Introduction

The forthcoming data presents a compelling argument in defense of describing the lives of African American males as being perpetually threatened in the U.S. Only 41 % of African American males graduate from high school in the U.S. (Schott Foundation for Public Education 2012), leaving more than half of African American males between the ages of 16 and 19 unemployed (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2010). The situation is more acute in urban cities where only 30 % of African American males graduate from high school; of these, only 3 % obtain a bachelor’s degree by the age of 25 (Sum et al. 2011). Fifty percent of African American males in grades 6–12 have been suspended compared to 21 % of White males. Seventeen percent of African American males have been expelled, compared to 1 % of White males (Aud et al. 2010). There are more African Americans (mostly male) under correctional control today—in prison or jail, on probation or parole—than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began (Alexander 2010).

The statistics above reveal a portrait of Black male underachievement at just about every point in their lives, and study after study confirms these bleak results. There is no shortage of empirical evidence to highlight the difficulties African American males encounter, including the realm of education and the consequences associated with being undereducated (Archer 2009; Ferguson 2003; Howard and Flennaugh 2011; Milner 2007; Noguera 2009).

Many educators oftentimes frame African American male achievement in ways that emphasize underachievement, which frequently leads to the misconception that all African American males, as a whole, are failing in school and in life without exception. For example, research commonly presents data indicating that African American male students are at least three grades behind Whites in reading and math proficiency (Jackson and Moore 2006). Other researchers point out structural barriers that interfere with Black males’ educational success. For example, scholars frequently mention that Black males, particularly in charter and public schools, are overrepresented in special education and low academic track classes and that they are continually underrepresented in both advanced placement (AP) courses and gifted and talented programs (Ford 2010). A contributing factor, according to the AP College Board (2011), is that most Black high school graduates who would have been qualified to take an AP course in 2010, for example, did not get the opportunity to do so because they either were overlooked or went to a school that did not offer these courses. These sorts of structural factors create significant achievement barriers for African American males in K-12 educational settings and has the potential to cause harm well into adulthood, leading to disproportionately negative life outcomes (Aud et al. 2010; Donnor and Brown 2011; Noguera 2003, 2009; Schott Foundation 2012).

Black males’ academic achievement is a complex and multilayered issue. One major aspect of the issue is that Black males in urbanFootnote 1 public and charter schools generally receive the least and worst of what is available, educationally and otherwise (Schott Foundation 2012). For example, Black students tend to have the least rigorous education, fewer qualified and least experienced teachers, and the largest classes and highest teacher turnover (Barton and Coley 2009). In response to this issue, educational reformers have trumpeted charter schools as an effective approach to meeting the needs of those students, including Black males, who do not receive an equitable education (Bifulco and Ladd 2006).

This current study is based on the assumption that African American males are at extreme risk for dropping out of, underachieving in, or disengaging from school for a variety of reasons. However, it is important to note that despite the grim statistics associated with Black males, there are many counter-data points as well (Harper 2012; Terry and McGee 2012; Toldson 2008). While it is essential to point out challenges African American males encounter, it is also important to point out success; otherwise, the negative portraits of African American males will persist and intensify. This study aims to shine a more critical, nuanced light on Black male students’ experiences in a charter school environment, with heavy attention paid to their pursuit of success in the face of myriad difficulties (Valencia 2010). What follows is a brief review of urban charter school literature and their impact on African American students’ education, followed by a critique of literature examining high-achieving African American male student experiences at the high school level.

Urban Education, Neighborhoods and African American Male Students

Urban Schools

The narrative on urban education is often dominated by discussions of students’ low academic outcomes, discipline problems, poor health, and limited access to supplemental learning resources (Robers et al. 2012; Sampson 2012). Low-income Black students do not receive advantages characteristically ascribed to more affluent students (e.g., schools with adequate resources, advanced curricular opportunities, high-quality teachers), which plays a critical role in stifling lower-income students’ chances of achieving academic success (Milner 2013). This opportunity gap is most apparent in urban schools located in low-income neighborhoods, which often have limited access to experienced and qualified teachers, often employ educators with racist attitudes that negatively impact Black student achievement; and where per-student funding is dismal in comparison to some affluent communities (Barton and Coley 2009; McLendon et al. 2011). Noguera (2009) poignantly describes the normalization of failure that African American males endure in the context of New York City schools:

The trouble with Black boys is that they [al]most never have a chance to be thought of as potentially smart or talented or to demonstrate talents in science, music, and literature. The trouble with Black boys is that too often they are placed in schools where their needs for nurturing, support, and loving discipline are not met. Instead they are labeled, shunned, and treated in ways that create and reinforce an inevitable cycle of failure. (p. xxi).

Urban Charter Schools

Although the 5,275 charter schools in the U.S. enroll about 1.8 million students—about 4 % of all public school students—the percentage is much larger in urban areas, including New Orleans, Louisiana (70 %),Washington, D.C. (40 %), Detroit, Michigan (41 %) and Gary, Indiana (31 %; National Alliance for Public Charter Schools 2011). There is a growing body of evidence that suggests urban charter schools have the potential to generate impressive achievement gains, especially for students of color living in high-poverty areas (Angrist et al. 2011). For example, research studies of charter schools in the Harlem Children’s Zone, one of the most recognized charter school systems in the nation, report positive academic achievement (Dobbie et al. 2011; Hoxby et al. 2009). Further, the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO 2009) examined charter school achievement in 15 states and the District of Columbia. The study concluded that 17 % of charter schools have exceptional achievement results, almost half have achievement results similar to regular public schools, and 37 % of charter schools have lower achievement levels than regular public schools.

The policies of many successful urban charter schools include a “no excuses” model, built on driven, highly-educated teachers hired to lead their students in a rigorous academic program, tightly aligned with state standards, with the goal that every child will pursue postsecondary goals (Merseth 2009). Urban charter schools that serve high Black male student populations are often said to provide nurturing alternatives to traditional schools, and programming geared to understand and meet their unique needs; thus, offering them a better chance to succeed in their studies and lives as a whole. For example, some urban charter schools make explicit and intentional hiring decisions to staff their schools with predominately teachers of color, in an effort to provide educators who can also serve as role models with similar racial backgrounds (Stevens et al. 2008). Urban charter schools are also noted for offering smaller class sizes than public schools, and extensive one-on-one tutoring programs taught by recent graduates or current students of prestigious universities (Hoxby et al. 2009).

A small subset of urban charter schools are grounded in Afrocentricity, meaning that these schools promote traditional education undergirding by the history and culture of Africans and African-Americans, which has shown to build students’ self-esteem and confidence (Asante 2013). For example, many Afrocentric schools begin and end each school day with a drum shout, whereby they play and “talk with” African drums to symbolize and honor the historic legacy of people of African descent in celebrating life and to inspire an excitement and passion for learning. The practice has been said to provide a sense of security for teachers and students alike (Asante 2013).

Other researchers argue that claims suggesting that charter schools offer an elevated educational experience have been exaggerated (Stuit and Smith 2011). Orfield and Frankenberg (2012) calls the charter school movement a civil rights failure. He argues that charter schools are more segregated than other public schools, with the level of segregation increasing as the number of charter schools grew (by 7.2 % between the 2009 and 2011 school years; National Alliance for Public Charter Schools 2011). Moreover, reports of charter schools’ superior performance and graduation rates often leave out the high dropout and attrition rates, which primarily affect low-performing students (Ravitch 2011). Additionally, urban charter high schools, it has been said, do not contain adequate numbers of AP courses, preventing students from receiving free college credit at 90 percent of the colleges and universities in the United States if they pass the AP test (College Board 2011; Trusty and Niles 2003). Researchers argue that the lack of AP courses in urban charter schools reinforces inequality, as students in urban and rural communities are the least likely to have access to AP courses.

Urban Neighborhoods

Although infrequently acknowledged, there is great variation among students residing in majority-Black neighborhoods and, at present, there is no meta-story adequately describing these Black families’ life trajectories in these neighborhoods; in fact, these environments have been indicted for being the natural starting point of Black underachievement (Kasinitz et al. 2008). The typical description of a Black urban neighborhood includes a disproportionate number of welfare mothers, including teenagers; low birth rates; high concentrations of poverty, unemployment, and crime; and lower cognitive ability, to name just a few (Massey 2012; Wilson 2011). These communities, like their residents, are sometimes viewed in terms of their assumed deficits and risks, while their strengths are ignored.

Despite arguments against describing Black males in negative terms, there is no denying the high rates of violence devastating Black males and their families in certain areas. Aggressive and defensive behaviors and actions are a major cause of violent injury, disability and death among young Black men in the United States (Staples 2011). Researchers posit that rules in urban enclaves revolve around the idea of respect and play a fundamental role in how young Black males protect themselves. The way in which Black males in urban spaces showcase respect or lack of respect is sometimes defined as hypermasculinity (Young 2011). Pitt and Sanders (2010) discuss the concept of hypermasculine males, whom they say exhibit three qualities: (a) verbal or physical aggression; (b) overt sexuality, and; (c) risk-taking enjoyment. While these qualities are commonly perceived as negative, they do not necessarily represent the underlying problem, which is the negative impact of Black, Hispanic, and certain homosexual men internalizing these hypermasculine stereotypes as a function of their perpetual promotion in public discourse.

Hypermasculine and negative stereotypes contribute to Black male students’ marginalization, which, in turn, structures their learning processes, social opportunities, life chances, and educational outcomes. Consider that high school age Black males are often considered “at-risk” for being an academic underachiever, fatherless, violent, athlete (in racialized sports like football and basketball), a high school dropout, and involved with the incarnation system, among many other negative stereotypes. Educators, along with society as a whole, function within the milieu of these stereotypes. When educators internalize these negative depictions of Black male students, there is great potential for them to operate according to beliefs, which may result in transmitting low expectations to these students, which the literature has shown to have deleterious results for Black males in educational settings. An oft-cited example is that Black male students are over 3 and a half times more likely to be suspended or expelled and have the highest referral for special education programming than their peers who are white (U.S. Department of Education 2012).

Some young Black males respond to negative stereotypes with their own distinctive styles of African American Vernacular English language, in addition to unique dress styles and mannerisms. Historically, these stereotype management strategies, provide mechanisms that reduce the impact of the stereotypes and have been found to be associated with high academic achievement (McGee and Martin 2011). Black male behavior has frequently been copied and marketed as trendsetting, serving to both reward and condemn the images of Black males. Scholars have called for changing the national discourse on school-age African American males in such a way that moves beyond pathologizing them, toward examining the role of structural, instutitutional, and everyday racism in systematically disenfranchising African American males, while acknowledging their agency and resistance in combating multiple forms of oppression (Toldson 2008).

Black Males and Academic Achievement

Spencer and her colleagues (2011) acknowledge that Black male high school students often demonstrate resilience and competence, and that many of them succeed amid the extreme conditions of their urban environments. One strategy that academically successful Black males have been found to employ to cope with academic-related stereotypes is to use their high school success as a form of resistance leading to increased resilience (Andrews 2012).

Conchas’ research studies of high-achieving Black and Latino students has found that males recognize the barriers they face, such as economic disfranchisement and social ostracism, but they also describe their abilities to overcome or offset those barriers and to achieve academic success (Conchas and Vigil 2012). Toldson’s (2008) study explored factors that statistically improve educational outcomes for African American males by analyzing academic success indicators from four national surveys. The major findings of this study revealed that positive interactions with peers; having fathers present in the household and fathers’ educational background; high parental expectations and parental homework assistance; and feeling safe and cared for at school all have a positive influence on Black males’ academic achievement. Young’s (2007) qualitative study of 14 academically high-achieving, economically challenged young African American males found that early identification for gifted programs in elementary school, participation in extracurricular activities, and the importance in their lives of the African American church community had a positive impact on their ability to succeed in school.

Although talented Black male high school students are receiving increasing media attention, there is still scant literature specifically focused on Black male students who succeed in high school. With less than 50 % of Black males from urban areas graduate from high school in 4 years (Heckman and LaFontaine 2010), there is increasing awareness of the issues confronting them and opportunities at their disposal. However, much of the scholarship on high school students focuses on those students who have already managed to graduate from high school and pursue higher education (See Harper 2010, 2012). A compelling argument can be made for additional analysis of the processes by which some African American males succeed in high school despite inequitable school and community environments.

Framework: Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory

This research utilized Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST; Spencer 2011) as a theoretical framework to extrapolate how Black students made sense of their experiences despite the many challenges they faced in school and in their neighborhoods. PVEST is a life-span model of identity development processes and outcomes that emphasizes the salience of gender, context, and race-ethnicity. The PVEST framework maintains that risk and protective factors are dynamic and situational in nature. At the time Black males enter high school, they undergo rapid physical and cognitive changes that are accompanied by impulsive and risk-taking behaviors, as well as under-acknowledged protective factors that help guard them against these risk factors (Spencer 2008, 2011). The first component of PVEST, the Net Vulnerability Level, is crucial to the study’s objective as it involves the operation and negotiation of both risk and protective factors.

The PVEST framework presupposes that all humans are vulnerable and must deal with both risk factors and protective factors, given the unavoidable interactions experienced in a variety of social environments. The level of vulnerability varies according to individuals’ diverse histories, biological and psychological attributes, phenotypic characteristics, and contemporary experiences (Spencer 2011). This framework explains how students’ reflection and meaning-making will differ in response to very similar experiences within the same context, depending on how they perceive and are perceived within that context. For example, the same core content may be interpreted quite differently when presented in different school contexts, depending on the fit between students’ experiences and society’s expectations. For some Black males, these expectations may be influenced by an internalized belief in their own inferiority and heightened challenges that are based on their race and gender (Thomas and Stevenson 2009), which may lead to psychological dissonance. However, for other Black males, education may be perceived as valuable, leading to multiple forms of psychological protection and varied levels of support. These parallel and differing experiences can occur among Black male students who simultaneously share the same space.

Black male students are often presumed to be vulnerable due to the unyielding high-risk factors they face and a lack of awareness of the protective factors at their disposal. Failing to acknowledge Black males’ protective factors often skews the data, resulting in a stereotypical perspective (Spencer 2008, 2011). Black male students’ resilience (i.e., the ability to persevere in the face of obstacles and adversity) and agency (i.e., belief in one’s ability to foster a change as a result of effort and self-determination) is largely understudied (Spencer et al. 2011). The lack of research on resilient African American male youth who employ effective coping strategies in meeting challenges has contributed to the misrepresentation of their experiences and outcomes (Harris and Taylor 2012; Spencer 2008; Majors and Billson 1993). PVEST takes into account how individuals perceive both risks and forms of protection, which can be inferred from a variety of contexts, including their homes, schools, peer groups, and communities.

The current study investigated the resilience and successes of talented African American male high school students learning in urban charter high schools. It addresses two primary questions: (a) How do high-achieving African American male high school students describe the risk factors and protective factors that are present in their high school experiences and lives?, and (b) How do the participants make sense of and respond to situations they consider as heightened forms of risk?

This study was conducted in part to provide an alternative to the predominant story on African American male educational achievement. I sought to identify and analyze the processes that enable these students to counter the narrative of concentrated underachievement. Although group membership as a Black male student often includes being marginalized and facing extra risks, some students are able to transcend these obstacles in academically empowering ways (Spencer et al. 2011). Few studies have focused specifically on academically successful African American male high school students, much less on those who are mathematically successful (notable exceptions include Terry and McGee 2012; Noble 2009; Walker 2006). In other words, the ominous statistics about Black male under achievement do not necessarily tell the more complex narrative and counter narrative of African American male students. This study attempts to address this void by both focusing on and problematizing their success.

Methods

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the experiences of Black male high school students who are high achievers, and to explore how risk and protective factors operate in their schooling and life experiences. This study was guided by narrative analysis procedures (Creswell 2012; Marshall and Rossman 2010), and it used a semi-structured interview protocol and a structured debriefing protocol process to identify participants’ perceptions and explore their insights and beliefs.

Setting of the Study

This study took place at four charter high schools in a Midwestern city called Canvas (a pseudonym, as are all names in the study) during the 2010 spring and summer semesters.

The Canvas public school system includes about 600 traditional K-12 schools and 70 charter schools (expected to increase to over 100 by the start of the 2013–2014 school year due to massive public school closings), and serves a population that is close to 50 % African American, a little over 40 % Latino/a, a little less than 10 % White, and almost 5 % Asian (Bryk et al. 2010). Canvas public schools have 410,000 students in its K-12 public and charter schools. 87 % of the students at Canvas public schools qualified for free- and reduced-price lunch (Murnane 2009). The disappearance and involuntary departure of Black teachers at Canvas City garnered increased attention. In 2000, for example, 41 % of Canvas public teachers self-identified as Black, whereas in 2012, Black teachers represented only 19 % of Canvas’ teachers (Johnson 2012).

Canvas’ charter high school students are primarily from low-income backgrounds (about 90 % qualify for free or reduced-price lunch), are 60 % African American and 35 % Hispanic, and must overcome a range of academic challenges (9 % are English language learners and 12 % have special educational needs). Estimates are that fewer than 60 % of freshmen will graduate from Canvas’s high schools, and fewer than 55 % of those who graduate will go on to a post-secondary education. Thus, the majority of youth in Canvas are leaving school—that is, dropping out or not graduating, which makes it less likely they will secure high-paying professional positions.

Participants

I conducted interviews with 11 high-achieving Black male students at four charter high schools (see Table 1). In addition to these interviews, I conducted about 7 h of observation in several upper level mathematics classrooms at each site, as I recruited students. I also presented STEM-college informational presentations at each site as reciprocity for the students’ and school participation. High achievement was defined as having a mathematics GPA of 3.0 or higher and being identified by mathematics teachers as one of the top five students in their classes. Recruitment flyers that explained the purpose of the study and that participation was completely voluntary were handed out to students at the high schools at the start of the school day or after school. The criteria for participation in the study included being a Black male charter high school student, residing in an urban area, having a high grade point average (above 3.0) in mathematics, and junior and senior participants, but a few sophomores were allowed to join the participant pool. The rationale for choosing mostly upperclassmen was to establish an academic history of sustained mathematics achievement. I specifically sought out high mathematics achievers because of my interest in the development of mathematics identities. However, the narratives in this study revealed less about mathematics identity development and more around their experiences as young Black males navigating, challenging, and being challenged, within their urban schools and neighborhoods.

Table 1 Participants’ demographic information
Full size table

Data Collection

Students who expressed interest in the study by email or phone received parental consent forms. Most of the junior-year participants were enrolled in either pre-calculus/trigonometry or honors algebra II at the time of the study. The senior-year participants were enrolled in calculus or AP statistics. I gave a brief talk about the study to the students enrolled in the regression analysis course at the mathematics summer camp at the local university, the highest-level mathematics course and requested voluntary participation. To help ensure that students’ comfortability and assurance of their rights when contributing data, I gave each person who expressed interest the opportunity to refuse to participate at any time.

All 11-student interviews were audiotaped and 10 were videotaped; one student asked not to be videotaped. The interview protocol consisted of a two-page demographics questionnaire and both semi-structured interview questions that used the PVEST’s risk and protective factors to guide and synthesize the questions and responses. The interviews averaged 72 min and only one in-person interview was feasible due to the summer programming and in school scheduling. The life story interview format was used to elicit rich accounts of experiences at home, school, in their neighborhoods, and classroom contexts.

Data Analysis

I embraced the concept put forth by Schostak and Schostak (2008) whereby an interview is broken into inter and view, and thus focuses on both the differences and the commonalities between the two parties involved. This form of qualitative research is important for its ability to harness alternative views, and to help build an understanding of identity, decision-making, and action (Schostak and Schostak 2008). After all the interviews were conducted, I reviewed the data and had them professionally transcribed. I read the transcriptions twice, then analyzed and deconstructed them into themes and meanings that lay the foundation for codification.

I used an open coding system to analyze the participants’ narrative responses. The unit of analysis was mostly phrase-by-phrase; however, I also used a smaller subset of codes that were line-by-line (Creswell 2012). This process of sorting and resorting, coding and recoding data led to emergent categories of meaning. I put the initial categories under the theme “fragile high school and mathematics identity,” which is characterized by students’ attempts to prove stereotypes wrong through a host of strategies. The codes under this theme included: (a) students feeling compelled by an obligation to “uplift” the family; (b) Black racial identity (public regard and private regard; Sellers et al. 1998), (c) the need to erase themselves from the “dangerous Black man” stereotype, (d) being threatened by Black racial academic-based stereotypes (e.g., intellectually less able), (e) using school to escape a negative home environment, (f) lack of mentors/role models, (g) justifiable anger and little ability to manage it, (h) virtually no career guidance, the need to develop street credibility, (i) lack of AP classes, and; (j) no studying/very sporadic studying.

In my initial data processing, I sought patterns to explain the goal of the study, thus the codes were situated within the particular goal of unpacking the participants’ risk and protective factors. A senior colleague, whose expertise lies in PVEST, audited my categories and four of the eleven interviews. We had six meetings, during which produced multiple iterations of the codes and themes and identified core consistencies and meanings. My colleague provided the research project an additional layer of scrutiny, which provided a perspective that challenged some of my initial assumptions. The dialogue that arose from our meetings enabled refinement of the methods and strengthening the research design.

In addition to narrative analysis, which compliments the PVEST framework in providing a culturally sensitive foundation, I took appropriate measures to ensure the credibility of the interview data, such as asking more than one question about a particular construct. To improve the accuracy, credibility, and transferability of the data, I performed a member check. Specifically, every student was allowed to review their transcript; eight provided feedback on the intended meaning behind their words. Allowing this review was crucial to the qualitative rigor of the study (Marshall and Rossman 2010). An audit trail consisting of NVivo (a data reduction and analysis software), data reconstruction analysis was performed with two of my doctoral students who were performing research on Black males; this enhanced the trustworthiness of the study by ensuring congruence between the research questions and analysis.

Researcher’s Biases

Studying high-achieving African American students required me to acknowledge and discuss my own positionality and subjectivity. In many ways, I have experiences similar to those of the study participants. I was taught in similar school settings and endured the challenges associated with being a Black teenager educated in an urban context. In my role as an advocate for African American children, I believe that my cultural frames of reference allow me to generate relevant and useful knowledge about these students.

I have an academic background and college-level training in mathematics, engineering, and mathematics education, which precipitated my interest in this research. However, my academic achievement differs from the participants’ experiences, as I was educated in high school over 20 years ago. I came into this study aiming to characterize the learning and participation of high-achieving Black male high school students in a way that drew on identity and sociohistorical knowledge, not only as related to academics, but also to issues of race, and risk and protective factors.

Results

The following themes emerged from the data: (a) the impact of racial stereotypes; (b) the complications associated with being perceived both as a threat and threatened, and (c) the lack of college-related opportunities and coursework. The quotes below are representative of the kinds of information shared across different participants.

Having achieved and sustained high school success, the participants described the risk associated with maintaining high expectations; all while coping with and managing risk. Most of the students in this study more often than not found themselves navigating risk with multiple forms of protection, and their responses depended, in part, on how each viewed himself, both individually and collectively.

Reaction and Defiance of the Black and Black Male Stereotyping

Every respondent in this study expressed being placed at risk from the plethora of stereotypes that plague Black males and their urban communities. Most of the stereotypes they cited related to the financial and social conditions of African Americans, particularly in predominantly low socioeconomic, urban African American communities. In accordance with the PVEST framework, the participants acknowledged that these stereotypes placed them at heightened danger, but also illuminated the presence of self-protective factors that reduced the risks associated with being stereotyped. The students frequently cited the following stereotypes in response to the question: what stereotypes frequently associated with Black people or Black males impact you the most? For instance,

  • Maurice: All Black males have a link [food stamps] card. Black males are lazy.

  • Johnny: Black men are stupid.

  • Brian: Black students, both male and female, are not as bright as White or Asian students.

Four of the respondents specifically cited the stereotype that African Americans were not able to achieve in subjects such as mathematics, with a few variations:

  • Danny: White people think we are dumb. They always try to cheat us.

  • Hakeem: They say we are not qualified for the careers in math and science.

  • Johnny: Black people can’t do mathematics.

  • Sammy: The only time Black men use math is to cheat the government and buy drugs.

The respondents had two types of responses to these stereotypes: to ignore them or to attempt to prove these stereotypes wrong through their behaviors, mannerisms, and high achievement—a strategy used by eight of the participants. From a PVEST perspective, ignoring or proving stereotypes wrong could be seen a as protective factor; however, this strategy seemed to come with some emotional consequences as Billy described the pressure he suffered from constant stereotyping, which caused him to doubt his academic abilities. As a result, he described feeling pressured to prove his intellectual worth “all the time”:

  • Q: Have you ever been in a situation where a teacher or another student assumed that you weren’t intelligent?

  • Billy: I feel it sometimes but I don’t really know’, cause it seems like, you know, how you get that feeling that—Yeah, and that I have to prove myself all the time.

  • Q: How does it feel to have to prove yourself all the time?

  • Billy: It feels good to me because I know, like, all I got to do to prove it to you is just work hard.

Billy first attested to feeling good about proving himself by working hard and making the grade. However, he later admitted to experiencing frustration from constantly being perceived as a low-achiever and having other negative traits associated with him because he is Black, young, and male:

Sometimes, I want to be fed up. Especially when I changes grades [matriculate from one grade to the next grade level]. Its like, if the new teachers did not talk to my [previous] teachers to already find out I was smart, so they assume I’m not. One teacher even said to me, “Aren’t you in Math 201 [a remedial math class], right?” I said, How did you come to that conclusion? Only then did she look at the [schedule] sheet and found out that I was in honors Algebra. I was standing in her face waiting for her to apologize, but she just shrugged and walked off.

Although all participants’ test scores suggested an ability to do well academically, they all said that achieving against the backdrop of these multiple and, sometimes, compounded stereotypes, at times, took a heavy toll. The risk associated with being perceived as a threat were said to be offset by the participants’ abilities to negotiates multiple spaces and school personnel in order to achieve academic and social success. In short, these Black male students developed a defiant reaction to stereotypes.

Academic Survival Techniques

Nine of the respondents discussed using a host of strategies and techniques to defend themselves against Black male stereotypes. These strategies, such as “dressing preppy,” smiling, appearing friendly, and associating with the “smart” students, was perceived as behaviors designed to protect themselves, which allowed them to succeed academically. The PVEST framing assisted in identifying these students’ creative strategies and keen understandings of their positionality within neighborhood and school settings. They adopted protective behaviors that were deemed satisfactory for optimizing learning outcomes, which allowed them to attend to their complicated lifestyles. An aspiring music producer, Hakeem challenged traditional African American male stereotypes by being different:

Well, I feel like every Black male is different. You know, like every Black male is not in jail, every Black male is not selling drugs, and everything like that. Like actually, Black males are trying to do something with their life, you know, and that [negative] stereotype can bring other Black males down and, you know, that’s it.

Hakeem stated that when he walked down the hallways of his school, he believed he carried the burden of people perceiving him as a, “stereotype maker instead of what I really am, a stereotype breaker.” Hakeem produced songs and lyrics for musicians and singers about domestic partner violence and other issues he believed were important to women, which, according to him, gave him personal and academic advantages as a male because, among the mostly female administration, teachers and even peers at his school, his activities portrayed him as a man who cared about gender equity. Johnny, who desires to be a financial entrepreneur, attested to anxiety over proving himself to significant others (teachers, parents, peers, and sometimes strangers) through his high mathematics achievement while also ensuring his presence and actions posed no threat to the same individuals. This sparked him to create a clever way to dump the violent Black male stereotype:

Sometimes I dress straight preppy. I rock Lacoste, Polo, L.L. Bean’s duck boots, sweater around the collar, all that! I used to be adamant about wearing it because I like it, but I realize now, it was more to look smart, or at least look different. And guess what? My teachers and stuff, they did treat me better. It was like they respected me a bit more. So, now even though my style has changed, when I come to school I still go preppy. I ain’t never seen no dude wearing preppy clothes in detention. I even bought me some nerd glasses. The girls really like it too.

Several of the students expressed their contempt for an education system and a society that persecutes people based on physical traits and phenotypes. Jermaine, an aspiring graphic designer, admitted to acting out what he perceived to be masculine behaviors (e.g., staring other males down, loudly mimicking to rap and hip-hop lyrics while walking down the streets, sagging blue jeans, carrying a weapon) to protect himself during the dangerous walk home from school, which helped him, in his words, “to stay alive.” Another participant, Brian, who plans to become a chief financial officer, has a protective stance which, he suggests, is hard to self-regulate at times:

Acting rough it’s hard to turn…off. When I walk into school, the danger does not end at the school door. I always have to stay on guard, even when I don’t want to. It is difficult trying to learn under all that pressure.

For example, although Ronnie asserts that he needs to show his White female algebra teacher that she should not be frightened of him, he is also cognizant of those students whom he refers to as “problem kids” and perceives of this teacher as being unable to manage them in the classroom; thus, negatively impacting his educational experience. That is, he does not feel safe, due to the dangerous classroom dynamics (e.g., students throwing desk chairs and tossing things out the second-floor window); however, he wants to prove to this teacher that he is not like “those fools”:

I mean with Mrs. H, I don’t know what to do. Sometimes I literally act like her security. When they [two disruptive male students] cut up, sometimes I push them out of the classroom. And when Sharon, [a mouthy female student,] tries to cuss out Mrs. H, I tell her to stop acting like a bitch. But she [Mrs. H], won’t give me no love. The other day I was late and I ran into the classroom with intentions to apologize and she put her hands up like I was going to hit her. That really stung because I’ve been trying to help this lady and she thought I was the enemy. I trying as hard as she is to get those fools to shut up and sit down so we can all learn.

Although Ronnie desperately wants to establish a better relationship with Mrs. H, and even defends her against disrupting students, Mrs. H still demonstrates a fear of Ronnie that even his high level of achievement in her course does not seem to alleviate. Academic survival techniques exposed difficulties and accomplishments associated with managing multiple forms of risk, which were managed using internal and external assets.

Social Survival Techniques

According to PVEST, situations perceived as challenging individual’s well being are crucial to understanding multiple forms of risk and protection (Spencer et al. 2004). Spencer (2008) also discusses the use of resilience, good outcomes in spite of enduring challenges, by the use of effective and culturally grounded behaviors. To that end, students in the current study seemed to exhibit resilience as they navigated their school and neighborhood cultures. Lamont, for example, described his enrollment in the local university’s summer academy as a way to nurture his mathematics skills over the summer. However, he said getting to the summer program was risky because of the dangerous commute across two difficult neighborhoods. Lamont had to travel by bus and train from his home in Hillwood, a low-SES Black urban neighborhood close to the university campus. He almost made it through the entire summer program without a serious incident:

We live like by Hillwood, some guys were getting on in Broadtown and I got jumped. I was by myself. It was a group of them and we was fighting, but I don’t call it beating up because I didn’t really get beat up. But the police [eventually came] and then they had like arrested some of them… they had caught like four of them and they had went into the juvenile court and stuff. I don’t take the train no more.

Ironically, Lamont noted that his own carelessness was one reason for the attack. He explained

“Going through Broadtown you gotta stay aware of your surroundings and I wasn’t paying attention. So it was partly my fault. Now, I try to always stay on point and aware”.

Lamont said that his attendance at the mathematics summer program was important, not just to him but to his family as well. Therefore, his family made arrangements to ensure that his last week at the camp would be safe. Seven other students also discussed the protection their family members provide, noting that they go to significant lengths to support their academic achievements.

Most of the males in this study deemed it necessary to participate in activities that established street credibility. These included appearing to act “hard” to avoid violence, hanging out with students who had dropped out of high school, and congregating with large groups of African American males to secure a safe walk home from school.

Johnny explains:

Sometimes the teachers walk out with us [at the end of the school day] because the gangs are out and there is also a rift between the Latinos and the Blacks. So they walk us up to the bottom of the bridge and then we are on our own. That’s when we have to get gangster. It’s funny,’cause I haven’t been in a real fight in about three years, but it seems like acting like I want to fight and walking crazy leg [walking with an exaggerated lean to indicate toughness] keeps me out of actually fighting.

Five other students in the study described similar afterschool episodes where they armed themselves with mannerisms that resembled wrestlers and engaged in rough jostling with each other, as if to warn potential foes not to mess with them. Some of the males actively demonstrated their street credibility by joining with other African American males to project their male bravado. This performance, according to participants, served to protect them against perpetrators who, if they sensed weakness, might find reason to attack. These same students complained about not feeling safe after dark—in this Midwestern city, that can mean as early as 4 p.m.—which limited their involvement in certain afterschool activities. Jermaine was one of those students:

  • Q: So you said you have to leave school quickly to make it home? Can you explain why?

  • Jermaine: Well, there’s like violence.

  • Q: Oh, okay, so what violence do [you] encounter?

  • Jermaine: Like, that’s why I don’t trust my block no more’ cause especially when it gets dark. I trust my friends’, cause they have my back in like any situation. But, um, I was walking home from school and I ran into this boy… he was popping these ecstasy pills and he was drunk and smoking at the same time. He was just messed up. So, me and my brother, we was wearing like real good clothes, so I guess he was jealous… and [the] boy ran up behind me and hit me in the back of my head with a bottle.

Jermaine went on to describe the chaos that followed as his brother defended him. Although the police eventually arrived, the physical and emotional trauma seemed to increase Jermaine’s fears about going outside after dark. He rode the city bus home every day after school but still had to walk five blocks. His commute sometimes took more than an hour, which posed an additional threat to his personal safety. These students designed personal support systems, in addition to school-based support systems, demonstrating that students from low-resourced neighborhoods are capable of exercising strengths, including the exhibition of masculine behaviors, to defect or avoid violence. Although their vulnerability was an entrenched aspect of their environmental conditions, how they looked, walked, talked, and in the spaces they engage in heightened determinants for their survival (Spencer 1999). In short, many of these African American male students developed academic and social survival techniques in order to function well in their situations and contexts.

Lack of Pre-college Opportunities

The students complained about their schools’ lack of access to college credits, college-level courses, and challenging course content. For example, of the four high schools attended by the students in this study, only one offered AP class. Since AP classes offer a context of college attainment and preparation, This appears to be an external risk factor and, thus, an academic hazard. Although the majority of the students enjoyed their classes at times, they often were bored and yearned for a more challenging curriculum. Danny said that his school had been planning to offer an AP trigonometry class, but only three students passed the pretest so the class was cancelled. Hakeem expressed his disdain for not having access to AP classes:

  • Q: So, with almost a 4.0 math average, how do you feel about your high school not offering any AP classes?

  • Hakeem: What’s AP, like, extra?

  • Q: It’s like receiving college-level credits for college-type coursework. Have you heard this maybe described differently?

  • Hakeem: Oh yeah. My boy at [a prestigious public high school] takes those classes. He told me that he could graduate college in 3½ years. It’s not fair! He can graduate early because his school has college joints [courses] and we only taking honors, which don’t mean crap!

Six of the 11 students were not able to describe the importance of AP classes in terms of their college development. They had a sense that AP courses were something beneficial, but they did not appear anxious about applying for college without having the college credits that AP classes afford. Sammy was one of those students:

  • Q: Okay, so let me go back to your first comment. There’s one thing that really struck me; do you know… your school doesn’t have any AP math?

  • Sammy: Mmm–mmm. That’s right.

  • Q: What are your feelings about this?

  • Sammy: I don’t know. I never really gave it much thought.

Two students discussed taking non-college-credit auto-mechanics and plumbing classes at a local community college. They said the knowledge they gained in these courses gave them a solid back-up plan, in case their original career plans (see Table 1) did not work out as planned. William said a “plan B” is necessary because he has seen many talented students leave for college and then “come right back.” When William was asked to explain further, he referenced several high-achieving students from his neighborhood that left the state for college, only to return back home within the first year.

Students like William and Sammy were grateful to simply have mathematics teachers who actually had a background in mathematics, while the other participants cited disparate experiences that included: “we did not have a math [text] book for a whole year—just a bunch of worksheets,” “my first high school was shut down for underperforming” and “my math teacher in my freshman year was also my gym teacher.”

Although high achieving, it appeared that the students did not receive much in terms of relatable college and/or career counseling. All but two of the participants mentioned that they received little to no assistance from their college or career counseling programs or centers. Although each student in the study intended to enroll in college, they had very limited knowledge of information related to college (e.g., Choosing college majors, different college options, college-level academic preparation, application processes and financial resources.

Discussion and Implications

As representatives of one of the most stigmatized ethnic groups in the U.S., these males sometimes experienced negative stereotypes, overt and covert forms of threat, neighborhood and school trauma, which could have combined to create social and education disengagement. Alternately, instead of disengaging, these young male students, created, identified and developed certain skills and survival-related strategies in which with they could engage in school achievement. They also identified coping mechanisms that help to mitigate risk factors such as dressing and behaving in ways that shaped creative pathways for achievement. Being perceived as a threat and as an underachiever for these talented young Black males developed, in part, because of similarities between stereotypes that position Black males as dangerous and having little academic potential. The PVEST framework model was of particular importance to this study given that young African American males tend to underachieve on standardized tests, experience greater drop-out rates, as indicated in the statistics presented in the beginning of this article (Alexander 2010; Aud et al. 2010; Ferguson 2003). Findings demonstrate the power and agency of coping mechanisms used to survive within and beyond school settings. Although often categorized as a population at-risk, participants in the current study experienced negatively constructed and perceived images and, nonetheless, preserved in schooling and everyday life.

Interestingly, their academic abilities largely countered the stereotype of being underachiever but they did perform certain behaviors as a method of survival could be interpreted as threatening thus potentially emulating that stereotype. When their necessary survival strategies appear to mirror the stereotype, the tenuous nature of teetering between wanting to be perceived as a threat to avoid violence is one that needs great acknowledgement from the education community and city services (Schott Foundation 2012). As the leading cause of death for young Black males is homicide, to act in ways that help to maintain one’s life should be situated as a civil rights issue. I contend, along with educators arguing for educational justice of young Black men (Davis 2003; Noguera 2009; Toldson 2008), that we all should be demanding that these Black males be afforded healthier opportunities to enjoy a greater quality of life, improved well-being, and increased longevity, educationally, socially, and economically.

Urban charters schools appear to be much more complicated than a saving grace or a civil rights nightmare as indicated in the earlier literature (Angrist et al. 2011; Orfield and Frankenberg 2012). These students discussed their teachers being cautiously suspicious of them because of their perceptions of what a Black male student was supposed to be. On the other hand, students discussed the support of the teachers and staff in attempting to ensure that their home commutes where safer, as well as providing information related to summer academic camps. However, in line with current research literature (Roderick et al. 2011), the lack of AP courses within these four urban charter schools was certainly present, which is potentially cutting participants off from a number of postsecondary opportunities. Although some of the students were not aware of the damage a lack of AP classes can have on their educational futures, it does not change the fact that students who have access to college-level academics in high school are more likely to seek a higher education and to succeed at college (Roderick et al. 2011).

In addition to possible stereotype vulnerability, being less prepared for college can have distressing consequences for Black male students. Educators, particularly career-development counselors, should consider offering more targeted career development around a variety of fields to broaden students’ choice of career pathways as many of these talented youth may not realize are available to them. Demystifying college and career offerings by inviting college students and professionals from the participants’ communities into schools could make high school students more aware of opportunities in different fields, and may expose them to role models other than sports stars and rap figures.

The students in this study created sophisticated strategies to protect themselves; as a result, their behaviors challenge the literature of Black males positioned as angry or hypermasculine. Suggestions that African American high school male students have to emulate the behaviors of the mainstream to position themselves in better favor for positive educational outcomes, ignores the fact that doing so could put them in increased danger in and out of school. Particularly, the environments in which these students functioned required them to maintain a certain level of neighborhood credibility. They defined this credibility as a convincing command or display of the style, fashions, and knowledge that gave them safe passage (Harris et al. 2011). However, most of the participants spoke of or demonstrated an outward appearance of what they perceived to be masculine behaviors not as a way to seek out violence, but to avoid or prevent it from happening.

I argue serious attempts ought to be made to achieve a more critical understanding of the nature of Black male coping behaviors and the social realities that produce such behaviors to flourish in poor communities of color. Education policy-makers should consider putting a greater emphasis on social and mental health services in urban schools as a method to give proper attention to the difficulties students face in and out of school. They should also acknowledge the necessity associated with Black males’ coping strategies while simultaneously helping them to develop other approaches for managing multiple forms of threat. For example, educators and schools should investigate how they can create safe spaces where African American males can learn without the constant threat of being perceived as dangerous.

Future Research

Future research should continue the attempt to untangle the enduring inequities found in urban enclaves that create unique challenges for high-achieving Black high school males. This study heeded the call for a more comprehensive structural and systemic explanation of the educational challenges facing talented African American high school males by acknowledging the complexity of their experiences. For example, in a chapter dedicated to the state of knowledge and knowledge gaps on the education of African Americans, Lee (2005) argues that African and African American culture are the building blocks of strong Black minds. Thus, Lee evokes creation of an educational system that can serve as tools for greater socio-political and community justice. Studying the impact of African centered schooling as not only a strategy to cope with threat and peril as well as tool for better resourced, healthier, and more economically stable neighborhoods, might serve to particularly benefit high achieving Black males, by honoring their culture and their minds. To that end, educators might borrow a practice found in many Afrocentric charter schools where their practices (such as the drum shout) have been used to cope with and serve as an outlet against racially abusive environments and may serve as an effective practice to engage Black males academically, while providing a “safe space.” For educators, adopting more culturally relevant practices can help create an environment where Black high school males are celebrated instead of feared (Howard 2008; McAllister and Irvine 2002).

Recent studies on Black males and grit, defined as perseverance and passion for long-terms goals, in positively impacting Black male achievement in challenging domains (Duckworth and Quinn 2009; Strayhorn 2013), might provide insight into the psychological determinants of Black male student success in high school. However, other researchers have warned that Black males and females have to shoulder the burden of developing high levels of grit to cope with the multiple assaults on their identity, thus grit can be viewed as a tenuous bandage over a permanent wound (Boss 2013; McGee, in press).

Limitations

While every endeavor was made to explore the participants’ complex psychological, academic, and neighborhood experiences, the findings from this study may be limited to the 11 Black male high achieving urban high school students and may not generalize to other Black male high achieving high school students. Hence, the background characteristics and life experiences of the participants in this study may not represent all successful Black, male high school students at urban charter schools. Many qualitative researchers actively reject generalizability as a goal, thus, the goal of this project is to utilize the qualitative data to obtain insights into particular underlying processes and practices that prevail within a specific location and context (Onwuegbuzie and Daniel 2003). Thus, this research enriches the sparse literature on high achieving African American males and, more specifically, their challenges and abilities to be academically resilient in the face of those challenges.

Conclusion

As these successful Black high school students made sense of experiences that defined their overall narratives, there was heterogeneity in terms of the participants’ individual identities; however, their stories converged on how wrongly they thought they were perceived and judged. And yet, their collective ability to survive and thrive demonstrates that young Black males demonstrate the ability to survive and thrive despite seemingly insurmountable odds. For the African American male high school students in this study, being viewed as dangerous and less intellectually capable, lacking access to college-level coursework and related resources, and having fearful teachers did not overpower their desire to achieve success. To ignore the multiple dangers they face at such a crucial time in their lives would understate their enormous resistance and resilience, and also would undervalue their legitimate cries for additional support to help them sustain their achievements within and beyond high school.