McComb Educators: Where Have all the Black Boys Gone?

Outside Support

Aware of the disparities, school leaders in McComb sought ways to help improve student performance and black male outcomes, in particular. Eventually, they decided to get in touch with COSEBOC, a membership organization that has become a leader in the education of black boys. McComb paid $3,500 to join the group.

COSEBOC held its first-ever national conference at Mississippi’s Jackson State University last June, gathering hundreds of experts from across the U.S. to attend workshops and discuss COSEBOC’s standards, which include ways to meet the needs of black boys in everything from test preparation to curriculum and college enrollment. COSEBOC relies on specific tools, training and standards developed in partnership with New York University’s Metropolitan Center for Urban Education.

In 2009, under the leadership of then-Superintendent Therese Palmertree, McComb became the first district in the state to adopt COSEBOC standards.

“At first, the standards were a set of lofty goals,” said David Bickham, the consultant with whom the McComb School District and COSEBOC contracted for $7,500. “It wasn’t until the district went through real training at the Jackson State gathering did they make real operational sense.”

School officials were shown ways to make the school environment more supportive of black boys, in a program that examined everything from guidance counseling and school culture to the cultural relevance of the curriculum.

In McComb, the COSEBOC guidelines are being introduced as the state’s principals and teachers are struggling to keep up with new academic and professional standards that seemingly change every year. The organization’s director, Ron Walker, believes the extra effort is worth it.

“While superintendents are held accountable to state academic standards, there should be additional standards that support boys of color,” Walker said. “Our standards raise different questions that may not be asked in the day-to-day curriculum.”

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