MPS launches achievement program
Initiative focuses on helping young black, Latino men in district
Seventeen-year-old Allen Reyes Nunez stood at the podium, looking across a room of mostly black and Latino boys and men. He spoke about the challenges confronting him and his peers. Then he paused, his voice near breaking as he spoke about his family in Hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.
“My heart and mind will always be with my family in Puerto Rico. But no matter what, I’ve got to stay focused,” the Pulaski High School senior said. “I do what I gotta do in school. I’ve got to graduate. I gotta get outta here, man. I’ve got to make them proud.”
Nunez was the student emcee Monday as Milwaukee Public Schools launched its new Black & Latino Male Achievement initiative, a district-wide effort aimed at improving outcomes for its thousands of students who are young men of color.
“We want to change the narrative around our black and Latino young men,” said Juan Baez, a former MPS principal and administrator who was tapped to lead the program along with Lanelle Ramey, formerly of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee.
The initiative aims to, among other things, boost graduation rates for MPS’ male students of color, who lag behind their peers in MPS and the state overall. In 2015’16, the four-year graduation rates for black and Latino males in MPS were 49.1% and 57.1%, respectively. MPS’ overall graduation rate was at 59.7%. And statewide, the graduation rate for black males was 58.7% and 77.4% for Latino males.
Male students of color are also more likely than their white peers to be chronically absent as freshmen and to be suspended.
Superintendent Darienne Driver grew emotional when she spoke of the commitment and resiliency of students like Nunez.
“He has family in Puerto Rico, and he is still here, and he is still focused, every day,” she said.
In recent weeks, MPS held listening sessions at more than a dozen MPS schools in an effort to gauge students’ concerns and needs. Among the feedback, Baez said, students want to be challenged more in their classes; have supportive relationships with teachers and other adults in their buildings; and they want unity among black and brown students.
As part of the program, the district plans to:
Create a black and Latino male advisory council so students have a voice in the program.
Launch manhood development academies that incorporate culture, history and academics along with opportunities for internships, mentorships and field experiences.
Promote positive narratives about male students of color.
And recruit more black and Latino male teachers and administrators.
Pulaski senior Daniel Watkins, 17, said he believes the new emphasis could help more kids succeed.
“The more positive it is, the more adults you have showing people you can do things, the more motivated you’ll be,” said Watkins, who would like to study architecture. “We want to go to school with people who will support us, who make us feel like we can do anything.”