Editor’s note: This blog post was co-authored by Dr. Luis Ponjuan.
There is growing concern among educators, researchers, and many local communities over the educational plight of male students of color. Postsecondary enrollment patterns over the past two decades highlight a disturbing trend that traditional college-aged males compared to their female peers are less likely to pursue a postsecondary education. This downward enrollment trend is more pronounced for men of color. Coupled with this “silent educational crisis,” we find that this cohort of male students of color has a greater probability than other peer groups to become incarcerated, employed in low-paying jobs, or have higher mortality rates. While this may paint a sobering picture of our current generation of male youth of color, there is a growing groundswell of support from different stakeholders that want to address this important crisis. We think it is vital to know who is at risk, why this issue is important to our educational communities, and what is being done to raise an awareness of this issue at the national and community levels.
Who is at risk?
While there has been considerable attention on African-American males in higher education, less attention has been given to other male ethnic groups that are, in some respects, faring worse than their African-American male peers. Scholars, such as Dr. James Moore at The Ohio State University, Dr. Lamont Flowers at Clemson University, Dr. Larry Rowley at the University of Michigan, and Dr. Shaun Harper at the University of Pennsylvania, continue to provide important scholarly work on African-American males in higher education. However, researchers are also starting to focus on the educational experiences of other underrepresented male ethnic groups. Some of these scholars include: Dr. Lee Bitsoi at Georgetown University who examines Native American males, Dr. Robert Teranishi at New York University who examines Asian/Pacific Islander male students, and Dr. Victor Saenz at the University of Texas at Austin and Dr. Julie Figueroa at California State, Sacramento who both examine Latino males. The prevailing consensus among these researchers is that these other male ethnic groups face similar daunting challenges along their respective educational pathways.
