Eric.ed.gov – Building Better Narratives in Black Education

“Building Better Narratives in Black Education” fundamentally changes the narrative and face of education reform to meaningfully include Black voices, leaders and initiatives that truly have equity and Black student success at the core. This is imperative as there is an education crisis for Black students in the United States. Recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results indicate that only seven percent of Black students performed at or above proficient on the 12th grade math exam in 2015, compared with 32 percent of White students. African American students are less likely to meet ACT college readiness benchmarks than any other racial group and often lag behind on various indicators on the primary and secondary levels. However, far too often the narrative has stopped there. While it is important to deconstruct and analyze inequities in the educational system, we have to move from solely deficit-based narratives to decisions to strengthen policies and conversations that fundamentally change the state of education for African American students. It’s time to build a better, more actionable narrative that represents the promise of education to drive equity. UNCF, Education Post, and the National Urban League each collected data on African Americans’ perspective on significant K-12 education issues, and this report synthesizes salient themes from these various data. Grounded in the lived experiences of the African American community, “Building Better Narratives in Black Education” provides tangible approaches to fundamentally shift the narrative concerning Black educational reform in order to better engage communities and reformers around an equitable K-12 education system. Sections about the contributors and the methodology are appended.