San Diego State Leading Effort to Document Status of Minority Males in Community Colleges

Dr. Frank Harris III, an associate professor of postsecondary education at San Diego State University and an M2C3 co-director, says documenting the community college experience “is absolutely essential if we’re talking about the success of men of color [in higher education].”In an effort to enhance the Obama administration’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative, a group of minority male-focused academic research centers issued a joint statement in early June asking the White House to consider intervention programs that have been effective in social science research.

In the statement, which was a response to a My Brother’s Keeper task force cabinet meeting held at the White House on May 30, the coalition of seven research centers, including the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania and the Morehouse Research Initiative at Morehouse College, advised funders who are expected to invest $200 million in initiative projects to seek research-based evidence on the programs they will evaluate for the initiative.

“We urge private foundations, federal funding agencies (i.e., the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health), and other entities that invest in projects associated with My Brother’s Keeper to take seriously the evidence base of initiatives that are proposed, as well as rigorous evaluations of newly funded projects …,” the statement said. “To ensure the success of My Brother’s Keeper, our research centers stand ready to serve as resources to its funders and the Obama Administration.”

If funders, such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation and ‑the Atlantic Philanthropies organization, reach out to any of the seven centers for help, the Minority Male Community College Collaborative at San Diego State University may prove to be a compelling choice for expertise on improving higher education outcomes for young men of color.

Community college enrollment

Established in 2011, the Minority Male Community College Collaborative, or M2C3, has become a leading center for the study of minority males at community colleges. Minority male-focused research centers have long documented the fact that the largest segment of African-American and Latino men in American higher education are enrolled in two-year public institutions.

“From a philosophical and on a practical level, the community college is absolutely essential if we’re talking about the success of men of color [in higher education],” says Dr. Frank Harris III, an associate professor of postsecondary education at San Diego State University (SDSU) and an M2C3 co-director.