This important book provides African American parents with the knowledge to diversify K-12 school choices beyond traditional neighborhood public schools in order to optimize the educational chances of their own children, and it will help educators and policymakers to close the black-white academic achievement gap throughout America. Closing the K-12 achievement gap is critical to the future welfare of African American individuals, families, and communities-and to the future of our nation as a whole. The black-white academic achievement gap-the significant statistical difference in academic performance between African American students and their white peers-is the single greatest impediment to achieving racial equality and social justice in America. Black Educational Choice provides parents, citizens, educators, and policymakers the critical knowledge they need to leverage the national trend toward increasing and diversifying K-12 school choice beyond traditional neighborhood public schools. Parents can use this information to optimize the success of their own African American children, while policymakers and educators can apply these insights to help close the black-white academic achievement gap throughout America. The book collects the interdisciplinary, multi-racial, and multi-ethnic perspectives of education experts to address the questions of millions of anxious African American families: "Would sending our children to a private school or a charter school significantly better their chances of closing the achievement gap and becoming successful individuals? And if so, what kinds of challenges would they likely experience in these alternative educational settings?" Contributions from distinguished scholars and their apprentices from education and other diverse fields in the social and behavioral sciences

This volume presents unique, "culturally relevant" interventions that can teach coping skills to African American boys with a history of aggression. Stevenson provides the history and current events for readers to understand why these youths perceive violence as the only way to react. Interventions and preventative actions developed in the PLAAY project (Preventing Long-Term Anger and Aggression) are presented. These include teaching coping skills and anger management via athletics such as basketball and martial arts. Frustrations and strengths in those athletics illuminate the players' emotional lives, and serve as a basis for self-understanding and life skill development. This book also examines such issues as: How parents can be empowered to help their aggressive children What cultural socialization is and why it is necessary to help African American boys Why novel, "non-White" approaches are needed to empower positive growth in these children and teenagers How boys who are seriously aggressive are misunderstood as criminal, adult, or pathological.