The School's Responsibility vs. Parental Responsibility for African American Male Achievement within the School System

Coleman (2015) explores parental behavior that helps prepare African American males for college. Specifically, the author seeks to find out the parental influences, which have led their sons to graduate from college. The paper outlines different parenting styles, and parent discussions about race. The findings show that the parents practice strict parenting, which helps them to exact an authoritative nurturing style. The parents' discussions about race also teach their sons how to deal with racial profiling. From these findings, the author finds that parents lay the foundation for the development of formal education in their sons.

The author addresses the problem of academic achievement among African American males and provides some options to parents. The research is good because it acts as proof that certain parenting methods work. However, the paper does not explain how parents can deal with their sons if they fail academically yet they are using the included parenting styles. This is an area, which requires further study. Some African American males still fail academically even after their parents have exacted the necessary parenting styles. Further research in this area is essential because it can show how African American males who fail academically can advance themselves in future.

The research paper provides data, which proves that parents play a crucial role in aiding academic achievement among African American males. This is important to the field because it can be used to encourage parents to be more active in their sons' academics. Most African American parents have the ability to educate their sons. However, they tend to leave the task of monitoring their sons' performance to teachers. Using findings from the paper, teachers can propose that parents use some of the parenting styles, which have proven effective.

White (2009) asserts that an academic achievement gap exists between African American males and other males. Three main factors contribute to this gap. Two of these factors are related to dynamics within schools and parental involvement. According to the author, there is plenty of existing literature regarding the achievement gap. However, the literature does not propose any specific strategies that can be used to address the gap. Hence, in the paper, White (2009) gathers information from contemporary literature and suggests relevant strategies that may be used to increase academic achievement among African American males.

Most researchers focus on studying the existence of a given phenomenon or problem without providing reasons or solutions to explain or solve it. The author does the opposite in her paper. She addresses the problem by suggesting strategies, which can be used to solve the achievement gap. The author shows that solutions to a problem can be found by looking deeper into the available resources. Hence, she utilizes existing literature to generate the strategies. Nonetheless, the strategies are only theoretical. Also, they are There is a need to prove how effective these strategies are in real environments.

The strategies proposed in the paper provide solutions, which could be applied by both parents and teachers. The strategies can aid teachers and parents in understanding the roles they are supposed to play in enhancing academic achievement among African American males. In turn, this should help reduce or eliminate the achievement gap. The strategies also incorporate individual student elements such as socioeconomic status and self-esteem. Hence, if well implemented, they can also create a sense of responsibility among African American students.

Wood (2012) examines the resources available at home, that can help enhance academic achievement among African American boys. The research paper relies on information from questionnaires and interviews with families who have sons in the eighth grade. The information shows the levels of trust and expectations that parents share with their sons. The research sample is divided into two groups based on the math scores of the boys. The first group includes boys who advance to geometry while the second group includes boys who move to lower level classes. The results show that trust and high expectations play a vital role in fostering academic achievement in both groups.

The author employs a unique approach to studying the problem of academic achievement among African males by focusing on eighth-grade boys. The author's focus on eighth-grade boys stresses the essence of parental involvement in the children's academic matters at an early age. However, the study only relies on math scores. Math is only one subject among many other subjects studied by eighth graders. To further the findings of the research study, I would utilize the average scores of eighth-grade boys to determine the impact of trust and expectations on the performance of African American boys.

As stated, the author's emphasis on eighth-grade boys shows why parents need to be active in their sons' curricular activities from an early point. The study is useful because it can help those parents who wish to maintain consistency in their sons' performance. Children take on behaviors and attitudes from an early age. One of the factors that determine these behaviors and attitudes is how effective parents are at monitoring their children's performance. Hence, the author provides a reference for parents to use in determining how they can influence the performance of their African American sons from an early age.References

Coleman, S. (2015). Mindful Parenting and Raising an African Male College Graduate: A Phenomenological Study Exploring Parental Influences and their Son's Academic Achievement (Doctoral dissertation, Cardinal Stritch University).

White, H. E. (2009). Increasing the achievement of African American males. Report from the Department of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment, 3, 1-23.

Wood Jr, O. L. (2012). Family Support Factors in African American Families That Promote Academic Achievement for Male Middle-School Students. The Claremont Graduate University.