THE NO EXCUSES PHILOSOPHY: STRATEGIES FOR MOTIVATING STUDENT OF COLOR

By: Darrell Andrews

Years ago, my wife and I traveled with several volunteers to take a large group of African-American and Latino students on a trip to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. 100% of the 150 or so students we were spending the weekend with were from the inner city, and our focus was to spend that weekend training minority students on the importance of leadership as well as the need for developing their personal, interpersonal and communication skills.

One group joined us from the town of Perth Amboy, NJ, which is not far outside of New York City. The minute I saw the Perth Amboy students the first words that came out of my mouth were, “We are in for a long weekend working with this group.”  I probably surprised my coworkers and volunteers; after all, not only had I been working with youth from the inner city for years at the time, but I am African-American.  Still, I couldn’t stop from judging these kids. My words were based upon the way the students were dressed, the way they walked and the way they communicated.  Societal perceptions still exist, even when you are of the race or culture in which the perception is being made!

The next day I joined several students, including some of the Perth Amboy students, playing a game of basketball. I’m pretty competitive and soon I forgot I was playing with students who were much younger than I was. In my mind I was reliving my own high school basketball career, and suddenly I found myself flat on my back on the ground, immobile and in incredible pain.  For a moment, many of the students simply stared at me in amazement. A split-second later, the students from Perth Amboy ran over to me, lifted me up in the air and ran with me in their arms to the infirmary.  They stayed with me while I was looked at, and when the camp doctor determined I had to go straight to the hospital, these young men were determined to go all the way there with me.  In all my years of working with youth, I can say that these students were by far the most compassionate young people I had ever met.

This experience became the catalyst for my “No Excuses” mindset. The reaction of those students compounded the embarrassment of my initial impression of them. Many of us recite the cliché, ‘Never judge a book by its cover.’ Too few of us recite or even remember the rest – that you absolutely must first read the book!  Most people refuse to read the book and allow the cover to become their only blueprint for interacting with minority kids. By accepting this paradigm, and allowing it to shape classroom expectations, educators are missing an opportunity to close the achievement gap and many other challenges associated with educating minority youth.

Read the Whole Book, Not Just the Dust Cover

By actually ‘reading the book’ one begins to grasp how minority kids not only have ambitions and dreams just like other students, but that minority youth are motivated to achieve their dreams by people who relate to them on a personal level. In our HYPE (Helping Youth Pursue Excellence) Program, my team and I have interacted with thousands of minority and at-risk youth. Over the years, we have engaged in conversations with an increasing number of minority students who have truly big dreams. They desire to grow up and become doctors, teachers, lawyers and business owners.  By gaining an understanding of the world in which they live, you begin to uncover some of the societal and interpersonal challenges minority students face that hinder their growth potential.  This should be a top priority of any educator.  After achieving this understanding, you can finally identify what can be done to reverse the tide of academic failure.

Challenges by Any Other Names Are Still Challenges

Kids from challenged backgrounds or from urban communities have a myriad of burdens that hinder their ability to effectively communicate the dreams that have become buried deep inside of them.  These challenges are no excuse for failure; however, they do point to areas of concern that successful educators understand and analyze. Educators have made their goal helping their students navigate through challenges in order to succeed in the classroom. Common problems’ students face are:

1. Demonization of Youth – This term, used by Dr. Debra Prothrow-Stith from Harvard University, sheds light on the proliferation of negative images of minority youth by the media and other influencers that shape perceptions many people have of minority kids.  I have personally found that while many students may dress a certain way due to clothing trends, this often has no bearing on the students themselves. How they dress does not mean they are bad kids with apathetic mindsets.
2. Oppositional Identity –  A term created by the late Dr John Ogbu, a former Cultural Anthropologist out of University of California-Berkley.  His research highlights various minorities and the challenges faced by Involuntary Immigrants (African-Americans, Native Americans and Chicano’ people who came to this country through slavery or conquest).  He points out that many minorities in this category have created a “counter culture” to the majority culture of the population, reaction that is due to years of limited opportunities and denial of assimilation into the American system.  The eventual result of this development is that individuals are often considered “sell-outs” if they go against the identity of their culture.
3. Cultural Sensitivity – A majority of minorities does not see any significance in the American school system because they do not see many people like themselves succeeding in it.  Their parents and grandparents struggled to make it in this county and continue to struggle to this day.  Minority students are often only shown images of successful people in history who do not look like them. Secondly, different styles of communication are not often valued in the classroom.  For an easy example of how African-Americans often communicate with passion and receive from people who teach in the same manner, just visit any local African-American church to experience this way of connecting. After being raised in such vivacious cultures, is it any wonder minority students have difficulty in the classroom? Even so, we expect them to learn after sitting in a room hearing lectures that are monotone in nature when their culture learns and interacts in a high energy way.

Moving From Challenges to Motivation

Kids are not committed to programs, kids are committed to people.

After nearly twenty years of analyzing and motivating minority youth, I have witnessed repeatedly that minority students do not care what your skin color is – if you care about them, they will respond to you.  To illustrate the understated importance of this simple concept, I want to share with you a story of a district that implemented innovative strategies to connect with their students of color:

Gadsden County School District, Gadsden County, Florida – When incoming Superintendent Reginald James arrived for his first day at Gadsden County, the school district was ranked in the lower percentiles of both student scores on the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test,) as well as schools reaching AYP Goals. James recognized the problem immediately, and implemented a “No-Excuses” school-wide philosophy that included significant input from the students themselves. Based on this input and the wide-spread implementation, in just one calendar school year GCSD had the second highest increase in the state of Florida on FCAT scores and all of their schools achieved AYP.  Educators from this district recognized the keys of their success and outlined them for their peers:

• Educators related student-connectedness to academic outcomes. – They simultaneously built student academic outcomes into their relationship building initiatives.
• Based upon the student’s input, they immediately engaged key community stakeholders.  Organizations like community groups and churches became role models and supporters for the “No-Excuses” philosophy.
• They had accountability across the board. From classroom teachers to school administrators, to parents and the students themselves, everyone was accountable for success.

The school leaders made this philosophy a priority. – It was not another feel good initiative, it was a core part of the school success plan.

Ways to Become a Quest Instead of a Routine

First, administration must recognized that schools need to have a definable goal for the students and staff to be shooting for.

Second, students should be encouraged to reach beyond any self-perceived limitation.

Third, goals should be identified, analyzed and discussed frequently in order to keep them alive and well.

Finally, educators must understand that when you connect goals to academic achievement, academic achievement becomes a Quest instead of a routine.

Effective leadership must be the driving force behind the success of all schools and their minority students.  Educators and Administrators can successfully use these strategies and their own innovative strategies with confidence. These methods will first improve minority student relations, which is directly connected to improving test scores and a host of other academic expectations.  Let me emphasize again that kids are not committed to programs, kids are committed to people. Caring educators and administrators must see the potential in their minority students and allow this vision to be the driving force behind their expectation of success!