JUDY WOODRUFF: Enrollment in
higher education suffered across
the board during the pandemic.
Community colleges faced the
sharpest declines overall.
More than 700,000 students,
many of them lower-income,
dropped out or delayed
school. That is a 13
percent drop from 2019.
Black male students left
in droves, down 21 percent.
Even before the pandemic,
there were concerns about Black
men completing their degrees.
Stephanie Sy reports on
efforts in California
to reverse that trend.
It's part of our latest
series on Rethinking College.
STEPHANIE SY: Every
morning, Chris Adams is
in the zone studying for
the LSAT like his life
depends on it. For the
34-year old recent UCLA
graduate, law school
wasn't always in the cards.
CHRIS ADAMS, UCLA
Graduate: My parents moved
a lot when I was young,
so I went to different
schools, and just being in
different environments where
they probably didn't understand
where I came from or who I was.
STEPHANIE SY: You were a child.
CHRIS ADAMS: Yes. I was looking
for guidance, didn't really
know how the academic settings
would be, didn't really know
what to expect, didn't have,
like, good studying habits.
STEPHANIE SY: Adams'
school trouble led to
him being arrested at 16
and juvenile detention.
He dropped out of high
school and became a dad. His
educational prospects dimmed.
CHRIS ADAMS: What's more
important ,taking care of
your family, paying the
bills, or going to school?
STEPHANIE SY: His local
community college in
Sacramento offered a
gateway back into education.
Everything changed when
he met Edward Bush, the
president of the college.
EDWARD BUSH, Co-Founder,
African American Male
Educational Network: Every
student has the potential
to succeed in college, when
given the correct support
and tools necessary
to be successful.
So, with the situation with
Chris, he had the passion,
he had the intelligence
to be successful,
but was struggling just because
he didn't have practical tools.
STEPHANIE SY: Chris Adams
found a mentor in Bush.
CHRIS ADAMS: I want to do all
these different things. And he
listens and he just gives
me a nice little plan
on how to achieve that.
STEPHANIE SY: He
gives you a plan?
CHRIS ADAMS: He gives me a plan.
Put in those hours. How
many units it says that
you are completing,
that's how many hours
you should be spending.
If it's three units,
spend three hours
studying. I never thought
about it like that.
STEPHANIE SY: He graduated
with honors from Cosumnes River
College and transferred to UCLA.
EDWARD BUSH: Black males
are not the thing that
need to be fixed. It's the
structures in which they
interface with that needs
to be disrupted and changed.
STEPHANIE SY: Bush
co-founded A2MEND in 2006,
with a mission of fostering
success for Black men at
California's community colleges.
EDWARD BUSH: We focus on not
only providing support to
the student, but I think,
most importantly, we look
at structures that have been
barriers for our students.
STEPHANIE SY: Students
and educators from across
the state recently
attended A2MEND's annual
conference in Los Angeles.
AMANUEL GEBRU, Executive
Director, African American Male
Educational Network: If this
is your first time here, I just
want to tell you, this is a
different kind of conference.
(LAUGHTER)
STEPHANIE SY: It was as much
about networking and learning
as it was a celebration.
HILL HARPER, Activist:
Oftentimes, people
want to focus on,
oh, the U.C. or the state
system or these private
schools or this or that.
It's about community colleges.
(APPLAUSE)
STEPHANIE SY: This year
was the first in-person
gathering since the pandemic,
which took a disproportionate
toll on communities of color.
The racial inequities
that were laid bare by the
pandemic are also at play
in education, says Bush.
EDWARD BUSH: Many of our
students can go entire K
through 16 and not have
one Black male teacher.
And that's not the case
for other ethnic or racial
groups. And so because there's
a lack of connection, they don't
have the same information poured
into them over a period of
time. And so that creates a gap
in opportunity and knowledge
necessary to be successful.
STEPHANIE SY: Seventy
percent of Black men
in California pursuing
higher education attend a
community college, but degree
attainment and completion
lag behind other groups.
A recent analysis by the
Education Trust found about
27 percent of Black men held a
college degree, compared to just
over 44 percent of white men.
That has impacts beyond
the ivory tower of college.
Higher levels of education
often mean higher incomes,
more spending power, and less
likelihood of incarceration.
Bush also explains the Black
male achievement gap as rooted
in historical discrimination
and psychological.
EDWARD BUSH: There's a lot
of internalized negative
stereotypes about who we are.
For example, like, you
get on the elevator and
someone is in there and
they clench their purse.
Or you're walking
down the street,
someone will go on
the other side. These
are daily occurrences
that sometimes we put
in the back of our mind because
the totality and the weight
of it is difficult to carry.
STEPHANIE SY: During the
pandemic, community college
enrollment suffered broadly. But
Black men saw the steepest
decline, continuing
a downward trend that
Compton College has put
resources toward fighting.
With most classes still taught
virtually under pandemic
protocols, the campus was
largely empty. But college
President Keith Curry is
particularly concerned
about the absence of Black
men in enrollment figures and
in other metrics of success.
KEITH CURRY, President,
Compton College: My data
is showing that the Black men
are not doing well in retention
within a particular course,
they're not doing well
in persistence, coming
back next semester.
They're not doing well in
regards to graduation rates. We
have to do something different.
STEPHANIE SY: Compton
College is located just south
of downtown Los Angeles.
The area has seen
the Black population
decline in recent years.
But Black male enrollment
at the college has fallen
even more. Enrollment of
African-American men plummeted
from 919 in the fall of 2019
to 269 in the fall of 2021.
KEITH CURRY: It might not affect
all of our groups on campus,
but the -- particularly, the
Black and male of color students
are our priority based off the
data. So, what can we do as
an organization to fix that?
That's the key to it, is just
really being thoughtful for it.
STEPHANIE SY: Using
pandemic relief funding,
he created the position
of director of Black and
males of color success
at Compton College.
ANTONIO BANKS, Director of
Black and Males of Color
Success, Compton College:
But, for these individuals,
oftentimes, it was
just one person at the
campus saying, hey,
I'm going to take you under
my wing and show you this
is where financial aid is,
this is where orientation
is, this is what you need
to do to get this resource.
STEPHANIE SY: Antonio Banks'
role is to develop a system to
help Black male students
navigate Compton College.
With more than half
of its students food-
and housing-insecure
and nearly a quarter
experiencing homelessness, he
also tries to find ways to help
with stressors outside college.
ANTONIO BANKS: One of the
biggest prohibitive factors for
Black men and men of color
in community colleges have
historically been food
insecurity, right,
housing insecurity and
transportation issues.
The market that we're
in right now is only
exacerbating these issues.
STEPHANIE SY: High
prices for everything,
ANTONIO BANKS: High
prices for everything.
STEPHANIE SY: Banks attended
the A2MEND conference with
Compton College students.
Organizers hope the kind of
mentorship opportunities at
these events lead to more Black
men in college reaching
their full potential, the
way connecting with Dr.
Bush did for Chris Adams.
When you look at your impact
on his trajectory, what
do you feel? Is it pride?
EDWARD BUSH: It's, I mean, he
has a 3.9 GPA, right? He is
about to have his choice of law
school. I really take credit
for it, because it was
already inside of Chris.
CHRIS ADAMS: It's really
somebody validating what you
have been doing and telling you,
leading you in the
right direction.
STEPHANIE SY: And he's now
doing that for his own 15-year
old son. Keith was recently
accepted into a top high school
that Chris hopes will put
him on the track to college.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm
Stephanie Sy in Los Angeles.