Jerlando F. L. Jackson

Introduction The African American Male Crisis in Education: A Popular Media Infatuation or Needed Public Policy Response?

This special theme issue, Beyond Brown: New Approaches to Addressing Inequities in Education for African American Males, addresses not only a major void in the research literature, but serves as a catalyst for better understanding the educational plight and its social implications for African American males throughout the United States. The editors of this special issue assembled some of Americas best and brightest social scientists and researchers to examine the contemporary experiences of African American males in education, as well as to offer new approaches to addressing these educational and societal issues. To this end, the contributors were asked to use the monumental court decision as a point of departure and move beyond Brown to examine the constellation of variables that may explain the general condition for African American males in education.This special theme issue, Beyond Brown: New Approaches to Addressing Inequities in Education for African American Males, addresses not only a major void in the research literature, but serves as a catalyst for better understanding the educational plight and its social implications for African American males throughout the United States. The editors of this special issue assembled some of Americas best and brightest social scientists and researchers to examine the contemporary experiences of African American males in education, as well as to offer new approaches to addressing these educational and societal issues. To this end, the contributors were asked to use the monumental court decision as a point of departure and move beyond Brown to examine the constellation of variables that may explain the general condition for African American males in education.

Race Segregation Across the Academic Workforce Exploring Factors That May Contribute to the Disparate Representation of African American Men

In terms of income and employment opportunities, previous studies have indicated that African American men fare less well than their White counterparts in the academic workforce, including a recent study by the author that found the hiring practices in higher education had a disparate effect on African American men. On the grounds that human capital and merit-based performance measures have proven to be critical criteria for decision making within the overall hiring practices in higher education, this study examined the extent to which these factors influence the observed representation of African American and White men in the academic workforce. This study found that both human capital and merit-based performance measures were good employment predictors for White men and, in contrast, were not good employment predictors for African American men in the academic workforce.

Male Underachievement in Education Across the Globe: A Shift in Paradigm for Gender Disparities Regarding Academic Achievement

In recent popular publications, such as Newsweek and New Republic, several articles have suggested that females outperform males at the elementary and secondary levels and are increasingly outnumbering them at the postsecondary level. This, in turn, has led to the question of “What is happening to boys?” Based largely on the concept of human capital, our inquiry into this question explores male performance on standard indicators throughout the educational pipeline (i.e., elementary, secondary, and postsecondary) and offers specific recommendations to address the education crisis of males.

Toward a Business Model of Executive Behavior: An Exploration of the Workdays of Four College of Education Deans at Large Research Universities

This study examined the workdays of college of education deans and then compared those findings to the workdays of business executives by analyzing activities performed during a traditional five-day work week. Results show that college of education deans exhibit behavior comparable to that of business executives and, in turn, suggest a possible transformation of administrative work in higher education toward that of business executives.

Enlarging Our Understanding of Glass Ceiling Effects with Social Closure Theory in Higher Education

Institutions of higher education have committed significant resources to diversity efforts over the past 50 years (Williams, Berger, & McClendon, 2005). For the most part, these resources have been allocated to improve student representation and experiences for women and persons of color (Jackson, 2004a). In doing so, less attention has been given to similar organizational experiences for women and professionals of color. Therefore, fewer research and practice-based resources are available to address workplace discrimination challenges in higher education. Accordingly, this chapter draws heavily from glass ceiling effects research conducted in business and the armed forces to help understand how higher education can foster workforce diversity. Concurrently, social closure theory is introduced as an analytical framework to advance organizational ownership of workplace discrimination in general and glass ceiling effects in particular.

Differential gender effects of a STEM-based intervention: an examination of the African American Researchers in Computing Sciences program

The Computing Research Association (CRA) was formed in 1972 as the Computer Science Board (CSB), which provided a forum for the chairs of Ph.D.-granting computer science departments to discuss issues and share information (CRA, 2009). Since 1989, women have never accounted for more than 24% of the computer science faculty at any given rank (e.g., assistant, associate, or full professor). Currently, women represent 21.7%, 15.4%, and 11.7% of computer science faculty at the assistant, associate, and full professor ranks, respectively. Women have been as much as 24% of the Ph.D. graduates in computing in a single year. Since 1998, African Americans have never accounted for more than 2.0%, 1.4%, and 0.7% of the assistant, associate, and full professors, respectively, in computer science. Furthermore, African Americans have never accounted for more than 2% of the Ph.D. graduates in computer science in a single year over that same time period. It appears women and African Americans overall are underrepresented among the ranks of computer science faculty, but to what extent?

African Americans in the U.S. computing sciences workforce

An exploration of the education-to-work pipeline.

Executive Behavior: An Examination of Selected Studies for Three Decades of Administrative Work Across Organizational Settings, Industries, and Contexts

This study examined administrative work in business, schools, and universities, by using tabular review to compare the findings of selected studies on patterns of behavior. Results of analysis show in spite of differences in organizations and goals, there is considerable similarity in the daily work realities of these executives studied. However, when differences did emerge, they were largely due to the executives proximity to the operational core. Executives who were closer to the operational core, were less likely to have flexibility and control over their work, than executives who had layers embedded in their organization to shield them from the intensity of the operational core.

What style of leadership is best suited to direct organizational change to fuel institutional diversity in higher education

Abstract Implementing diversity agendas within decentralized, loosely coupled, and change-resistant institutions such as colleges and universities is a global challenge. A shift in the organizational climate and culture is imperative to produce the change needed in order for a diversity agenda to thrive. Higher education scholars have consistently identified leadership styles as being among the chief contributing factors to successful institutional change, especially as it relates to diversity agenda efforts. This chapter first reviews the literature on forms of diversity agenda, paradigms of change and leadership style and then synthesizes results from 10 cases on proven strategies and offers implications on how different leadership styles can be applied to fuel institutional diversity efforts.

Differential Gender Outcomes of Career Exploration Sessions for African American Undergraduates: An Examination of a Computing Science Outreach Effort at Predominantly White Institutions

Increased efforts are being made by key entities (e.g., the National Science Foundation) within the United States to support various strategies aimed at broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Consistent with these efforts, strategic attention has been placed on targeting African Americans in the computing sciences. Previous research on computing sciences intervention efforts (e.g., Chase & Okie, 2000; Hale, 2002) revealed that even when positive outcomes occur, they tend to vary by gender. As such, this study examined the differential gender outcomes of a computing sciences outreach effort aimed at broadening participation of African Americans in degree programs and career options at predominantly White institutions. The results of this study highlight the need to address the varying needs of targeted participants based on gender when designing and implementing similar programs.