Rashad Anderson, Ph. D.

Teacher Librarian Day

Denver, CO

February 12, 2024

“Wassup with all the Black boys in the Principal’s Office!?”

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Students’ Accounts of Detrimental Teacher Interactions & Schools Practices

WHO AM I

Rashad Anderson, Ph. D.

Associate Professor & CMM Director at Metropolitan State University of Denver

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• 17 CMM Graduates Named Teachers of the Year
• Three Time SCSU Professor of the Year
• 2019 ASCD Emerging Leader
• 2019 Named a Call Me Trailblazer
• 2015 Distinguished Scholar -1^st MiSTER to earn a Ph. D.
• Written 2 academic books
• 100 National/International Conference Presentations

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LETS TAKE A QUIZ!

QUIZ

In 2017-2018, the graduation rate for Black males in South Carolina was:

a. 90%

b. 62%

c. 51%

d. 46%

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Answer: d

Source: SC State Department of Education

QUIZ

In 2009-2010, what was the Black male student graduation rate in Rochester, New York?

a. 99%

b. 49%

c. 9%

d. 59%

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Answer: c - Yes, NINE percent!

Source: http://www.blackboysreport.org

QUIZ

Nationally, what percentage of Black male students were suspended from school in 2019?

1. 13%
2. 74%
3. 57%
4. 4%

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Answer: 57%

Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

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QUIZ

Nationally, what percentage of Black male students were enrolled in a GATE program in 2019?

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Answer: 3% (In comparison to 21% of White males)

Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

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In Comparison w/National Trends

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MY STUDY

Teacher Interactions and School Practices that Influence Pre-Adolescent African American Males to Devalue/Disengage from School

Problem:

The voices of pre-adolescent Black males regarding their schooling experiences in the social sciences is limited despite several indications that various negative experiences and behaviors start to emerge in elementary school, and teachers play a significant role in shaping those experiences.

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Purpose: To add first-hand, detailed accounts from elementary African American males about the ways they perceive, and what they believe about, school.

PARTICIPANTS

1. Be of African American descent
2. Be a male
3. Be between the age of 7-11 years of age
4. Classified by the school as an “at-risk” student by the following characteristics defined by South Carolina’s State Department of Education (2014):

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• Low scores on the Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS) test

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• Poor academic performance on classroom-level assessments related to the state’s academic standards

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• Generally displays a lack of effort or interest in their academic work

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• Have a history of discipline problems leading to suspension, expulsion, and/or probation

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• Showing or expressing feelings of being disconnected from the school environment�

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Guiding Research Question

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1. How do pre-adolescent Black male students in a rural elementary school, who have been identified as “at-risk,” articulate both their current and past schooling experiences?

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• What do these students’ schooling stories reveal about their interactions and engagements with their teachers?

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• What do their stories reveal about other practices within/without school through which they may experience marginalization?

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• What do their stories reveal about the roles schools and teachers play in how they make meaning of themselves and of schooling?

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SCHOOL PRACTICES

• Excessive use of worksheets & packets for busy work

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• Control of Body Movement

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• Silence throughout the Day

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• Habitual Conflict w/Substitute Teachers

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• Lack of incorporation of different modalities/intelligences of learning in classroom activities

• Feeling Unprepared to be Academically Successful

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• Intentional Student Embarrassment�
• Aggressive Student-Teacher Interaction

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• Teacher’s Degrading Comments

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Teacher

Interactions

ACTS OF MARGINALIZATION TOWARDS BLACK MALE STUDENTS

• Policing & Cultural Inversion of Sagging Pants

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• Prohibition of “Ebonics” or “Black English”

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• Assumption of Deviancy without proof

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• Targeted Exclusion

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• Excessive Punishment for Petty Offenses

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SAGGING PANTS

“Everyday Mrs. Peeler say she gon take away my recess or write me up cuz my pants too low or baggy. She say school aint the place to dress like I’m about to go stand on the corner. I get my pants from my big brother so they be real baggy. They be looking like I’m sagging…I don't think you should get in trouble though just for the way you dress. It ain’t like its bothering anybody.”

“Some teachers be treating sagging like you brought a bomb to school. They be yelling at you and punishing you because of it. They make too big of a deal about it ”

“I guess the (teachers) don’t wont sagging pants in they class cuz they think we gon rob em or something…I aint know nothing bout sagging and stuff till I got to school & the teachers start saying something about it. Nobody never says anything about sagging in my family.”

SAGGING PANTS

PROHIBITION OF BLACK ENGLISH/EBONICS

“What makes me real mad is getting silent lunch or sent out for stupid stuff like talking wrong”

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“I hate stuff like in Ms. Zorn class you get sent out for the way you talk. Her list she got on the wall got things that you can’t say in her class or you will get clipped down. . .like ‘ain’t’, ‘on-fleek’, umm stuff like that. If you get clipped down on the chart you get. . .your recess taken or a phone call home. Sometimes you can get wrote up if you get days after days of clip downs.”

PROHIBITION OF BLACK ENGLISH

ROTE & DRILL CURRICULUM

“You know you got teachers at this school like my old one in Orangeburg 5 like all they do is like hand you a worksheet in class and don’t really explain how to do it and expect you to just sit there all day and do it and not ask no questions or nothing. You don’t really learn you just like do a bunch of busy work.”

“Like in Mrs.__________ class we always doing like projects and working in a group or something fun but Mrs._________ always have us just sitting there reading out the book and doing a worksheet afterwards. People be getting in trouble so they don’t have to stay in there.”

INTENTIONAL STUDENT EMBARRASSMENT

“They (tell) everyone your bad grades if you got them or your business. Like every bad thing you ever did in your life and do it in the hallway or (in front of) the whole class & teachers so everyone can hear. They sometimes will wait until we transition or go to the bathroom to talk loud about us instead of doing it in private somewhere. I don’t like that.”

“One time in class my teacher tried to embarrass me for not doing my work and show I don't know nothing…I rolled my eyes at her when she called my name six times and didn’t say nothing…..I didn't get real mad with her until she said aloud that I was gonna get kept back cuz I don't never do my homework. Like sometimes you not gon do your homework if you got like 50 questions and you don’t know how to even do the first one. But like when they shine on you, you just don’t want even ask them nothing cuz you know how they react.”

EXCESSIVE PUNISHMENT/FOCUS FOR PETTY BEHAVIOR

“I hate getting in trouble for doing your homework. Like most people do they homework when we just sitting there and really aint doing nothing. But she still want you to wait until you get home…but like for me I have to babysit when I get home & we don’t always have lights so I try to do it while I can”

ASSUMPTION OF DEVIANCY

ASSUMPTION OF DEVIANCY

EXAMPLES OF GOOD TEACHING

• I like Mrs. Cayers (White female teacher) & Coach (White male teacher). They care about me. Mrs. Cayers, like she helps me when I don’t understand something. She tell me good things about me. She gives me second chances if I mess up and let me be her helper. Like if I lose a paper she will give me another paper without a big problem and still give me a chance to get a 100. Her class fun, we move around and talk in there and we don’t do a bunch of worksheets in there. We still gotta read a lot though sometimes.

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• Mr. Simuel was my favorite teacher. I learned a lot in his class. His class was real fun, we would make stuff, go on field trips, some of his Frat brothers would come to the school and visit us….he was Black. He would rap for us and talk about the things we liked and like saw on tv and stuff. That was the best teacher of my life. I was smart in his class.

ACTIVITY

• You need one balled up sheet of paper!

CHALLENGE FOR TEACHERS

Think about one African American male in your classroom that has exhibited one or more of these characteristics:

• Low scores on the State Standardized test
• Poor academic performance on classroom-level assessments related to the state’s academic standards
• Generally displays a lack of effort or interest in their academic work
• Have a history of discipline problems leading to suspension, expulsion, and/or probation
• Showing or expressing feelings of being disconnected from the school environment

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Take on this one student (could be more) and try to build a closer relationship.

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1. Identify students for whom you have low expectations or issues with
2. Identify similarities in students
3. Identify differential treatment of that group
4. Treat that group the same as high expectancy students

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“They see me. Good teachers they don’t like look past me but they see me. Its like they see me for me and not what they think I am or what the want me to be.”-5^th Grade Student

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