Key Takeaway: This article provides insight to the successful strategies used in HBCUs for fostering underserved and minoritized students and effectively moving them through the K-20 pipeline. Many of these strategies can be implemented in K-12 settings, especially to help school districts with similar demographics to create campus cultures where students thrive.
Criteria: Excellent report on best practices from HBCUs that can be implemented in K-12 settings; actionable strategies for reaching and retaining students of color and students of minoritized identities
Title: Imparting Wisdom: HBCU Lessons for K-12 Education
Year: 2020
Author: Anderson, M. B., Bridges, B. K., Harris, B. A., Biddle, S.
Primary Author: M. B. Anderson, https://www.american.edu/spa/faculty/mblwalker.cfm
Summation and Insights:
HBCUs have incredible success rates in graduating well-rounded students prepared to take on graduate school and burgeoning careers. As this UNCF-sponsored report on HBCUs notes, many HBCU students have “low income” backgrounds and have matriculated from high schools that have left them “academically unprepared,” and yet students who attend HBCUs are graduating at far higher rates than their peers. A striking statistic here is that though HBCUs enroll only ten percent of African Americans attending university, they still produce seventeen percent of bachelor degrees and twenty four percent of STEM bachelor degrees. Research also suggests that many black students who attend HBCUs feel that they have both stronger social relationships and a “greater sense of purpose” than those who attend PWIs (predominantly white institutions).
Successful strategies at HBCUs include cultivating nurturing support systems, leveraging African American culture and identity, and setting high expectations. These strategies can also be augmented by K-12 districts and HBCUS fostering mutually beneficial partnerships and pipelines, as well as by actively recruiting minority educators and administrators who can contribute in meaningful cultural ways to reaching diverse student populations. Each practice is flushed out in more detail below.
Cultivating nurturing support systems: HBCUs often employ the concept of “warm demanders” – faculty who are firm yet warm, and who will reach out to not just high achievers, but to all students under their care. Many students who come to HBCUs have come from previous educational experiences where they felt that no one cared for them. Connecting with a student personally can make a huge difference in a student’s life and in their academic motivation. Teachers can cultivate nurturing support systems by connecting in and out of the classroom, as well as by connecting with students’ families and taking advantage of bonding experiences such as service learning opportunities. A second subset of cultivating support systems for students is a practice called “Intrusive” or “Proactive” Advising. Examples of Intrusive/Proactive Advising range from showing up at a student’s dorm if the student is skipping class to informing students about scholarship and resource opportunities.
Celebrating or leveraging African American culture and identity: This practice is instrumental to cultivating both pride and purpose in students. It prevents students from feeling alienated and can encourage academic motivation and performance. One key way that this can be implemented is by incorporating African American cultural elements into curriculum or practice; student voice initiatives, in which students can exhibit choice in assignments or their execution, can also be helpful here. Affinity groups are also key; HBCUs encourage clubs around issues such as social justice and the African diaspora. Supporting student affinity groups of all kinds can allow students positive ways to develop a relationship with their identity. Schools can also consider partnering with HBCUs to equip teachers with better knowledge of African American cultural experience.
Set High Expectations: Setting high expectations can be broken down into dismantling “the belief gap,” and “igniting excitement about college.” Dismantling the belief gap refers to dismantling bias, prejudice, and preconceived notions so that all students are expected to perform at the highest caliber. Cultural competency and anti-bias training are solid initiatives that can be helpful here. HBCUs also practice creating environments that reinforce high expectations for students and ignite passion for college, such as naming classrooms after colleges. Schools can also promote information sessions on important topics related to college admissions, such as financial aid and essay writing. One specific resource mentioned in the report is Michelle Obama’s “Reach Higher” initiative, which provides tools to celebrate students admitted into college.
Finally, school districts can draw upon HBCUs themselves as a resource by creating meaningful partnerships. Potential resources here might include welcoming HBCU ambassadors onto campus; some HBCUs even have high schools on campus where students can receive credit and be exposed to college life. HBCUs can create meaningful partnership initiatives with school districts and organizations; for example, Howard University partnered with the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) to create the AASA/Howard University Urban Superintendents Academy to help increase the presence of superintendents of color.
Implementing these three HBCU strategies identified as “best practices” (cultivating nurturing support systems, leveraging African American cultural identity, and setting high expectations) in K-12 settings can be a productive way to promote student success as well as to connect with black and other minoritized students who may feel alienated in their school systems. Retaining faculty of color is an initiative that can augment all three of these practices, as well as help students feel that there are educators who can relate to them culturally. In addition, many HBCUs have partnerships and opportunities (or are willing to create them!) to assist school districts looking to promote these types of practices and initiatives.