BABA Year-End Review

BABA Year-end Review

BABA Year-End Review

I hope everyone had a great year. It was an absolute pleasure for me to return to my home town and work with all of you in some capacity this year. With few exceptions I was able to work with almost all the outreach efforts in both school and community programs. The work I experienced being done by everyone was outstanding and very unselfish. There is a true collaborative spirit in the community. For informational purposes only, I would like to offer my assessment of these experiences.

Per my estimate from the data I found in the California Department of Education there are close to (approximation) 4000 Hispanic, Pacific Islanders and African American high school students enrolled in the Sequoia and Ravenswood School districts. I extrapolated this number from San Mateo county data which concluded that these groups constituted over a 1/3 of the counties underrepresented student population. The remaining underrepresented student populations in the county are in Cabrillo, San Mateo, Jefferson and South San Francisco districts etc... Assuming that 70% of these minorities were from the East Bay Shore community it would be about 2500 public high school students (about the size of a high school Ravenswood HS) in the area. Preliminary estimate indicates that around 150 seniors from the East Bay Shore community, which has a senior class of close to 700 students, will be going to college next year... This is around 21% of the graduating seniors and does not take into consideration that some of them will be going to community college. Please note that this number is much better than the 14% rate from previous years (California Department of Education UC/CSU requirement completion for graduating underrepresented seniors from Ravenswood and Sequoia Union district). Kudos to all of you for your work this year with students.

I fully understand that these numbers probably can be corrected for various reasons such as dropouts, the fact that these populations are some what transient, frequency of family crisis, etc... I want to take a different approach to this analysis. The Japanese invert the Bell curve or turn upside down. In doing this they consider anything less than 100% a loss to society. Because they are an island nation they consider any material loss (including humans) a waste. If we look at it in this manner anything lost affects the community’s ability to preserve itself. I'm not utopian but, the California Master Plan for Higher Education is to create enough seats in the UC system to enroll the top 12.5% of graduating seniors, the CSU system to enroll the top 30% of graduating seniors, and the remaining 57.5% for Community Colleges (Vocational/Trades).

The plan is partly based on the need of society to have a work force to fulfill the demands of the public and private sector. Therefore, a 21% college going rate is far below 42.5% standard for the UC/CSU systems. This is why our communities (Hispanic, Pacific Islander, African American, etc...) are classified as underrepresented in the systems. When you can not find the skilled workforce here in the community you seek it elsewhere. This perpetuates the cycle of poverty in our community. When I worked on development of the F18 fighter back in the 1970's we brought in over 150 Engineers because we didn't have them. I had the unfortunate experience of moving work off shore as well to Mexico, China, India and Korea. One of the reasons we moved manufacturing jobs offshore to Asia and Mexico is because we didn’t have enough vocationally skilled people here in addition to high direct labor cost. Our human losses are some else gain. We have to slow it at some point or disappear.

I have been fortunate to have worked with schools and community based outreach programs across the country for nearly twenty years of my nearly 40 year professional career.

Here's a list of a few programs I've worked or collaborated with.

Organization/Agency	County	Target Population	Services
Youth Motivational Task Force	Los Angeles	Middle and High School students	Careers Opportunities
UCLA Professional and Graduates School outreach and Fellowship program	Los Angeles	Local undergraduate students	Professional school access
USC Professional and Graduates School Outreach and Fellowship Programs	Los Angeles	Local undergraduate students	Professional school access
Fannie Lou Hamer Institute at Cal State Northridge	Los Angeles	Middle and High School students and parents	Tutoring, personal development and empowerment
Loyola Marymount	Los Angeles	High School students	Personal development
UC Riverside Outreach	Riverside	Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development
UC Berkeley Outreach	Alameda/Contra Costa	Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development
UC Irvine Outreach	Orange	Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development
UC Davis Outreach	Solano/Yolo/Sacramento	Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development
CSU Outreach Programs	All counties	Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development
UC San Diego Outreach	San Diego/Imperial	Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development
National Science Foundation	Los Angeles	High school students	Academic Enrichment
NCAA	All counties	High School students	Personal development
LAUSD High School Athletic Programs	Los Angeles	High School athletes	Test prep and personal development
Compton Unified School District	Los Angeles	Middle and HS students/parents	Test prep and personal development
Brothers Can Make it Happen	Los Angeles/Orange	Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development
College Make it Happen	Los Angeles	Middle School students	College Awareness
Los County Outreach Program	Los Angeles/Orange/Riverside	High School students	Test Prep and personal development
Urban League	Los Angeles	Middle and High School students	Tutorials
100 Black Men	Los Angeles	Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development
Omega Young Gents Project	Alameda	High School students/parents	Personal development
Omega Boy's Club	Solano	High School students	Personal development
Amateur Athletic Union	National	Elementary, Middle and HS athletes	Athletic and Personal development
4H Clubs	Los Angeles	Elementary, Middle and HS students	Tutoring and personal development
Kappa League	Los Angels	Middle and HS students	Personal development
Young Black Scholars	Southern California	Middle and HS students/parents	Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development and empowerment
Advocates for Valley African American	Los Angeles	Elementary, Middle and HS students/parents	Tutoring, Test prep, personal development and empowerment
College Bound	Southern California	High School students	Personal development
King Drew Parents Association	Los Angeles	High School students/parents	Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development and empowerment
Center for Excellence in Education (Roles Models Program)	National	High School juniors	Test Prep and personal development
National Society of Black Engineers	Los Angeles	Undergraduates	Educational Consultant
Society of Latino Engineers and Scientists	Los Angeles	Undergraduates	Educational Consultant
Women in Science and Engineering	Los Angeles	Undergraduates	Educational Consultant
American Indians in Science and Engineering	Los Angeles	Undergraduates	Educational Consultant
Middle East Student Outreach program	Los Angels	High School students	Personal development
Young Scholars	Alameda	High School students	Personal development
Riordan Scholars	Southern California	High School students	Personal development
Parent of African American Students	Santa Cruz	Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development and empowerment
African Student Union	All Counties	HS and Undergraduate students	Facilitator, personal development and educational consultant
UCLA Harambee Council	Los Angeles	Undergraduates	Facilitator
Academic Support Program	Los Angeles	Undergraduates	Facilitator
3.0 Club	Riverside	High School students	Personal development
Council of African American Parents	Southern California	Elementary, Middle and HS students and parents	Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development and empowerment
AMEND	Statewide	African American males	Personal development
AMAN	Los Angeles	African American males	Test prep and personal development
UC Faith Based Initiative	Statewide	Elementary, Middle and HS students/parent/communities	Academic Enrichment, Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development and empowerment
Los Angeles County Basin Initiative	Los Angeles	Elementary, Middle and HS students/parents/communities	Academic Enrichment, Tutoring, Test prep, Personal development and empowerment
College Track	Alameda/San Mateo/San Francisco	High School students	Academic Enrichment, Tutoring, Test Prep and personal development
Build	San Mateo/Santa Clara	High School students	Personal development
Built to Last	San Mateo	High School students	Personal development
Foundation for a College Education	San Mateo	High School students	Personal development
UC Mesa	State Wide	Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development
MECHA	State Wide	HS and Undergraduates
UC Puente	State Wide	High School students/parents	Facilitator and educational consultant
UC EAOP	State Wide	Middle and HS students/parents/educators	Academic Enrichment, Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development and empowerment
Watts Labor Community Action Committee	Los Angeles	Elementary, Middle, HS and Community College students/parents	Academic Enrichment, Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development and empowerment
Los Angeles Unified	Los Angeles	Middle and HS students/parents/educators	Academic Enrichment, Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development and empowerment
Long Beach Unified	Los Angeles	Middle and HS students/parents/educators	Academic Enrichment, Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development and empowerment
Inglewood Unified	Los Angeles	HS student/parents/educator	Academic Enrichment, Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development and empowerment
UCLA Minority Engineering Advisory Board	Los Angeles	Undergraduate math, science and engineering students
Riverside Unified	Riverside	Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development
Oakland Unified	Alameda	Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development
Sequoia Unified	San Mateo	High School students/parents	Personal development
Cal Soap	Statewide	High School students/parents	Personal development
American Council on Education	National	Educators	Facilitator
ACT Inc.	Statewide	Students, parents and educator	Consultant
College Board	Statewide	Students, parents and educators	Consultant
USC Med Corps	Los Angeles		Academic Enrichment, Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development and empowerment
Tau Tau Youth Leadership Program	Los Angeles	Middle and High School students/parents	Academic Enrichment, Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development, and empowerment
Boyle Heights	Los Angeles		Personal development
Nike Grass Roots Basketball Program	Statewide	Middle School students/parents	Personal development
Independent All-star Athletic Association	Los Angeles/Orange	Elementary, Middle and HS athletes	Academic Enrichment, Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development, and athletic development
Boy Scouts of American	Los Angeles		Personal development
LA County Parks and Recreation	Los Angeles	Elementary, Middle and HS students/parents	Personal development and empowerment
Ladera Little League	Los Angeles	Elementary, Middle and HS athletes	Athletic development
Travis Smiley’s' Youth Summit	National	High School students	Facilitator
Toyota Mentorship Program	Los Angeles	High School students	Personal development
Foster Children/Group Home support programs	Statewide	Elementary, Middle and HS students	Academic Enrichment, Tutoring, Test Prep, personal development and empowerment
Numerous Community College Student Outreach programs	Statewide	Community College students	Tutoring, Proficiency Test Prep, personal development and empowerment

This not a complete list of but it gives you an idea of the diversity of and the number of programs I have supported in one fashion or another. Each of these community organizations, schools and universities has or had tremendous outreach programs. The East Bayshore community outreach programs rank with all of them.

Educational Institution

In each one, the school system was the focal point for the outreach efforts. The schools produce transcripts which are ultimately what is used to measure a student’s achievement. Many public schools supported by the aforementioned community based outreach programs and local universities have outstanding academic achievement records. A few of them are as follows:

Educational Institution	County	District	UC/CSU Required Courses Completion Rate %
Crenshaw High School	Los Angeles	LAUSD	56.9
King Drew Medical Magnet	Los Angeles	LAUSD	50.0
Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies	Los Angeles	LAUSD	63.7
View Park Prep	Los Angeles	LAUSD	79.1
Foshay Learning Center	Los Angeles	LAUSD	98.4
Business and Technology High	Alameda	OUSD	50.0
East Oakland School of the Arts	Alameda	OUSD	47.2
Expression, Excellence and Community Empowerment	Alameda	OUSD	68.2
Mandela	Alameda	OUSD	40.0
Oakland Military Institute	Alameda	OUSD	56.5
Oakland High	Alameda	OUSD	50.0
Franklin High	Sacramento	Elk Grove	58.5
Sacramento Charter HS	Sacramento	Sacramento	64.2
El Cajon	San Diego	Grossmont Union	58.0
Helix	San Diego	Grossmont Union	60.9
Ayala	San Bernardino	Chino	46.6
East Union	San Joaquin	Stanislaus	70.0(43.7)
Murrieta Valley	Riverside	Murrieta Valley	53.3(34.3)
Santiago HS	Riverside	Corona-Norco	57.4
Moreno Valley	Riverside	Moreno Valley	42.9(35.8)
John W North	Riverside	Riverside	52.5
Bloomington	Riverside	Colton	46.0
Clovis West	Fresno	Clovis	64.3(60.6)
Sierra Charter	Fresno	Fresno	98.9
Irvington	Alameda	Fremont	59.9
Bullard	Fresno	Fresno	61.3
Clovis	Fresno	Fresno	44.5
John F Kennedy	Riverside	Corona-Norco	55.7
Corona	Riverside	Corona-Norco	45.3
Norco	Riverside	Corona-Norco	52.2
Castro Valley	Alameda	Castro Valley	65.6
Encinal	Alameda	Alameda	51.0
Herbert Hoover	Fresno	Fresno	42.8

Each of these schools from across the state surpasses the Master Plan goals for completion of UC/CSU requirements for higher education (42.5%). Every one of them is a testament to achievement of academic excellence for underrepresented student. It firmly indicates that this objective can be accomplished.

Best Practices

Here’s a partial list of what I saw as the Best Practices in all of them. I am providing a standards outcome expectation. Each best practice in this matrix is assigned a standard I feel it sought to attain.

Standard 1
- ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT
  Program participants will complete supplemental learning opportunities that advance their mastery of academic subjects and engage them in the intellectual life of the University of California.
Standard 2
- ENTRANCE EXAMS
  All program participants will complete the required CSU/UC entrance examinations as well CSU English and Math Placement and UC Subject A test preparation.
Standard 3
- CSU/UC EDUCATION
  Provide all program participants and their families with the appropriate information and sustained motivation to prepare for a CSU/UC education.
Standard 4
- ACADEMIC ADVISING
  All program participants will complete the required UC minimum 15 subject matter course pattern pursuant to competitive eligibility.
Standard 5
- PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
  All program participants will complete the required extracurricular activities and services necessary for competitive profile and build a portfolio. of their personal development.

Educational Service	Grade Levels	Standard 1	Standard 2	Standard 3	Standard 4	Standard 5
Personal Academic Learning System	High School/College	X	X	X	X	X
Academic Advising	Middle/High School/College	X			X
Peer Counseling	Middle/High School/College					X
Personal Development Planning	Middle/High School					X
Parent Advisory Council	Middle/High School			X	X	X
Fundraising	High School/College	X	X	X	X	X
Student Conferences	Middle/High School/College		X	X	X	X
Summer Enrichment	Middle/High School/College	X	X	X	X	X
Campus Tours	Middle/High School/college			X		X
Shadow Programs	Middle/High School			X		X
Community, School and University partnerships	Middle/High School	X	X	X	X	X
Inner city vs. suburban outreach models	Middle/High School	X				X
School based college counseling models	Middle/High School	X	X	X	X	X
Organizational Structures	Community Based Outreach	X	X	X	X	X
School Extracurricular Activities	Middle/High School/College					X
Career Counseling	Middle/High School/College
Career Fairs	Middle/High School/College					X
College Fairs	Middle/High School/College					X
College Admissions Test Prep	High School	X	X			X
Student Assessment Testing and Corrective Action Planning	Middle/High School/College	X
Student Progress Assessment Models	Middle/High School					X
Staffing facilitations	Community Based Outreach	X	X	X	X	X
Expectation Models	Middle/High School	X	X	X	X	X
Mentoring	Middle/High School/College	X	X	X	X	X
Super Quizzes	High School	X				X
Academic Workshops (AP, SAT, ACT etc...)	Middle/High School	X	X
Personal Development Workshops	Middle/High School/College					X
College Courses for High School students	High School	X	X
Preparation requirement support for Career aspirations	Middle/High School/College					X
Internships	Middle/High School/College	X				X
Visual and Performing Arts	Middle/High School/College	X				X
Community Service	Middle/High School/College					X
Math Projects (CAAP goal to have 500 males in Calculus at HS graduation)	Middle/High School	X
Corporate Sponsorship	Community Based Outreach
College resource network	Community Based Outreach	X		X	X	X
Tutorials	Elementary/Middle/High School	X	X	X	X	X
Parenting	Community Based Outreach	X	X	X	X	X
Competitive Profiling (Building a Portfolio)	Middle/High School/College					X

Each of the high achieving schools and their community based partners utilizes some of these best practices to some extent and some more than others. I also recognize that the organization’s mission statement dictates what standards they work to achieve. Even in the face of this limitation, they have all had excellent success in getting students to College. The beauty of my experience was that, in addition to direct services, I was able to share with students, who are ultimately what this is about, that options are available to them for their empowerment and growth. I was also able to see the impact that a multi cultural going culture has on program modeling finding that confidence in who they individually is critical to their preparation. I also saw that separate programming but equal can work in some cases and not sacrifice quality of support necessary for the individual. The fact that so many programs can exist is a testament to free enterprise. I personally consider them all as being a part of a movement to eliminate our losses to society and to make academic excellence fashionable in underrepresented communities. I found that structure is essential to success particularly if we use qualitative and quantitative measurables. Keep up the good work.

On a final note, I found that African American are not matriculating to higher education at the rate of their underserved counterparts (almost two to one) in my home town in general for a number of reasons. Prop 209 placed limitation on focused informational and service outreach. African American student populations are no longer concentrated in a particular area. The developmental needs and requirements for African American students provide by successful programs are culturally based which tend to get lost in standardized outreach efforts.

As a result of Prop 209’s passage we can no longer provide any informational outreach or services to a group based on race. Please note that services for English as a second language population was not effected by 209 as it is not race based. Outreach efforts that use material from the African Diaspora to provide reading and writing skills development can not be funded with state money even though it is a proven fact this approach can connect the student to the learning process by association. Likewise uplifting the student’s self esteem via heritage to deal with stereo type threats in math and science can not be supported. These situations retard our ability to deliver services through any public vehicle to address the needs of the African American students thus; they are falling behind other underserved populations. One solution to the focused funding limitations of Prop 209 we found at UCLA is the creation of a research agenda. The question is, “African American student are matriculating to colleges/universities at a marginal rate; what best practice can be put in place to counteract this condition?”

Another unique problem that has risen for the African American student is that they are no longer concentrated in any significant numbers in one area or school. Integration has closed schools in their communities. Families have moved to outlying areas to escape the problems of the inner cities. Hip Hop has changed the culture. Incarceration rates are off the charts. Once faced with a felony financing your education is almost impossible. Therefore, most African American students are enrolled in schools that do not have a strong presence and are culturally isolated. In order to get a significant cohort of students one has to not be limited by geographical boundaries.

The developmental needs and requirements for African American students provide by the majority of the successful programs have or had a strong cultural component. They utilized a mentoring program employing successful African Americans. There peer support efforts were spearheaded by African American college students or students who very culturally aware. Personal development programs, that included service learning opportunities, addressed economic development, health, environmental and social justice issues facing the African American community. Academic enrichment services were centered on material from intellectual advancements produce on or about the African Diasporas as a learning tool. Tutorial sessions were geared to a high level of quality of performance and understanding of the material for maximizing student performance and workmanship.

In summary, our efforts to work around prop 209 must be research based. To further youth empowerment, in light of our current demographics, and create a culture of high expectations we need to consider;

Social and Health Services
Environment
Intra-Community Network
Safety
Housing
Education
Legal Issues
Community Enabling
Recreation Space and Community Services
Cultural and Arts Literacy
Economic Development and Entrepreneurship

Lastly, a cohort of students must be created to counteract destructive peer cultures and foster a culture of academic excellence (Preparedness). To do this we need a supported;

College Going Culture
Multi Cultural, College Going Identity
Rigorous Academic Curriculum
High Quality Teaching
Intensive Academic and College-going Support
Parent and Community Connection Re: College Going and Academics
Access to External Learning Opportunities through enabling Technologies

Research, empirical and quantitative, has qualified and quantified that High Expectations and Preparedness are the keys to African American Student empowerment.

If we fail to plan, we plan to fail!

I am glad to be home after 40 years. What’s great is when I go to the store, drive down the street, or when I’m at the gym I see so many young folks and I know there families. There relatives were my friends and some my mentors. This makes the connection real and personal. It feels me with joy to be able to support the community that gave me my life.

“What we do for ourselves dies with us, what we do for others remains immortal”
anonymous

Edmund

BABA Year-End Review

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