavily based on the representation of equality
and prosperity for all peoples. Active engagement in African-American youth’s learning and
development by educational institutions will promote higher levels of education. Promoting
higher educational systems among African-American students in the United States will increase
their academic achievement and allow them to reach their full potential. Researchers have
observed factors that act as driving forces to promote and achieve academic excellence in
African-American students such as, the benefits of training and educating, the use of schools as
interventions, and the integration of different learning styles.
Lewis (2012) articulated that factors such as training and educating are beneficial key
academic resources in promoting higher education among African-American students. Lewis
explains how training builds skill of rote memory and prepares the youth for placement in a job
setting. Proportionate to training, educating supports students in learning to critically think and
delivers preparation for careers as future leaders and employers. In relation to Lewis, Gordon
(2006) argues that educating African-American students is critical to cultivating and sustaining
the society and without education, there are a number of effects such as; increased crime rates,
limited health breakthroughs, high employment rates, etc. It is imperative to provide adequate
education for African-Americans in order to avoid these risks that are becoming more and more
prevalent. In addition to proper training and educating methods that will develop higher
educational systems among African-Americans, studies have shown that schools must act as
interventions in supporting strong educational outcomes, such as emancipatory school systems.
The emancipatory concept focuses on the transformation, empowerment, and fulfillment
of students, and schools that act as interventions to support the shaping of educational outcomes
among African-American students by focusing on developing the racial and ethnic identity of the
students. This concept is effective due to its integration of different cultures in a predominately
Eurocentric foundation of learning. Potts (2002) presents that emancipatory education seeks to
invoke the potential of education for children and society and also argues that African-centered
emancipatory education affirms identity and helps restore a sense of history for the students
under this form of alternative education. Similarly, Lewis (2006) argues that emancipatory
schools teach African-American youth to think critically, understand their true place in history,
and practice a lifestyle that recognizes the importance of African-American heritage and
tradition. This will ensure that communalism is integrated with the individualistic educational
approach in the U.S. Also, emancipatory educational institutions are effective in supporting
strong connections between parents and the schools which allows parents to be involved. Studies
have shown that parental engagement in schools increases the student’s academic achievement
by being another resource in education. Research has suggested that maternal support was found
to be predictive of achievement of African-American students (Allison & Belgrave, 2010). The
assistance provided by educational systems to teach students is only one factor in the promotion
of higher education. Gordon (2006) articulates that the investment of supplementary support for
the development of education provided by the parents is immensely effective. It is imperative
that schools and parents integrate in order to ensure adequate education.
Emancipatory schools diffuse different learning styles among students. For example, the
relational learning style is more common among African-American students. It includes
organizing information holistically, compared to the analytical learning style of organizing
information elementally more commonly practiced by white students (Lewis, 2012). Studies
have shown that the learning styles of African-Americans suggest that they prefer educational
environments that are more relational, therefore, the success rate for them is higher than if they
were taught in an analytical setting (Allison & Belgrave, 2010). Representing a variety of
learning styles promotes a larger area of study for students to discover a learning style that is
successful for them. Scholars such as Potts (2002) found that emancipatory education also
recognizes the economic, cultural, political, and spiritual dimensions of social problems among
African-Americans, which leads to an awareness of their society, resulting in affirmative action
among this group. The promotion of higher education is the contributing factor in social
awareness.
Due to the dwindling education among African-American students, promoting higher
educational systems among African-American students in the U.S will substantially increase
their academic achievement and allow them to research their full potential. The role of education
has been perpetuated to play a critical role in the African-American community and by
implementing higher educational systems to African-Americans, aside from mainstream
American culture; it will promote a greater educational system than in previous decades.