Working with Black males in schools and institutions may be a challenge but not for the reasons you may think. Understanding how to be effective with Black males means examining the institutions and structures that have impacted them for decades.

1. Working With Black Boys Why are they targeted for discipline? In collaboration with OUSD African-American Male Achievement Office & Talent & Development in Leadership, Curriculum and Instruction Office 2011 Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training

2. Introduction/Check-in What makes you a good fit for your students? What are you eager to do with your students? What are you most concerned about? Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training

8. How are they targeted? Question: What are the problems impacting our students? Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training Safety Health Education Homicide Prison Environmental hazards Profiling Disease Illness Low quality of life Discrimination is psychological warfare Suspension/ Expulsion Drop out Low graduation Special Ed/ ADHD Remedial/ Tracking

16. America’s Response Minstrel, Jim Crow 1876, Birth of a Nation 1915 & Lynchings mostly targeting urban Black males Slide 13 Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training

17. Nothing New? Lincoln Monthly Training Negative Stereotypes Nothing New? demonized/criminalized aspects of culture Big, Black, Dangerous, Savage, Animal, Vicious, Beast, Immoral, Lazy, Ignorant, Careless, Indiscriminate, Oversexed, Crazed, Deranged, Lowly, Simple, Stupid, Inferior, Subhuman Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training

18. Modern Criminalization/Dehumanization The myth of the juvenile Superpredator: -John Dilulio, Princeton 1990’s “ Crack baby myth, immoral and beastly violent” “ Tough on crime” laws target urban Black Males 3- strikes, juveniles as adults, crack laws, gang laws -Mike Males, The Scapegoat Generation: America’s War On Adolescents Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training

22. Culturally Responsive Strategies Question: What does culturally responsive mean to you? 1. Be clear about who you are: (race, class, gender, etc.) because it speaks more than what you say –Sharroky Hollie, Culturally Responsive 2. Be Student Centered: Their class or your class, their assignment or your assignment, their education or your education? Are you facilitator or Director of learning? 3. Cultural Consultation: Consult someone who is in the business of addressing a particular group Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training

26. Collaborative Problem Solving -Ross Greene, The Explosive Child Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training Kids Do Well If They Can This is the most important theme of Collaborative Problem Solving: the belief that if kids could do well they would do well. In other words, if the kid had the skills to exhibit adaptive behavior, he wouldn’t be exhibiting challenging behavior. That’s because doing well is always preferable to not doing well.

27. Collaborative Problem Solving -Ross Greene, The Explosive Child Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training What's Your Explanation? Your explanation for a kid's is challenging behavior has major implications for how you'll try to help. If you believe a kid is challenging because of lagging skills and unsolved problems, then rewarding and punishing may not be the ideal approach. Solving those problems and teaching those skills would make perfect sense.

28. Collaborative Problem Solving -Ross Greene, The Explosive Child Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training Being Responsive The definition of good parenting, good teaching, and good treatment is being responsive to the hand you’ve been dealt . Notice, the definition isn’t “treating every kid exactly the same”.

29. Collaborative Problem Solving -Ross Greene, The Explosive Child Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training Check Your Lenses Challenging behavior occurs when the demands of the environment exceed a kid’s capacity to respond adaptively . In other words, it takes two to tango. But many popular explanations for challenging behavior place blame on the kid or his parents. Not Collaborative Problem Solving.

30. Collaborative Problem Solving -Ross Greene, The Explosive Child Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training Three Options for Solving Problems There are three ways in which adults try to solve problems with kids: Plan A (which is unilateral problem solving), Plan C (dropping the problem completely), and Plan B (that's the one you want to get really good at).

31. Dealing With Misbehavior Question: What’s the difference between student behavior and adult/staff behavior? Putting the most energy where you have the most control 1. Manage your own reaction: You always have more options than they do 2. Gather information about the environment (the setting they encountered) and disposition (what they brought to school) in that order! 3. Consider more than 2 ways to look at what happened to be as objective (accurate & non-biased) as possible 4. Use Plan B! Mutually beneficial –Ross Greene, The Explosive Child Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training

32. Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training Alignment Question: Where do you meet the students? School Needs/ Goals Student Needs/ Goals This is where the work should be

33. The Service Question: What are the pitfalls? How do you know if it’s “right”? 1. Too hard on them, negative assumptions 2. Too easy on them, low expectations, feel sorry for them 3. Afraid of them, reinforcing stereotypes Service must be Firm and Caring Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training

36. Strengths Based Practice Question: How can we raise OUR bar? 1. What do you do well with Black boys? 2. Where can you improve? 3. How can you strengthen your work with Black boys? Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training

39. The Culture (of black male success) The Agencies that support Black Males -Youth UpRising -Leadership Excellence (Camp Akili, Freedom Schools) -Mentoring Center -100 Black Men (Man Up!) -OUSD, Office of African American Achievement The Research that feeds Black Male policy -Urban Strategies Council -Policy Link -Alameda County -Black male scholars -US Census Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training